LA freeways

One of my favorite passages in THE DEADLY DOOWOP is when Butch, a black artist, explains to Red Trevorak, our hero, why the LA freeway system is being built the way that it is.

"This is the Freeway Grand Plan, okay? They even

published it in the newspaper. Now this here is Watts,

man. So more Negroes have been moving into Watts, so

it's expanding to the west, right? Oo-ee, we got to head

off them niggers at the pass! And so we start building this

here Harbor Freeway to block them off, and this here

Santa Monica Freeway to catch and trap all the ones that

slip over the boundary before we can finish up the

Harbor. But now Watts is expanding east, man, cause it's

got to go somewhere, and so we got to head off them

damn niggers again, oo-ee, baby, let's build ourselves the

Santa Ana Freeway, only this time a whole mess of

niggers got so far east we got to come down with another

one, too, the Pomona Freeway -- look at it, Red. All these

freeways ain't nothing but fences to keep the niggers from

getting too close to good white neighborhoods. You

mentioned South City. Well, what's South City, man? A

town because people want it to be a town? Hell, no. It's

nothing but the part of Watts that got over the Santa Ana                                                                                   

but got cut off with the Pomona. It ain't a freeway system,

Red, it's the walls of a prison!" 

I stared at the napkin. 

"You're saying," I began slowly, "that the purpose of

the freeway system is to contain Watts?" 

Butch laughed. "Shit, man, I think I'd better pay the

check, you so dumb."