If I didn’t take the screenshot myself, I would assume this was a clever photoshop joke. But it’s real, as Washington Bike Law (a SBB sponsor) pointed out on Facebook.

The top of Saturday’s Seattle Times teased a story about how it is dangerous for people to wear dark-colored clothing when they walk or bike right next to a wire story about some mounts you can buy to “make it safer to use your phone while driving.”

This is the toxic windshield perspective in a nutshell. People who decided to throw on a black shirt in the morning are asking to be hit by cars, but it is totally safe to use your phone while driving so long an you buy a mount for it.

Together, these stories try to justify a dangerous behavior (the wire story never even mentions that you could *gasp* not use your phone at all while driving) and put the blame for traffic injuries and deaths on the victim (the “fashion” story never bothers to mention that fucking everybody wears black because, like, a shit load of clothes in the world are black because it is the combination of all colors and looks fucking cool).

It’s weird that this needs to be said, but: Seattle, wear whatever you want to wear.

Sometimes people wear black shirts. Sometimes people wear yellow shirts. Sometimes people wear no shirts at all. No matter what they are wearing, the person driving is responsible for not hitting them. Period.

Imagine people in Manhattan or Berlin complaining that "pedestrians" (AKA everybody) should stop wearing BLACK. https://t.co/ID6y9FkyjY — Erica C. Barnett (@ericacbarnett) May 30, 2017