Is Your Neighborhood Racist? - Redlining 101
By Valerie Tran
Take into consideration the saying, “wealth creates wealth.” Centuries of inequality have already compounded, most notably through land and housing. In this century, wealth is capitalized through property. When we think of wealth inequality in the United States today, it is directly attributable to problems associated with housing and the denial of housing (to the inability of African Americans to acquire wealth in the same way that other groups were able to.) By virtue, having access to affordable housing is one of the many issues that impact communities of color today. In the Minneapolis tristate area, about 75% of white families own the homes that they occupy whereas only 25% of black families own the homes they occupy (Urban Institute). This housing gap is the largest in terms of percentage gaps in the country, and a major impediment to civil rights for African-Americans’ economic opportunity of these racially restrictive covenants.
Research suggests that these disparities have roots in restrictive covenants, a legally enforceable contract in a deed, embedded in real estate generations ago. In the early 20th century, restrictive covenants used to race and ethnicity to exclude certain people from neighborhoods- most notably, African Americans. Restrictive covenants created a guide for the next phase of segregation in housing, and the adverse effects are still seen today. The term redlining describes the refusal of loans to someone because they live in an area deemed to be a poor financial risk. In the 1930s, The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) created color-coded maps of the largest cities in the United States and broke them down into four different areas: red, yellow, blue, and green. The red zones, with “foreign-born”, “low-class whites”, and “Negroes”, are considered as hazardous and undesirable. The yellow, considered declining, had the working-class families. The blue zones were desirable, occupied by white-collar families. And finally, the green zones, inhabited by businessmen, were considered the best areas to live in, and all green zones shared one common characteristic-- the absence of minorities. The practice of redlining institutionalized and spread these racial covenants throughout the country. After decades of activism from the NAACP and other groups, the US Supreme Court ruled in 1948 that restrictive covenants could not be enforced, and in 1968, the Fair Housing Act made the act of writing racially restrictive covenants illegal. Its policy meant to encourage equal housing opportunities, but the disadvantages faced by minorities compounded over time. These covenants are now legally unenforceable but are still intricately worked into the housing market due to the disastrous decades of damage caused by redlining. We can see the results of how redlining affects present-day socio-economic outcomes because these covenants were a tool to deny people of certain races and colors housing. Through this causal link between covenants in the past and present-day socio-economic outcomes, we find that houses that were “protected” by the covenants have on average 15% higher house values today compared to the houses that were not. Consequently, these areas also have substantially lower African-American residences and homeownership rates. By reframing contemporary policy through an equity lens to help mitigate these damages, very powerful arguments can be made about the underlying effects of racism, noting that most of these areas did not enforce segregation through Jim Crow laws.
The effects of redlining do not stop at housing. When an area has a collectively low income, the area becomes underfunded. Landlords neglect their properties, city services deteriorate, and new businesses stray away. As property values drop, property taxes drop. Unfortunately, the primary way Americans pay for public schools are through these property taxes. Areas with more valuable homes have better-funded schools, higher-paid teachers, and advanced school facilities, promoting a greater emphasis on higher education. Nathan Connolly’s description of a “snowball effect that compounded over generations” can help explain the disparities and inequalities among the rich white neighborhoods and the poor black communities. Even life expectancies are higher in richer, whiter neighborhoods. Because of urban planning that benefits the green-zones, people of color are more likely to live near industrial plants that spew toxic fumes; they’re more likely to live further away from grocery stores with fresh food and in places where water isn’t drinkable. These environmental hazards affect their living situations, and poorer black neighborhoods are more likely to have crumbling infrastructure and homes with toxic paint than their white counterparts.
The lack of environmental protection and resources cause health risks to skyrocket in these communities. People of color have higher incidences of cancer, asthma, and heart diseases. Many of these neighborhoods are built alongside highways and interstates, which cause large amounts of noise and light pollution. Pollution and environmental degradation have a severe impact on the poor and can increase their poverty. Consequently, many people in redlined neighborhoods do not have access to healthcare and have a greater risk of dying prematurely from several preventable health problems. In the United States, approximately 6 million children are urban poor. In 2 Chicago inner-city neighborhoods, living in dwellings built before 1919 was associated with child blood lead levels of more than the average. Air pollution studies comparing neighborhoods or cities have shown substantial lung disease cases, attributable partly to highways and industries. Environmental risks are not uniformly distributed across groups of people. Age, poverty, and minority status place some groups at disproportionately high risk for environmental disease. Such groups are exposed to hazardous chemicals or conditions at levels well above those for the general populations. Disparities in access to health information and healthcare are important aspects of the disproportionate burden faced by environmental justice communities. Poor access to health information and health care means less health promotion, less risk avoidance, a less healthy diet, and more adverse conditions that increase susceptibility to exposure. Delayed recognition of exposure, diagnosis, and treatment allows effects to accumulate.
