Beginning all the way back in the 1930s, racial discrimination in mortgage lending has shaped our communities and wealth patterns today. This was known as “redlining”, an unethical practice that put mortgages, loans, and other financial services out of reach of certain people based on race and ethnicity, oftentimes denying people access to whole neighborhoods. The term “redlining” was coined in the 1960s by James McKnight and was derived from how lenders used to literally draw red lines on maps in areas that they would not invest in just because of demographics. Reports showed that most Black inner-city neighborhoods were redlined. More importantly, lenders would lend to more low-income white people than middle and upper-class black people.So, while the Community Reinvestment act of 1977 made all redlining practices illegal, we still see redlining’s effects in modern-day all across the country. Today, two-thirds of neighborhoods deemed “hazardous” are inhabited by black and Latino people. These cities often face greater economic inequality, while 91% of the “best neighborhoods” in the 1930s are still high-income today, with white people making up 85%. Moreover, in Baltimore, one of the first cities to officially adopt restrictions limiting African Americans and Jews to certain neighborhoods, approximately 70% of the population was predominantly minority.
However, in today’s housing crises, redlining raises controversy over gentrification. Residents of long-time redlined cities and towns are now being pushed out of their homes due to reversed economic fortunes. The minorities cannot afford rising rents and property taxes due to the renovating and improvement of their neighborhoods. This leads to one question: Does gentrification promote desegregation of previously redlined neighborhoods, or does it increase segregation for the next census?
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I found this post around Redlining very interesting. Something I thought is interesting is the current state of redlining, and how it affects people today. Today, around 3/4 of communities in the US face some form of redlining. Compared to these communities, the average White household earns around ten times more than a black family in a redlined community. This leads to a practice of being less likely to financially support or give mortgages to such homeowners, keeping them in redlined communities. This further contributes to racial stereotypes, as two-thirds of surveyed "dangerous" communities are inhabited by majority Black or Hispanic populations. This can eventually lead to gentrification of such communities, driving the majority of these people into worse communities or homelessness.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/03/28/redlining-was-banned-50-years-ago-its-still-hurting-minorities-today/
I enjoyed reading this blog post as the issue of redlining is something that I've learned about in a couple classes before. It really goes to show how things that have occurred a relatively long time ago still have negative consequences today because it is so ingrained in society. In addition to redlining, another practice that contributed to the racial housing crisis was blockbusting. Blockbusting is when real estate agents scared white home-owners into selling their homes at a low price because a black family was moving into the neighborhood. This white flight led to massive declines in housing prices and entire neighborhoods changing demographics from all white to all black. Like redlining, blockbusting played on the fears of investment when it comes to non-white property. Both contributed to the "voluntary" housing segregation and both have wide-reaching effects today.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/blockbusting/
This blog post was super intresting and I am so glad someone decided to write about it! I think it was super important that you included the background behind redlining how the practice came to be so popular despite its obvious prejudice and unfairness. I think it was also very importanthow you talked abotu the current modern ve4rsions od redlining and how even though the offical practice is not allowed it still takes place all over modern America. I think people finding loop holes in order to carry out thier racial prejudices even when the law forbids it is a common theme that can be traced all through American hisotry all the way to modern time America and is a huge issue at hand.
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