EOTO Reaction: "Redlining"

The EOTO presentations brought many different perspectives. Each topic opened another bird's eye view of the Civil Rights Movement and the Civil Rights Acts. It was fascinating when many of the presenters spoke about how those actions during this era directly affected us too. One specific action that was said to directly affect us and ongoing children is “Redlining”. According to Cornell law school, “Redlining can be defined as a discriminatory practice that consists of the systematic denial of services such as mortgages, insurance loans, and other financial services to residents of certain areas, based on their race or ethnicity.” This started in the early 1930s with FDR’s “the new deal”. 

This act directly correlated with where African Americans are able to live and whites too. This is because these suburban houses that were being built were only able to be sold to white customers. Since only the white could live here, that meant blacks could only live in the other option, urban neighborhoods. Since whites were able to live in these luxurious, nice, and rich houses, this meant blacks were forced to live in the poor, broken-down, city areas. The reasoning behind this was that FHA believed if these African Americans were to move into these nice neighborhoods their value and merit would go down significantly. 

Since FHA believed this, this withheld loans, mortgages, and grants to be given to African Americans. When this was brought up I was in shock. I realized this was an enormous factor that put all African Americans into poverty. They had no other option but to go where they were wanted, and accepted, and could put a roof over their heads. When I heard this I also realized that these beliefs of FHA and decisions were not very long ago. To put in perspective how recent this was, my grandfather who just passed away could have read about these acts in the newspaper, talked about them, been involved, seen them on tv, etc.  The actions of the Federal Housing Administration are something we all must be aware of. The FHA affects us, and our future too. 

There are still many African Americans who have to deal with this till this day and that is truly unjust. When I started to read in-depth about redlining, I realized this is what has made black people struggle. Another factor I concluded from this was this has directly affected black kids' education. This is because I recently concluded a research study in another subject class and it shows how the neighborhood, environment, and the people you grow up around directly affect how you grow up. The study showed how people who grow up in poor neighborhoods with bad influences end up trying to be just like them when they grow up,  just like many African Americans. 

The study also showed how African Americans' test scores are significantly lower and perform worse overall compared to other kids. This was said to be because they do not have the income, environment, and support to be a better version of themselves. Many people do not realize how all of these factors connect to one another and this has put black people in a constant endless cycle of poverty, trouble, and survival mode. White people are often gifted with ample privileges any black person would die for. This is something that must come to our attention to help prevent this from happening to future kids.