Even temperature changes are apparent while comparing non-covenanted homes to covenanted homes. Across more than 100 cities, a recent study found, formerly redlined neighborhoods are today 5 degrees hotter in summer, on average, than areas once favored for housing loans, with some cities seeing differences as large as 12 degrees. Redlined neighborhoods, which remain lower-income and more likely to have Black or Hispanic residents, consistently have far fewer trees and parks that help cool the air. They also have more paved surfaces, such as asphalt lots or nearby highways, that absorb and radiate heat. Heat is the nation’s deadliest weather disaster, killing as many as 12,000 people a year (NY Times). Now, as global warming brings ever more intense heat waves, cities need to draw up plans to adapt-- and confront a historical legacy that has left communities of color far more vulnerable to heat. Trees also have climate benefits. Unlike paved surfaces, their roots and the soil around them are porous, soaking up water and reducing flooding during downpours. As seen in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck the Southeastern United States, casualties and damages were incredibly worse in low-income African American neighborhoods than in other areas. Communities that are neglected by the government and have a high percentage of minority residency are often consciously and unconsciously designated as sacrifice zones, areas that are targeted for the disproportionate burden of pollution for the byproducts of our consumerism of industrial disregard. Consumerism has grown on such a large scale that sacrifice zones are found in communities globally.
In a time of social upheaval and climate change crises, the “snowball effect” of redlined communities will only continue to grow unless the problem is confronted. On a global scale, every community will be impacted by the lack of environmental standards. As we grow into new ways to become environmentally conscious, we ignore the social aspects that come along with these new trends. Many of these green, organic items are priced higher than disposable, conventionally grown items. Poorer communities cannot afford to be sustainable and have to settle for food grown by synthetic chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, hormones) or genetically modified organisms. This feedback loop traps them into an unhealthy lifestyle that is out of their control.
Even though these adversities faced by low-income minority families are still terrible and occur to this day, the rise in activism groups that raise awareness on these issues proves influential in the battle against racism and redlining. The Intersectional Environmentalism movement strives to bring together social justice and environmental protection. Leah Thomas, the spearhead of the IE movement, describes it as:
“an inclusive version of environmentalism that advocates for both the protection of the people and the planet. It identifies the ways in which injustices happening to marginalized communities and the earth are interconnected. It brings injustices done to the most vulnerable communities, and the earth, to the forefront and does not minimize or silence social inequality. Intersectional environmentalism advocates for justice for the people and the planet.”
The environmental wisdom worldview holds that we are part of, and dependent on, nature and that nature exists for all species, not just for us. According to this view, our success depends on learning how life on earth sustains itself and integrating such environmental wisdom into the ways we think and act. Indeed, policymakers already have the tools to address this injustice and to develop policies with communities of color in mind. Effective environmental justice policies should safeguard communities as places where all people can live, work, and play without fear of exposure to toxic, deadly surroundings. As people of color come to make up a majority of the population, environmental justice issues should be prioritized as national issues.
Research suggests that these disparities have roots in restrictive covenants, a legally enforceable contract in a deed, embedded in real estate generations ago. In the early 20th century, restrictive covenants used to race and ethnicity to exclude certain people from neighborhoods- most notably, African Americans. Restrictive covenants created a guide for the next phase of segregation in housing, and the adverse effects are still seen today. The term redlining describes the refusal of loans to someone because they live in an area deemed to be a poor financial risk. In the 1930s, The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) created color-coded maps of the largest cities in the United States and broke them down into four different areas: red, yellow, blue, and green. The red zones, with “foreign-born”, “low-class whites”, and “Negroes”, are considered as hazardous and undesirable. The yellow, considered declining, had the working-class families. The blue zones were desirable, occupied by white-collar families. And finally, the green zones, inhabited by businessmen, were considered the best areas to live in, and all green zones shared one common characteristic-- the absence of minorities. The practice of redlining institutionalized and spread these racial covenants throughout the country. After decades of activism from the NAACP and other groups, the US Supreme Court ruled in 1948 that restrictive covenants could not be enforced, and in 1968, the Fair Housing Act made the act of writing racially restrictive covenants illegal. Its policy meant to encourage equal housing opportunities, but the disadvantages faced by minorities compounded over time. These covenants are now legally unenforceable but are still intricately worked into the housing market due to the disastrous decades of damage caused by redlining. We can see the results of how redlining affects present-day socio-economic outcomes because these covenants were a tool to deny people of certain races and colors housing. Through this causal link between covenants in the past and present-day socio-economic outcomes, we find that houses that were “protected” by the covenants have on average 15% higher house values today compared to the houses that were not. Consequently, these areas also have substantially lower African-American residences and homeownership rates. By reframing contemporary policy through an equity lens to help mitigate these damages, very powerful arguments can be made about the underlying effects of racism, noting that most of these areas did not enforce segregation through Jim Crow laws.
The effects of redlining do not stop at housing. When an area has a collectively low income, the area becomes underfunded. Landlords neglect their properties, city services deteriorate, and new businesses stray away. As property values drop, property taxes drop. Unfortunately, the primary way Americans pay for public schools are through these property taxes. Areas with more valuable homes have better-funded schools, higher-paid teachers, and advanced school facilities, promoting a greater emphasis on higher education. Nathan Connolly’s description of a “snowball effect that compounded over generations” can help explain the disparities and inequalities among the rich white neighborhoods and the poor black communities. Even life expectancies are higher in richer, whiter neighborhoods. Because of urban planning that benefits the green-zones, people of color are more likely to live near industrial plants that spew toxic fumes; they’re more likely to live further away from grocery stores with fresh food and in places where water isn’t drinkable. These environmental hazards affect their living situations, and poorer black neighborhoods are more likely to have crumbling infrastructure and homes with toxic paint than their white counterparts.
