David Marcus: Buttigieg's bigoted bridges remark was a bag of nonsense

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was roundly mocked this week when he was asked about how the Biden administration planned to "deconstruct" the racist infrastructure systems in America. 

Buttigieg’s example of Jones Beach…speaks to a larger problem with progressive rhetoric on race.

First, let’s start with what the secretary kind of gets right here. Since ancient times, roads, bridges, and infrastructure in general have been used to separate populations. With the advent of the railroads came the common term "wrong side of the tracks," referring to how rail lines divided people. The vast majority of the time these divisions were made along class lines. But yes, there are examples of infrastructure decisions made on the basis of dividing people by religion, race, or ethnicity.