Secretary Buttigieg: Biden Admin To Use Infrastructure Bill To Address Racist Highway Design

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Monday that the Biden administration would use money from the infrastructure bill to address what he claims were racist highway designs.

Buttigieg made the remarks in response to a question from White House correspondent April Ryan, who asked him how he would “deconstruct the racism that was built into the roadways.”

“So, the principle of Justice40 is that at least 40 percent of the clean investments in this bill will go to benefit the communities that are overburdened and underserved,” Buttigieg said. “So, part one of that is defining those investments that are eligible, and that’s a lot of it, and we’re working to map out kind of program by program, mode by mode, what would qualify.”

“As to where we target those dollars, you know, I’m still surprised that some people were surprised when I pointed to the fact that if a highway was built for the purpose of dividing a white and a black neighborhood, or if an underpass was constructed such that a bus carrying mostly black and Puerto Rican kids to a beach — or that would have been — in New York was designed too low for it to pass by, that that obviously reflects racism that went into those design choices,” he claimed. “I don’t think we have anything to lose by confronting that simple reality. And I think we have everything to gain by acknowledging it and then dealing with it, which is why the Reconnecting Communities — that billion dollars — is something we want to get to work right away putting to work.”

WATCH:

Reporter @AprilDRyan to @PeteButtigieg: “Can you give us the construct of how you will deconstruct the racism that was built into the roadways? … Can you talk to us about how that could be deconstructed?” pic.twitter.com/FXXEq5tuQL

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 8, 2021

TRANSCRIPT PROVIDED VIA THE WHITE HOUSE:

APRIL RYAN, BLOGGER: Secretary — Secretary Mayor Pete, could you give us the breakdown of the implementation of Justice40 with the infrastructure package that has now passed and signed into law? And also, can you give us the construct of how you will deconstruct the racism that was built into the roadways that you talked to TheGrio earlier when you broke that information with us? Can you talk to us about how that could be deconstructed?

PETE BUTTIGIEG, SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: For sure, yeah. So, the principle of Justice40 is that

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