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I am surprised that our resident racism and sexism fighters failed to
notice the essentially racist and sexist nature of individual car based
transportation.
- Many people in Baltimore area refuse to take puiblic transit because most
of the riders are black or hispanic. I am pretty sure the same is true for
most other areas.
- 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. That is different from, say, a merchannt refusing to do
business in a 'black' area on th efear of hight cost or not making enough
profit (which is market rathr than racism).
As far as sexism is concerned, driving is still the patriarchal domain of
the male. Surely, there are woman drivers, bhut if a man and a woman are
in the car together - it is usually the male who does the driving. cars
are usally focus of male socializing and male bonding, especially among
lower class males. Car ads are extremely sexist - next only to tobacco
advertising. Car is usually used as the tool to seek and contract sex work
- and gives the male considerable power and leverage over the female sex
worker.
wojtek
Interesting comments. A few points: 1.) I ride the bus every day in San Francisco. Commotion and ruckuses (ruckii?) occur frequently. Of the disturbances that do occur, approximately 80% of the time, they are caused by a black male or female between the ages of 15 and, roughly, 27. After seeing this every day, I hardly think that a woman is a racist for desiring to avoid the #5 Fulton bus that goes by the projects on McAllister street. In fact, though I don't drive and have never owned a vehicle, I rather sympathize with people who simply do not want to deal with the commotion on the bus. Am I a racist for saying this? 2.) How on earth should car insurance companies charge insurance if they cannot differentiate in some fashion between groups with deffering accident rates? Sure, we would all like to be treated as individuals, but in the huge modern state, is this possible? Should everyone be charged the same amount for insurance? Should someone in a class with historically low accident ratings be forced to pay the same for car insurance as those in a class with high accident ratings? Is is "ageist" to discriminate between young male drivers under 22 and ones with far, far lower accident rates? Please let me now, because my statistics teacher is an actuarian, and I'm sure he'd like to know the interesting new system that you must have ready to propose. 3.) Are you oppoosed to sex work or in favor of it to begin with? Do you think prostitutes find vehicles give an unfair advantage to drivers? Are car ads' depictions of men cruising fast on highways "sexist"? Is speed and power essentially a sexist thing? Is the appreciation of force and velocity "male"? If yes, are you serious? -- timothe
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