Housing Discrimination

This article is the testimony of Gary Orfield who in 1996 testified as a witness for the Caldwell branch of the NAACP. Back in 1980 Orfield was appointed by the Court to create a report on housing and housing policies and practices. Specifically in St. Louis, Missouri, public resources and powers were used to promote segregation. The local government used federal funding to only build subsided housing in segregated areas. The local government also denied its ability to build subsided housing in other places besides the city. For the majority of his testimony Orfield talked about how school segregation affects housing. Orfield argued that schools were being used as tools in housing marketing. As a result, White families would choose to live

Community leaders in the city of Atlanta knew it was time for drastic changes, and by the 1920’s Tech-woods Flats were run over by unsafe and unsanitary structures, overcrowded residency, and poor ventilation. In response to this devastation among residency of Tech-wood Flats, in 1936 Atlanta built the first ever Tech-wood Home that provide temporary housing for white families, although Tech-wood populations was 94 percent black. African American families were forced to move out of their homes and look to stay somewhere else, while white families were able to move in. Things began to change in the 1960’s, when laws were passed prohibiting officials from continuing the practice on barring single mothers and welfare recipients from there complexes.

Lipsitz uses practices of the housing market to illustrate how the diverse practices provide the privilege to white people in the current institutional arrangements. The capital resides in suburban houses has proven many white families’ economic mobility, although few white Americans recognize that segregation has historically been the guarantee of suburban real estate values. Housing policy and real estate practices, banking and finance, education, tax codes and subsidies, the behavior of the courts, and the norms of urban policing are all heavily inflected by a racialist logic or tend toward racialized consequences. Lipsitz delineates the weaknesses embedded in civil rights laws, the racial dimensions of economic restructuring and deindustrialization, and the effects of environmental racism, job discrimination and school segregation. Lipsitz describes the centrality of whiteness to American culture, and explains how the whites have used identity politics to forward their collective interests at the expense of racialized groups, including African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos.

“The combat blockbusting, a group of families in Northwest neighborhoods east of the park organized Neighbors, Inc. and convinced white property owners that they were hurting themselves as well as the community by succumbing to the arguments of real estate manipulators.” Real estate agents have an unrecognized power to control residential demographics. If an agent is unwilling to sell property to a certain demographic or income class, they control who lives in the neighborhood. “Neighbors, Inc. held meetings and community activities and by 1960 had induced eight white Citizen’s Associations to join other organizations in a fight to get the city’s major newspapers to drop racial designations in real estate advertisements.” It is harder to create diversity when real estate agents stand in the way. “We are far from creating a classless, colorblind society. We will have to work together to overcome discrimination and to abolish the deep-seated and senseless fears that have prevented us from fulfilling our commitment to residential integration and equal opportunity in every aspect of our lives.”19 Learning from the mistakes of their past, Tenleytown residents fought for racial equality in the housing market. This neighborhood has a strange racial history in which blacks were openly accepted, integrated with community, then later forced out of their residence. Race relations is a significant part of the neighborhood’s

Housing codes in this country shape the way we live. They tell us everything from what is considered to be a bedroom, to how many people can live in one dwelling. Max Page and Ellen Pader looked at two different examples of the way the US’s housing policies have had a major impact on our society. Page examined the tearing down of the slums in New York City. The government claimed that the buildings were old and unsafe, and thus needed to be demolished. Pader looked at eviction of ethnic groups, particularly Latinos, from their homes in Chicago. The rational for the evictions was that there were too many people occupying one space. This was unhealthy, and thus whole families lost their homes. In both instances, the government in mandating

The housing crisis in Detroit illuminated the grave economic reality of migrant black families living in the industrial Midwest. In order to holistically analyze the ramifications of the black labor movement, historians must understand the inextricable link between fair housing and the lack of financial capital for generations of black families. The rise of surbanization and red-lining tactics prompted white flight from Detroit’s predominately white neighborhoods, such as Dearborn. “During and after World War II, blacks flooded into Detroit’s Lower East Side: Paradise Valley” (Sugrue 36). Neighborhood deterioration, coupled with disproportionately high-rents and low Home Owners Loan Corporation appraisal scores, led to private-sector discrimination practices by predatory bank loaners and real-estate brokers in the West and East-Sides of Detroit—particularly the Eight-Mile, Paradise Valley, Oakwood, and Sojourner Truth Housing areas (Sugrue 43, 77).

