Really? The Latino Express? Am I the only one who feels a little uneasy when I see a yellow school bus packed with Hispanic kids peering out the window with a decal below that so accurately describes their ethnicity and the way by which they travel. I mean, I don’t know if there is any historical significance behind it, but to me that’s like naming the school bus in the black neighborhood the Soul Train or the Freedom Ride, maybe naming the school bus in Jewish neighborhood the Kosher Carriage. I’m not saying it’s racist, but it’s hella provoking is it not? Maybe it’s named that way to ensure that no Mexicans or Puerto Ricans accidentally get on the wrong bus. Maybe the moniker is used to drive a point home about the rising Latino population in Chicago, perhaps the more people see buses with Latino Express on them, and they’ll realize that Chicago is somewhat of a superhighway for minorities.
Regardless of the significance my point is this. When I was in grade school, my buses were always packed, 2 or 3 to a seat so that the school would not have to pay for more than 1 or 2 buses per field trip. Which means that kids have to cram into these slow moving buses correct? Don’t Latinos have a few hang-ups about that whole “packing a lot of people into a crowded, raggedy, slow moving car” stereotype? I don’t think it’s best to draw attention to that. Then again, I’m black, and the Soul Train school bus is starting to sound better and better the more I think about it.
