Housing Discrimination and Redlining

A house amounts to half of a household’s wealth, so when an African American family is blocked from becoming a homeowner it affects that African American’s ability to accumulate wealth. One way the affected African Americans from gaining wealth in the past was redlining. Redlining was a strategy that banks used in the past as a way to deny a family a loan. The bank would have a map of the city and then have colored in areas that were desirable or risky. Red areas on the map were neighborhoods in which residents were unable to receive loans because they were labeled as risky for mortgage support. Most of the time, the red neighborhoods were African American neighborhoods, no matter the socio economic status of the neighborhoods. The affected Africans Americans in a great way. Not only were they unable to buy homes, it affected their ability to accumulate wealth. Many of the 27% of African Americans living in poverty today can be drawn to this strategy of redlining. Their parents and grandparents were unable to buy houses and accumulate wealth to pass onto their children and grandchildren. Their parents also did not have anything to mortgage in order to send their children to college so college was unaffordable. This caused many African Americans to lose jobs to more qualified people so they had to accept a lower paying job. Redlining also forced African Americans to live in certain neighborhoods and denied them the ability to rise out of a neighborhood that could be dangerous or bad for their health.

The modern way to stop an African American family from becoming homeowners is housing discrimination. Housing discrimination works in many different ways. Sometimes it is as simple as a bank finding reasons to refuse an African American a loan. Today, African Americans have a 10-15% higher chance of having a loan denied than non-Hispanic whites. Many claim that redlining is still in effect today at many banks and that is the reason many African Americans are denied loans. Other times it is a white family refusing to sell their house to a black family. Finally sometimes it is a real estate agent who will not show African American families houses that fit their needs or in white neighborhoods. Redlining and housing discrimination have greatly affected the African American community in America. Not only has it created residential segregation that lasts today, it also created affected the lives and futures of African Americans by denying them the right to accumulate wealth.