Another American irony is the creation of inner cities and state sanctioned racial segregation that was initiated by the government and protected and enforced by the police. The Federal Housing Act (FHA) helped insure segregation as blacks were denied housing loans even when qualified while the FHA provided white Americans housing loans helping to create segregated white suburbs. How many people do you know who have bought a house with cash? I do not know anyone, black or white. However, blacks were redlined, forced into sections of the city only for blacks and denied loans. Blacks were prevented from receiving loans in white areas by banks that worked with the legislative support of the federal government who backed the loans. It did not matter whether black veterans had more money than whites or were financially qualified for the loans. They were systematically excluded from qualifying for or receiving home mortgages, especially in white suburban communities. White soldiers returning from WWII were able to use the GI bill to buy houses and move to the suburbs, yet black soldiers who should have received the same benefits under the GI bill were systematically denied loans by the banks working with the government to employ a process called redlining.
This state sanctioned process created segregated neighborhoods. Even in black neighborhoods, black people were often denied loans so they were relegated to be renters. This discriminatory housing practice helped create segregated inner cities, ghettos, and majority white suburbs. Many people erroneously assume that segregation occurred naturally. I teach a course on Race and Education, and every semester I have students who tell me that they had never heard of any of the restrictive government housing policies, and they believed people lived in inner cities and segregated areas, because they wanted to live amongst their own race. That is truly one of the greatest atrocities of our generation; the United States government created a segregated society, and due to a lack of instruction or knowledge about the historical and racialized processes associated with segregation, some citizens believe it is the natural order. However, that is how race functions in this society. Race is a social construct that has been used to sort people, conferring benefits to some and withholding benefits from others based on racial markers such as phenotype or physical features, under the pretense that societal differences occur spontaneously. Although race is socially constructed, the impact is real because our government has erected our society on a foundation of race-based demarcations.
Additionally, homes typically appreciated in value especially in the suburbs and more well to do communities. Depending on where you live determines the quality of resources and funding that your school receives. Schools are seen as the great American equalizer; yet we know that great schools are often tied to neighborhoods and since it is rare that anyone purchases a house with cash, people need loans. Yet the Federal Housing Authority initiated the redlining policies and practices and they were enforced by the government to deny blacks loans. These policies ensured home ownership to whites and denied blacks home ownership creating neatly and conveniently segregated white suburbs and black urban ghettoes. With ownership, individuals and families have the opportunity to reap the benefits associated with increases in equity and appreciation in home values. Renting, however, does not afford families the same opportunities to accrue wealth. Again, the majority of my students do not know that government laws created, maintained and ensured segregation and the related public school disparities. Many students are surprised to learn that people did not choose to live in certain neighborhoods, but were forced to do so. We also discuss how more affluent neighborhoods have typically had better funded and resourced schools, because the state, the federal government and most importantly property taxes fund local schools. So, if you live in a nice neighborhood and own your house and do not rent, your children will most likely attend a better funded and resourced school facilitating a cycle of educational and socioeconomic success. This cycle of success allows for better resourced schooling and appreciating house values.
I do not mention these issues to lament the social position of black Americans. As black Americans we are and have been a resilient group that has fought for freedom, civil rights and our own betterment in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and virulent structural racism. Our rights were not achieved due to morality, we took opportunities and challenged power structures to improve our own lives.
What is concerning, however, is that many of our nation’s best and brightest students of all races have no concept of race and the ways racial policies have influenced American contemporary circumstances. Many Americans believe racism is simply using a racial slur such as the “N” word. I have even heard people say that because black people use the “N” word, they are racist. Once again, this is slightly confusing because it has been state sanctioned policies enforced by the government and police to systematically attempt to relegate blacks to the lowest rungs of society and not slurs that have been particularly insidious. If our understanding of racism is reduced to a slur and is marked by our inability as a country to see contemporary or structural racism, we are doing all Americans a grave injustice, and in particular, American students.
All one has to do is look at American history to realize the most treacherous forms of racism were never about slurs, but about systems of inequality related to housing, schooling, employment and government which were all maintained by policy and enforced as law by state and federal courts and in local contexts police officers. Once America recognizes, acknowledges and tackles race, as well as, the importance of black history as interwoven with American history, we can move forward racially as a country. Instead of taking a colorblind stance, the effects of race and racism need to be interrogated and acknowledged, and steps, such as affirmative action in educational and work settings, need to be implemented to rectify government policy that has obstructed the advancement of black Americans. Until then the United States will continue to experience racial turmoil.
Additionally, if people have no concept of history, they will not understand or agree with recent movements uplifting black American lives and will see racism as something as old as slavery or as simple as a slur. Instead, many Americans will continue to neglect overt and blatant government policies that affected my parents’ generation and in turn affects me and my peers. What happens to those legacies? We know that de jure laws changed to de facto. What has been done to eradicate de facto racism? Does it just disappear because society is integrated? How is this possible if the majority of schools are still segregated? For those of all races committed to justice and equity without having these conversations followed by action, it will be a struggle to progress racially. I am grateful for Colin Kaepernick’s bravery, conviction and leadership. Will we look back thirty years from now and say Colin Kaepernick was right, as we do with Ali and Dr. King? Don’t be on the wrong side of history, take a stance today.
