[spodefly]

Despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964, racial segregation was entirely alive and very active. The homes were built next to long-haul railroad tracks that ran flat on the ground. There were no barriers to protect the residents from stepping onto the tracks and into train traffic. No fence, no bars or walls, no inclines or gates, no barricade against bloody disaster. WHY.

When I was a racist privileged cis-gender hetero-normative white child growing up in south Alabama in the 1960's, we lived about 100 yards from a railroad track that had no barriers, fences, or even any warning lights and gates on the road crossing. We actually had to use our privileged "white" senses to detect danger and respond accordingly, without any help from the government and community organizers.

[driftless2]

There was a viaduct over the tracks close to my house. We kids would take cardboard containers from a nearby appliance store and slide down the hill next to the viaduct a few feet from the unfenced tracks. It was railroad property, and occasionally a railroad det. would haul in a few kids for playing on their property. But none of us dumb kids ever got run over by a train.

And we used to walk/balance on the tracks despite being warned by our mothers. How did we ever survive childhood? (snicker)

[ProtectOurFreedom]

My God, how did you manage to survive?

Even our cats are smart enough to get out of the way of a car coming down the street.

This sounds like a textbook example of “the soft bigotry of low expectations” — we can’t expect minorities to get out of the way of speeding trains.