In today’s target-rich environment of left-wing idiocy, Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who, in my “humble” opinion, is in a statistical dead heat with Heath and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for the most worthless member of the Biden administration — and the Biden bench is damn deep.
When Pete’s not on an extended vacation or jetting around the country in a private jet, the ultracrepidarian extraordinaire (look it up; you know a lot of these people) is generally calling someone, someplace, or something “racist.” Let’s just say the guy gives race hustlers Al Sharpton and MSNBC’s Joy Reid a run for their race-baiting money.
First, a few fun facts about Buttigieg’s recent background, and his tenure as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, as noted in a Washington Examiner op-ed on Friday:
The Transportation secretary once committed the unforgivable sin of stating in public that “all lives matter.” He is also widely known, thanks in part to Biden’s presidential campaign of 2020, for his eight-year tenure as the mayor of a northern Indiana town whose first black police chief he fired and whose black fire chief he controversially cast aside and replaced with a white man.
Buttigieg might have had good reasons for doing any or all of these things. But in today’s Democratic Party, in which the color of people’s skin matters more than their competence or character and the very ideas of merit and colorblindness are branded as white supremacism, there is no possible explanation he can ever give that will fly.
So, in lieu of an explanation or excuse for his above “racist” transgressions, Buttigieg started his silly campaign to blame even the most ridiculous issues on racism. In the latest example, he told the aforementioned race hustler, MSNBC’s Al Sharpton, that automobile accidents are, yep, racist.
Here’s Pete, as transcribed by Washington Examiner:
We’ve got a crisis when it comes to roadway fatalities in America. We lose about 40,000 people every year … and we see a lot of racial disparities. Black and brown Americans, tribal citizens, and rural residents are much more likely to lose their lives, whether it’s in a car or as a pedestrian being hit by a car.
There are a lot of reasons related to discrimination, related to ways that roads are designed and built. Who has access to a safe street design that’s got crosswalks [and] good lighting, and who doesn’t have that access? That can drive disparities, and we have a responsibility to act on that.
Stop the tape.
Notice anything missing? Buttigieg makes a ridiculous assertion, yet fails to back any of it up with even a scintilla of data or supporting facts. Secondly, rather than correctly saying “There are a lot of reasons related” to the discrepancy, he assumptively goes with “discrimination,” instead.
Accidental? Oh, hell no — the truth wouldn’t fit the narrative. That said, let’s first highlight where Buttigieg was right.
A recent study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found:
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- Non-Hispanic Blacks experience a passenger vehicle fatality rate 73% higher than non-Hispanic whites
- Non-Hispanic Blacks experience a pedestrian (walking) death rate 118% higher than non-Hispanic whites
- Non-Hispanic Blacks experience a cycling fatality rate 348% higher than non-Hispanic whites
- Non-Hispanic Asians experience the lowest rates across all three transportation modes
Notice anything missing in the above data? The R-word, perhaps?
Not one suggestion that racism or discrimination was responsible for any of those examples. Moreover, contrary to Buttigieg’s unsubstantiated claims, let’s take a look at one of the above stats: blacks experience a pedestrian death rate 118% higher than non-Hispanic whites.
As I reported in October 2022, California’s lunatic governor, Gavin Newsom, came to the absurd conclusion that ticketing jaywalkers is “racist.” No, really. Hence, California’s then-new law, known as the “Freedom to Walk Act” — you can’t make this stuff up — takes into consideration the “cultural differences” between Californians who are deferential to laws governing pedestrian traffic and tend to obey “don’t walk” signals, and urban dwellers who are notoriously defiant when it comes to crossing against traffic signals.
The bill’s sponsor, Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), celebrated the governor’s action in a statement (emphasis, mine):
It should not be a criminal offense to safely cross the street. When expensive tickets and unnecessary confrontations with police impact only certain communities, it’s time to reconsider how we use our law enforcement resources and whether our jaywalking laws really do protect pedestrians.
While Ting’s statement doesn’t explicitly say black communities, it doesn’t take LeBron James to understand the implication.
As for passenger vehicle deaths, according to the aforementioned study, distance traveled plays perhaps a greater role in the discrepancy than any other factor. As noted in a Harvard June 2022 press release:
The study found that travel distances vary among racial/ethnic groups when walking, cycling, or driving—and when these differences in activity levels are taken into account, Black Americans had the highest traffic fatality rate per mile traveled and across all modes, followed by Hispanics, Whites, and Asians. These disparities were particularly stark for walking and cycling and during evening hours.
The study provides a more accurate assessment of racial/ethnic disparities in traffic deaths than previous traffic mortality studies, which have not accounted for these differences in travel distances, and thus, underestimated both the traffic-related risks and deaths that Black and Hispanic Americans experience.
Buttigieg calls shorter travel distances “racist” in 3… 2… 1…
The Bottom Line
Buttigieg’s most recent example of unsubstantiated pontification — based 100 percent on Democrat race-baiting and zero percent on relative facts to back up his claims — was not only irresponsible; it was also aimed at low-information voters for the sole purpose of “reminding” said voters of the everyday “racism” of America — and the evil Republicans who promulgate it.
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