We see this in where people can and can't move, where they can settle, where they can buy houses - we see very strong campaigns to keep people of color out of particular neighborhoods. But what I find striking is that although these efforts existed, they didn't do the job of actually maintaining those racial boundaries - rather they tried very hard to inscribe them precisely because they were so mitochondrial... For every form of criminalization we've seen, we've also seen people coming up with innovative strategies to disrupt the status quo and live the life they want to live.

Chicana/o studies scholar Genevieve Carpio explains how mobility (and its restriction) influenced the formation of racial identity in 20th century Southern California - from the state's maintenance of White supremacy through policing the movement of people, to the ways the marginalized have built lives and spaces in resistance to the dictates of racial heirarchy.

Genevieve is author of the book Collisions at the Crossroads: How Place and Mobility Make Race from University of California Press.