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You’re in My Way: The Racial Politics of the Sidewalk
In America, the sidewalk has a deep history of racism and exclusion.
“Why did you move?” my friend asked, as we sat down for brunch.
“Huh?” I half-replied, already preoccupied by the extensive mimosa menu.
“You moved for those white people on the sidewalk, you don’t have to do that, they can go around you.”
“I didn’t want to cause a problem,” I sheepishly replied, “It’s easier just to just step aside.”
“Stand your ground,” she replied. “You have the right to take up space.”
Her adamance sparked a robust conversation between us concerning the ways in which white people rarely, if ever, concede space.
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Whether we are conscious of it or not, the politics of the sidewalk in America are highly racialized.
My grandmother, born in Louisiana in 1942, experienced the racial politics of the sidewalk firsthand. A child of the Jim Crow South, my grandmother was bound by the racist laws of her time. On her daily walk to elementary school she begrudgingly, but lawfully, moved aside so that…
