The lowrider is an important part of Chicano culture in the United States. For decades, the lowrider has also been the target of stringent racial profiling and prohibition.
Lowrider culture was born in the 1940s in Mexican-American communities. These cars are recognizable by their very low body chassis and small wheel rims. Lowriders often come equipped with hydraulics systems controlled via remote or a switchboard. Lowrider owners often attend car shows as both a communal activity and a chance to show off their impressive rides.
Since the 1950s, the California government has prohibited car owners from driving certain types of lowriders and other modified vehicles on the streets. As noted by The New York Times, many critics rightfully denounced this legislation as being highly discriminatory towards Latino communities. Lowriders are associated with Latino people, and thus—in the eyes of many white people—also with crime rates and other traits deemed undesirable.
This ban on lowriders coincided with laws that also prohibited cruising, the act of driving for aimless pleasure. Cruising and lowrider culture have gone hand in hand for decades. The activity itself was born and nurtured by these Latino communities. As one photographer dedicated to documenting that culture told Smithsonian Magazine, “Cruising down the boulevard, in your own car, realizing your own vision, is a way of saying: I’m here.”
But to white America, cruising was a sign of danger, potential crime, and all other manner of deeply racialized suspicion.
That suspicion carried on well into the modern day. As reported by NPR, earlier this month California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law protections for lowriding. The restrictions on cruising that had discriminated against Latino people for decades have been lifted. Lowrider and civil rights activists have protested these cruel and blatantly targeted restrictions for years.
This new law also prevents all Californian cities and towns from creating a ban on cruising. As we’ve talked about before, Newsom isn’t exactly known for being too progressive and vetoed a huge number of bills that recently came to his desk, so this new law is a pleasant surprise for many. This ban should have never existed to begin with, but at least now people can low ride in peace.
(featured image: David Sawyer/Wikimedia Commons)
