Car as extension of whiteness: Not everyone’s skin is extended equal

Abstract

The US White flight left historically and intentionally targeted marginalized groups in cityscapes in the impoverished dust of public transport. These racialized phenomena restructured urban environments and deadened surrounding landscapes, engendering deliberately barren space too far to traverse by no- and low-income feet. Now, in the present-COVID-19 envirusment, Midwest landscapes are an eyesore, which perpetually disable and dehumanize, further denying working folks from safe social distancing and PPE in areas already plagued with socio-historical and economic disenfranchisements. Meanwhile, redlined and/or gentrified affluent spaces remain composed of mostly Whites of a certain status. This project explored present-COVID-19 human implications of cars in a nation founded upon ecological devastations.