Men in Suits: Bike Lane Occupiers

Introducing a new series called Men In Suits, where we will look at normally white hetero-capitalists  and the dangers and harms of their presumptuous attitudes towards, or without regard to, their systemic privileges. 

Riding my bike through the city, man people wonder through the bike lane, while looking at the sky, the ever-present dog poop on the ground or anything that is not the potential traffic using the ground thus designated. This is annoying, but what is angering are those who stare at you, standing over a painted bike symbol, daring your eco-friendly, non-oil hungry self to mow them down, challenge them. These arrogant challenges almost always come from white men-in-suits or MISS, as we shall call them.

I'm not sure what combination of systemic power and refusal to confront it makes these heterocapitalists feel that it is their absolute right, indeed duty, to stand a meter off of the sidewalk. This infraction does more than brush my bubble, it also puts the rest of the people using the street in greater danger. The space required by this MISS's arrogance pushes bikes into the car lanes, and the cars then have to adjust, causing disorder and uncertainty. And disorder with 2 kilo machines at 40 mph, well, it's not pretty and it's not worth his ego.

Wearing a suit does not mean your job is more needed, useful or anything else good. What I read in your suit is exploitation, is that you go every day to sit behind a desk and extract money from marginalized groups, to have your soul sucked out of your mouth, your creativity killed and your racial, sexual and gender privilege confirmed. Keep it up MISS, you're the most penetrable point in the shell of heterocapitalism.  Your suit exposes your insecurities.


Photo from NPR http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/07/why_do_people_walk_in_bike_lan.html