Redlining Explained

Satirical advertisement for Redlining Realty, highlighting the discriminatory nature of the practice.

Redlining is presented as a policy that created housing segregation and negatively impacted the American dream for Black individuals.

The Great Depression in the 1930s led to high unemployment and poverty.
FDR's New Deal aimed to revitalize the American economy and create a middle class but ended up reinforcing racial inequality for generations.

Public Works Administration (PWA): It created segregated public housing for Black and White individuals, increasing urban segregation.
Federal Housing Administration (FHA): It offered low-interest mortgages to build homes across the country, promoting suburban development.
FHA guaranteed loans to banks, reducing their risk, but explicitly discriminated against Black applicants.
The FHA manual prohibited occupancy of properties by any race other than the one intended for the property.

Color-coded maps were created by the federal government to guide banks in issuing housing loans.
Green sections were considered safe for loans, while red sections, typically Black neighborhoods, were deemed too risky.
Even affluent Black neighborhoods like Sugar Hill in Harlem were excluded from receiving loans.
Physical barriers, like a six-foot wall in Detroit, were erected to prevent Black people from moving into white neighborhoods.

The Act aimed to end redlining but did not eliminate its effects.
Banks have been caught using redlining maps as recently as 2015.
Formerly redlined areas remain predominantly low-income Black and Brown neighborhoods.

Redlining has had significant impacts on wealth, education, and criminal justice.

Homeownership drives wealth accumulation.
Black individuals face greater difficulty in obtaining homes.
Homes in Black neighborhoods are valued approximately 25% lower than comparable homes in white neighborhoods.
Residents in redlined areas pay higher insurance premiums and interest rates and are more frequently denied mortgages.

Local property taxes fund schools.
Redlining reduces property values in Black communities, resulting in underfunded schools.
Suburban schools in predominantly white areas receive significantly more funding than urban schools in Black and Latino areas.
The Fair Housing Act did not re-evaluate property values, perpetuating wealth disparities between white and Black communities.
Detroit is cited as an example of extreme school funding inequality between the wealthy, white Grosse Pointe and the underfunded Detroit schools.

Redlining's impact extends to the criminal justice system.
Despite similar rates of drug use, Black individuals are arrested for drug offenses at a higher rate than White individuals.
Drug arrests disproportionately occur in redlined areas.
Marijuana, heroin, and crack arrests are concentrated in redlined neighborhoods.
Baltimore is used as a case study, showing drug arrests and poverty are almost exclusively in redlined areas.
Zip codes with the highest bills are in Baltimore's redlined neighborhoods.

Redlining leads to poor neighborhoods, underfunded schools, increased poverty, and higher incarceration rates among Black individuals.
This cycle perpetuates disadvantage across generations.
The "hood" was intentionally created by government policies to oppress Black communities.

Redlining is a government-sanctioned policy that has had lasting adverse impacts on Black communities.
Almost every quantifiable indicator of white supremacy can be traced back to redlining.