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Whether on the bus, subway or train, public transit continues to be a separate and unequal experience for many Black Americans
In Race on the Move, Gwendolyn Purifoye argues that, whether on the subway, bus, or commuter rail, Black passengers have unequal experiences in terms of time, quality, speed of service, bodily movement, and leisurely enjoyment. As she shows, the capacity to move around a city is of major economic and social import: who has the ability to get to jobs, healthcare, grocery shopping, good schools, and quality and affordable housing are among the features of urban life that are structured by public transportation systems. The woefully inadequate and underperforming public transportation systems in many Black communities has led to unyielding disruptions of families, communities, and futures.
Drawing on interviews and nine years of ethnographic field research and media analysis in Chicago, Purifoye details how covert and overt racial hostilities are shaped through racial residential segregation. Purifoye contends that race and racism have been historically spatialized, materialized, and mobilized through public transportation systems. By showing how minority passengers and transit personnel are not equally protected by the transit agencies, how they experience raced social aggression, and the lack of dignity afforded riders on a daily basis, Purifoye documents the intensity of everyday racism as lived out on public transportation. Race on the Move also offers community organizers and policy makers more equitable and sustainable design options that could improve the lives of Black city dwellers.
"In this fascinating ethnography of commuter bus and train travel in Chicago, Purifoye reveals how the social wreckage wrought by housing discrimination and residential segregation makes Black passengers encounter an avalanche of racist practices, policies, and preferences that author and authorize demeaning and debilitating acts, incidents, and injuries. Yet while victimized, Black passengers refuse to be mere victims. They respond to assaults on their dignity and personhood with collective performances of mutual recognition and respect, affective affinity, mobile community, and what Purifoye calls kinetic kinship."
"Masterfully weaving analyses of the intersections of mobility, race, space, and class, Purifoye highlights the ways that public transportation systems in Chicago are unequal. She documents transit antagonisms that negatively impact Black people in these mobile spaces, and reaching into Black communities across the city; thus, showing that race and racism are not static phenomena. At the same time, she also provides critical insights into Black people’s resistance to racial tropes, hostilities, and maltreatment as well as their agency in developing kinetic kinships and transit affinities that provide space for joy and how Black people reshape spaces for their individual and collective needs."
"Race on the Move delivers a clear and accessible account of racial inequity in Chicago from the novel perspective of its public transit system. Drawing on historical and sociological insights, it exposes how patterns of residential segregation travel along Chicago’s bus routes and rail lines in ways that powerfully shape which residents can access the city’s cultural resources and economic opportunities, and which cannot. This is an essential read for anyone interested in the intersection of transit, race, and mobility in the United States."
"In a powerful and engaging narrative, this book presents how structural racism unfolds and touches every aspect of public transit–from infrastructure inequities to everyday harms from raced interpersonal interactions. Yet, the book is not just about inequity. It also shows how public transit can be a mobile space of agency and community, where Black riders create spaces of liberation and kinship. While focused on Chicago, this book has important lessons for urban scholars and public transit professionals across the US."