The lack of environmental protection and resources cause health risks to skyrocket in these communities. People of color have higher incidences of cancer, asthma, and heart diseases. Many of these neighborhoods are built alongside highways and interstates, which cause large amounts of noise and light pollution. Pollution and environmental degradation have a severe impact on the poor and can increase their poverty. Consequently, many people in redlined neighborhoods do not have access to healthcare and have a greater risk of dying prematurely from several preventable health problems. In the United States, approximately 6 million children are urban poor. In 2 Chicago inner-city neighborhoods, living in dwellings built before 1919 was associated with child blood lead levels of more than the average. Air pollution studies comparing neighborhoods or cities have shown substantial lung disease cases, attributable partly to highways and industries. Environmental risks are not uniformly distributed across groups of people. Age, poverty, and minority status place some groups at disproportionately high risk for environmental disease. Such groups are exposed to hazardous chemicals or conditions at levels well above those for the general populations. Disparities in access to health information and healthcare are important aspects of the disproportionate burden faced by environmental justice communities. Poor access to health information and health care means less health promotion, less risk avoidance, a less healthy diet, and more adverse conditions that increase susceptibility to exposure. Delayed recognition of exposure, diagnosis, and treatment allows effects to accumulate.
Even temperature changes are apparent while comparing non-covenanted homes to covenanted homes. Across more than 100 cities, a recent study found, formerly redlined neighborhoods are today 5 degrees hotter in summer, on average, than areas once favored for housing loans, with some cities seeing differences as large as 12 degrees. Redlined neighborhoods, which remain lower-income and more likely to have Black or Hispanic residents, consistently have far fewer trees and parks that help cool the air. They also have more paved surfaces, such as asphalt lots or nearby highways, that absorb and radiate heat. Heat is the nation’s deadliest weather disaster, killing as many as 12,000 people a year (NY Times). Now, as global warming brings ever more intense heat waves, cities need to draw up plans to adapt-- and confront a historical legacy that has left communities of color far more vulnerable to heat. Trees also have climate benefits. Unlike paved surfaces, their roots and the soil around them are porous, soaking up water and reducing flooding during downpours. As seen in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck the Southeastern United States, casualties and damages were incredibly worse in low-income African American neighborhoods than in other areas. Communities that are neglected by the government and have a high percentage of minority residency are often consciously and unconsciously designated as sacrifice zones, areas that are targeted for the disproportionate burden of pollution for the byproducts of our consumerism of industrial disregard. Consumerism has grown on such a large scale that sacrifice zones are found in communities globally.
In a time of social upheaval and climate change crises, the “snowball effect” of redlined communities will only continue to grow unless the problem is confronted. On a global scale, every community will be impacted by the lack of environmental standards. As we grow into new ways to become environmentally conscious, we ignore the social aspects that come along with these new trends. Many of these green, organic items are priced higher than disposable, conventionally grown items. Poorer communities cannot afford to be sustainable and have to settle for food grown by synthetic chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, hormones) or genetically modified organisms. This feedback loop traps them into an unhealthy lifestyle that is out of their control.
Even though these adversities faced by low-income minority families are still terrible and occur to this day, the rise in activism groups that raise awareness on these issues proves influential in the battle against racism and redlining. The Intersectional Environmentalism movement strives to bring together social justice and environmental protection. Leah Thomas, the spearhead of the IE movement, describes it as:
“an inclusive version of environmentalism that advocates for both the protection of the people and the planet. It identifies the ways in which injustices happening to marginalized communities and the earth are interconnected. It brings injustices done to the most vulnerable communities, and the earth, to the forefront and does not minimize or silence social inequality. Intersectional environmentalism advocates for justice for the people and the planet.”
The environmental wisdom worldview holds that we are part of, and dependent on, nature and that nature exists for all species, not just for us. According to this view, our success depends on learning how life on earth sustains itself and integrating such environmental wisdom into the ways we think and act. Indeed, policymakers already have the tools to address this injustice and to develop policies with communities of color in mind. Effective environmental justice policies should safeguard communities as places where all people can live, work, and play without fear of exposure to toxic, deadly surroundings. As people of color come to make up a majority of the population, environmental justice issues should be prioritized as national issues.
Podcast episode can be found here.
Valerie Tran is a senior at Mira Mesa High School, and is the Vice President in a volunteer outreach club called the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF). Her love for the environment and passion for the advocacy of the Green Movement inspired her interest in environmental justice.
Valerie Tran is a senior at Mira Mesa High School, and is the Vice President in a volunteer outreach club called the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF). Her love for the environment and passion for the advocacy of the Green Movement inspired her interest in environmental justice.