“Take me home country roads”: The limits of sanctuary on the American road trip

This paper synthesizes research on traversing the American landscape, and the authors’ three personal stories of moving through this space as members of minoritized communities. Land, property, and humanity are bound up in the American landscape in part because of dehumanizing policies rooted in extracting capital. Using contemporary examples from the authors’ experiences, this article explores how this history of encountering the American landscape, particularly in the modern era with the powerful imagery of the “road trip” can be understood and addressed today. This paper also serves as a brief survey of how Geography has addressed the historical narratives around this topic and the spatial impacts of policies and “unsanctioned” state violence. This article critically draws on the literature available in Geography to understand how Black people and others belonging to state-targeted populations can lack comfort with the concept of the American road trip. Note: The first part of the title is the title of a song written by Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, and John Denver about West Virginia.