by Fathi Karshie

Pierce Transit, a municipal transit agency that generates 73% of its budget from taxation, avoids acknowledging its institutional role and its place in the racist history of public transportation. The agency disproportionately fires Black employees, and its leaders despise any meaningful structural change that would otherwise help address anti-Blackness. Available data analyses are direct responses to legal compliance requirements as opposed to discovery intended to explore meaningful paths to structural reform. One HR person with whom I shared my concern remarked, “We are looking good, plus we just passed the triennial audit,” referring to Federal Transit audits that frisk for legal disparities once every three years. In other words, as long as they are within compliance, all is tolerable.