Revisiting "Driving While Black": racialized automobilities in a settler colonial context

Authors

Georgine W. Clarsen, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

114968

Publication Details

Clarsen, G. (2017). Revisiting "Driving While Black": racialized automobilities in a settler colonial context. Mobility in History, 8 (1), 51-59.

Abstract

Paul Gilroy observed in 2001 that there were "surprisingly few" discussions of automobiles in histories of African American vernacular cultures, in spite of their "epoch-making impact." He argued that a " distinctive history of propertylessness and material deprivation" had led to a disproportionate African American investment in automobiles. This article considers how car culture has also operated as a salve for the "indignities of white supremacy" for Indigenous Australians, though on very different terms.