Chicago Sun-Times Mary "Aunt Jemima" Mitchell: Fingerprinting Uber, Lyft drivers would discriminate against Negroes due to their criminal past.... So forgo safety and let the criminal groids pick up your young white daughter

Oh, how I used to love the jitney.

I’d hop on it at 39th and King Drive and hop off at 29th for about 15 cents.

I didn’t care if the jitney driver had a criminal past or had just finished off a pint of Wild Irish Rose. That's the difference between a Negro like yourself and a WHITE PERSON.... We do care, you asshole!

The ride was quick and cheap. I don’t think I even realized I was putting my life at risk.

But today, even in a city where a day doesn’t go by without someone being killed by gun violence, it’s all about safety.

Safety concerns have forced Uber and Lyft to shut down their operations in Austin, Texas, after voters rejected the ridesharing companies’ effort to ditch the city’s fingerprinting requirement.

In Chicago, the ongoing battle between the taxicab industry and the ride-hailing upstarts already had plenty of irony. After all, leading the opposition is Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), the head of the Chicago City Council’s Transportation Committee, who represents a South Side ward where residents are about as likely to catch a cab as they are to catch a trolley.

CLICK FOR MORE