Housing Crisis: Working Against the System
By: Nicole Chu
Tags: Housing, Systemic Racism, Racism, Politics

Systemic Racism vs Housing

Written by Nicole Chu

In these modern times, racial discrimination can be seen in most things, though this is hidden from the public in ways that appear, on the surface level, to be harmless. However, this cannot be further from the truth. Systemic racism, according to the Cambridge dictionary, is “policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization, and that results in and supports a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race” (Cambridge). Throughout our nation alone, millions of tax-paying, hard-working Americans are land-locked by their incomes to live in areas that are systematically geared towards isolating a certain race or type of people. Often they’re referred to as “low-income housing,” “impoverished living areas,” or more simply, “the ghetto.” We use these words to describe these places and in turn, have adopted blind views against those who live there. Some have been taught to view these areas as undesirable and the people that live there are viewed in the same light. In reality, however, these individuals are the victims of a broken system. A system that seeks to squeeze every last penny out of the lowest income class while prioritizing the needs of wealthier citizens.

Housing discrimination is a type of systemic racism that is not always easy to pinpoint. There are obvious examples where people are denied access to certain houses or apartments due to their race, but there is a lot outside of this specific example that is easy to go unnoticed. According to a new study being led by Northwestern University earlier this year, and reported by Hilary Hurd Anyaso, undergraduate researchers have found racial disparities within the housing market that suggest that discrimination in regards to loan denial has barely gone down in previous years. Overall, housing costs haven’t declined significantly over the past three to four decades, however, the discrimination in the mortgage market has notably decreased during this same period of time (Anyaso, 2020). The lead author of the study, Professor Lincoln Quillian, made this statement: “We find declines in most forms of discrimination, especially the more extreme forms like falsely claiming an advertised unit is no longer available. There are less reduction and considerable persisting discrimination in more subtle differences in treatment between whites and minorities” (Anyaso, 2020). In short, this means that while discrimination within the housing market decreased, a similar level of discrimination has not declined much in regards to the mortgage market. These same researchers found that racial gaps in regards to loan denial have gone down only slightly, as opposed to racial gaps in mortgage cost not declining at all. This activity ultimately suggests that there is persistent racial discrimination taking place.

So what does this mean exactly? This means that people of color are significantly more likely to be denied a loan and to receive a high-level of a mortgage. Mortgages and loans are important financial tools that allow people to afford large purchases in a way that won’t hurt them financially. For low-income families or people who are born into low-income neighborhoods, it is vital to have access to a good housing mortgage and loan in order to leave these areas without having to completely sacrifice living expenses. However, without access to these loans and mortgages, it is hard for low-income families, most of which are made up of racial minorities, to ever have access to middle or upper-class neighborhoods. In another study by Jessica Semega, Melissa Kollar, John Creamer, and Abinash Mohanty titledIncome and Poverty in the United States: 2018, there is a table that illustrates the financial disparities based on different characteristics in order to compare income averages from 2017 and 2018. The table, as depicted to the left, clearly shows how white and black households have a large gap in their median incomes.

Table from Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018 (Semega, Mohanty, Creamer , & Kollar, 2020)

In 2017, the median income for a white household was 66,413 dollars with a margin of error of 862 dollars. This compares to the median income for a black household of 40,324 dollars with a margin of error of 1,430 dollars (Semega, Mohanty, Creamer, & Kollar, 2020). These numbers show that the gap between racial households differs by 26,089 dollars which is a massive distinction. The difference between these racial households in 2018 only differed by 25,582 dollars which is not a big difference compared to the previous year. Due to these staggering differences in income, it is vital for people to have access to better loans and mortgages in order to afford houses that are considered “desirable”. Most areas that are deemed as low class and undesirable, in major cities especially, were once areas that had been created due to redlining back in the 20th century in an attempt to segregate. The effect this created on the black community is brilliantly depicted by the interactive census map to the right.

This map, taken from an article by Ta-Nehisi Coates titled The Case for Reparations, depicts where African Americans in Chicago lived in relation to vacancy and unemployment from the 1950s to the 2010s. Looking through this map, it is clear to see that by living in neighborhoods with low-quality housing and low work opportunity, it was hard to move out of these designated areas.

Systemic racism is found everywhere, and although some things may seem insignificant or small, they have a large impact on the overall situation. The world is not an equal place, and to reach a more equal world, we must allow those in the African American community to have options to gain a better place in life. From the beginning, the black community has been set up to fail, and with no way out it is hard to expect things to get better. Allowing access to higher-quality mortgages and loans is a necessary first step in this journey forward.

References

Anyaso, H. H. (2020, January 23). Racial discrimination in mortgage market persistent over last four decades. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2020/01/racial-discrimination-in-mortgage-market-persistent-over-last-four-decades/

Semega, J., Mohanty, A., Creamer, J., & Kollar, M. (2020, June 26). Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-266.html

Coates, T. (2020, June 16). The Case for Reparations. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

SYSTEMIC RACISM: Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/systemic-racism