Rough Draft & Thesis Statement Minorities are faced with housing discrimination on levels much higher than that of white people which is considered white privilege. Residential segregation has been strategically planned and carried out by multiple parties throughout history and persists today ultimately inhibiting minorities from making any of the social or economic advances that come from living in affluent neighborhoods and communities. From our research, the scholarly sources have depicted multiple causes of racial disparity. Housing segregation perpetuates negative circumstances for people of color, as looked at through history, laws, segregation, real estate, and ... The end of the Civil War and the start of the Industrial Revolution and

Different areas of the private sector took control of the racial segregation. Areas such as real estate, banks, labor, and toxic waste locations have participated in some way to continue the segregation and inferiority of people of color. “African Americans and other communities of color are often victims of land-use decision making that mirrors the power arrangements of the dominant society” (Bullard [1994]2004:269). The land-use decisions are used by the real estate industry. The real estate industry along with the bank industry have worked together in order to make it almost impossible for people of color to acquire their own homes. When individuals of color do obtain their own homes the real estate industry corrals them all into one zone. Then the banks charge homeowners in these zones high interest rates on the mortgages needed to maintain their home ownership. “Zoning is probably the most widely applied mechanism to regulate urban land use in the United States” (Bullard [1994]2004:269). When people of color are corralled into a neighborhood the quality of the neighborhood is diminished. The

Before 1960s, Black people were legally discriminated against and even today they are still treated unfairly. This piece is provided to contextualize a specific sector that Blacks are discriminated against historically, in person, and over the phone now. This piece is meant to spark a conversation for African Americans to think about other instances where they put on a “white voice” and to think about how in other ways they are discriminated against in that sector. It also allows white people, who are up for conversation, to realize the biases they are placing on people by not only how they look, but even how they sound over the phone. This piece isn’t meant to end housing discrimination, but to be a conversation starter for both parties on

What I learned this week which I found most interesting is the evolving situation of housing segregation in this country. If I would have been asked why our country is still so segregated I would say that this situation is due to the fact that we had Jim Crow laws in effect only 60 years ago and many communities have just not changed that much since then. What I wouldn’t have guessed is the widespread extent to which the races intentionally segregate themselves. Less than 50% of both blacks and whites say they want to live in a community of people who look like them. However when people actually choose their home 74% of whites end up in white communities and 66% of blacks end up living in black communities. (Chang, Alvin) Whether it is basic

Despite increased diversity across the country, America’s neighborhoods remain highly segregated along racial and ethnic lines. Residential segregation, particularly between African-Americans and whites, persists in metropolitan areas where minorities make up a large share of the population. This paper will examine residential segregation imposed upon African-Americans and the enormous costs it bears. Furthermore, the role of government will be discussed as having an important role in carrying out efforts towards residential desegregation. By developing an understanding of residential segregation and its destructive effects, parallels may be drawn between efforts aimed at combating

It was a way to constraint African Americans to areas that were far away from those with status, class, and power. Segregation led to discrimination in economic opportunities, housing, and education. The black culture has suffered from the barriers that were placed through segregation. However, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 tried to limit some of the discrimination associated with segregation. It was discovered that even a “rising economic status had little or no effect on the level of segregation that blacks experience” (Massey and Denton 87). The authors imply that “black segregation would remain a universal high” (Massey and Denton 88). The problem with the continuing causes in Segregation is that even though the Fair Housing act was placed, many realtors still discriminate against blacks “through a series of ruses, lies, and deceptions, makes it hard for them to learn about, inspect, rent, or purchase homes in white neighborhoods” (Massey and Denton 97). Segregation and discrimination have a cumulative effect over time. Massey and Denton argued that the “act of discrimination may be small and subtle, together they have a powerful cumulative effect in lowering the probability of black entry into white neighborhood” (98). William Julius Wilson had

“You have to be twice as good as them to get half of what they have.” Was a famous quote said by Kerry Washington on her hit show Scandal. The quote was said in reference to Kerry having to work twice as hard to get half of what her Caucasian co-workers have. This quote relates to a black person everyday struggle. As a black person, they are constantly competing for equality with their Caucasian counterparts. Equality in things such as the work-force, food industry but more importantly in the housing area. Housing discrimination amongst blacks has been one of the biggest issues in the United States. Because of the discrimination, Blacks still have a greater struggle finding housing more than their equally qualified Caucasian counterparts. The

To some, it can be argued that segregation was ended in 1954 so if housing is a problem, why don’t African American people just move. The issue is due to several programs that were created in the twentieth century that has held back minorities from homeownership. This lack of ability to be able to purchase and own a home on equal terms with white homeowner had a damaging effect of impacting

Historically, “ideas of Black inferiority and White superiority have been embedded in multiple aspects of American culture, and many images and ideas in contemporary popular culture continue to devalue, marginalize, and subordinate non-White racial populations”. Racism has influenced decades of land use, housing patterns, and infrastructure development. With the creation of housing subdivisions, the white and wealthy moved to modern communities, while the non-white and poor were left to live in areas that were rundown. Today, we see that in some cases, zoning laws have fueled environmental, as well as residential, racism. In certain communities around the nation, “expulsive” zoning has pushed out residents, and allowed industries to move into communities, and pollute the land, air, and water. These zoning laws define land for residential, commercial, or industrial uses, and impose narrower land-use restrictions. In this case certain individuals are forced to leave their community, and give any property they have up to these “dirty” industries. Without more stringent enforcement mechanisms and penalties in place, this nation will continue to see this type of discrimination and environmental racism.