Many were stunned this week by the viral footage of a man’s violent removal from an overbooked United Airlines flight—but as author Robin Washington notes in a recent article for The Marshall Project, this use of excessive force in transportation is backed up by years of historical precedent.

In this week’s episode of the podcast “This Is Happening,” host Jerry Quickly sits down with Washington to discuss the history of abuse in American transportation, and how this history pertains to the case of United Airlines and Dr. David Dao.

“It’s, unfortunately, as American as apple pie,” Washington explains. While Washington isn’t sure that Dao’s removal was racially-motivated, he draws parallels between violent transportation carrier rules throughout the decades, whether it be on Jim Crow-era buses or modern-day aircraft.

Washington writes frequently about transportation and civil rights and was executive producer of the PBS documentary “You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow!”

Link to the article: www.themarshallproject.org/2017/04/12/…#.kXg2GJeKX