cars and racism/sexism

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Thu Sep 23 08:55:12 PDT 1999


From sokol at jhu.edu Wed Sep 22 10:15:32 1999

Car insurance rates in predminantly "black" zip code areas

can be several times higher than in the burbs, for example

$3-4 thousand a year versus $800-$900 a year. This is

institutional racism not merely market, because insurance

is essentially about socializing (externalizing) of certain

costs and that necessaruly involves social distinctions

how those cost are or are not socialized, i.e. the costs

of blacks are externalized on other blacks but not whites.

I think just about everyone would agree with you -- except the insurance industry. . . .
>>>>

This isn't just a car thing. It's also a credit thing, an access to retail and public services thing, etc. In other words, a race thing. You can't indict the auto- economy by imputing an idealized world to public transit.

mbs



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