#know your history. asians in america have historically been used and upheld to oppress and put down indigenous black and latine people

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

affirmative action struck down. once again asians in the usa have been used by the oppressors to uphold systemic racism. congrats to those ungrateful asians who whine about not getting into some school with a Big Name because of a hypothetical latine or Black person. you just let yourself be played for fools and used as tools. hope you’re happy lmao

[uncontainedkc]

Necessary Disruption: Housing Reimagined

“There’s no place like home!”, is more than a popular line from the classic movie - The Wizard of Oz. Home is a safe place, a place to grow and create a lifetime of memories with your loved ones. Home is an ideal.  It is the American Dream. Sadly, home has been an unfathomable circumstance for millions of humans that lived and died through various tragedies on American soil throughout our troubling history with racism, slavery and discrimination. Home continues to be a mere illusion of a reality that is completely unknowable and out of reach for some. Specifically, more than 500,000 Americans are unsheltered today. Millions more are housing insecure, including 2.5 million children. Despite the fact that housing is a basic physiological need for human survival- “home” evades millions of people in the wealthiest nation on earth, America.  

The long-standing traditions of limiting generational wealth and status by prohibiting land ownership coupled with rampant housing discrimination are ever-present even today. Housing in this country is treated as a luxury and not as a human right. That is a problem.

A disruption is necessary.

LIMITING WEALTH BY RESTRICTING ACCESS TO OWNERSHIP OF LAND AND REAL PROPERTY IN THE UNITED STATES.

Understanding the shift we must make requires we understand the roots of our current land ownership and housing system. Historically, housing in the United States has long been an area of explicit, strategic discrimination and oppressive practices. These practices were implemented and maintained as a way to control mobility, status, and life opportunities of populations that were deemed inferior or less desirable. It was also the most effective way to concentrate power and wealth in a select group of people- white men and by extension white women.

From the time Europeans landed in the Americas, there has been a race for land acquisition.  Once the Native Americans and the Mexican states were forcibly removed from their lands and homes via murder, enslavement, or cultural genocide, that made way for what has become The United States of America. The stolen parcels, stained with fresh blood of the rightful inhabitants that gave their lives defending their homes, were divided up for the new owners. When it came time to distribute the stolen land parcels the privilege of ownership was available almost exclusively to a select class- white male immigrants.  

In this country, at least fifteen generations of land ownership was the currency by which one built and maintained their family wealth and passed down such wealth to future generations. The institution of slavery ensured that ownership was a privilege specifically denied to most Black, Native and Mexican people, and their children for fifteen plus generations. For centuries, they built wealth for landowners while themselves owning nothing and having nothing to pass down to future generations.

There are some significant legislative landmarks that had lasting impacts on current day US housing:

40 Acres and a Mule

When blacks legally gained citizenship via the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which was ratified by the 14th Amendment in 1868 and after the Civil War, Congress passed the Southern Homestead Act. The stated purpose of the act was to allow for land in southern states to be acquired by formerly enslaved people. Hence, the expectation of 40 acres and a mule as recompense for generations of depravity and abject poverty imposed.  This was also seen as a way to stabilize black families and allow for a basic opportunity to build a life after the horrors they endured.  However, specifically excluded from being beneficiaries of the act were people holding two specific occupations: domestic servants and agricultural workers. As coincidence would have it (insert sarcasm and a major eye roll), formerly enslaved people, Native Americans, and Mexicans just so happened to occupy those roles in society. So white males were again, legally allowed to say “Sorry, no land for ‘you people’- still ”. The inability to own anything in addition to meager wages did not allow for wealth transfer in the form of land or money to be passed down to the children of Black, Native and Mexican families for another 5-8 generations.

Creating the Ghettos- Redlining

The National Housing Act of 1934 was passed by Congress which introduced the concept of redlining. Security maps for residential neighborhoods were created across the country. The security maps designated areas of high risk- which were majority black and minority communities.  These maps were created by the Home Owners’ Loan Cooperation as a way to outline the neighborhoods in red (hence the term redlining) so that banks would know exactly the areas to deny mortgages or improvement loans. The lack of loans prevented home ownership, community improvement or updating which lead to crumbling infrastructure and devaluing of those neighborhoods. The domino effect of crumbling infrastructure, no maintenance or upkeep by landlords and  more crowded environments led to devaluing of the property.  Since the properties were in disrepair the property taxes collected based on their value were insufficient to fund schools at a reasonable level. Resulting in a collapse of the school system. By design, the infrastructure of these redlined areas imploded- making it easy to shove minorities in but nearly impossible to get out.

Public Housing- Redlining 2.0 the new Ghettos

Low-income housing and further segregation was the end effect of The Housing Act of 1937. The intent was to provide relief from the Great Depression for standard low and middle-income families. Over time the housing units were only provided to low income, mostly minority families. The units were built intentionally in segregated parts of town. This further resulted in segregated housing for Blacks, Hispanic and Asian populations.

Black WWII soldiers denied GI Bill benefits

The GI Bill was signed by FDR in 1944 to provide soldiers returning from WWII with education, training, loans for farms, businesses, employment assistance and houses.  The low-cost mortgages lead to the rise of the suburbs. The problem, blacks couldn’t live in the suburbs although blacks were technically included in the benefits of the bill. The discrimination was upheld because whites did not want minorities moving to their neighborhoods.  They believed that minorities drive down property values. It was also considered unethical to sell a home to a black person in a predominantly white neighborhood.  There were covenants and clauses to ensure homes in most suburbs could only be sold to white families.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Enduring 250 years of chattel slavery then 99 years of slavery in a different form brings us to 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed. (Of course, we are not detailing many of the tragic and important details during this time frame. It is worth noting that these years were hell for non-white people in nearly every way shape and form!) The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 and it prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. So, finally, after dozens of generations of racist and discriminatory practices, we will get some housing justice and equity, right? Nope.

Even since civil rights were passed, discriminatory practices have continually affected who owns property as well as land.

Racial home ownership gaps were at the highest levels in 50 years in 2017. Statistics of home ownership:

79.1% of white Americans

41.8% of black Americans

This gap is even larger today than it was when deliberately racist and discriminatory redlining practices were rampant. Redlining was an effective systemic method to maintain social hierarchy and we still feel the effects today. This has kept blacks in certain neighborhoods and prevented them from owning land or real property. This practice resulted in another three to five generations of limiting opportunities, quality of life, and generational wealth for non-white Americans. This isn’t ancient history. A person that is 56-57 years old has lived this reality.

First Generation of Legally Free and Fully Equal Human Beings

In 2020, we are now living with the first generation of African Americans deemed to be legally, fully free, equal human beings in this country. I am one such African American born to parents that lived through segregation with no basis of wealth and systemically limited opportunities.  The lack of generational ownership or wealth is critical to understanding wealth disparity in the black middle class today.  The lack of generational wealth also contributes to the lack of mobility of lower-class black Americans. This reality makes it harder- if not impossible- to accrue and pass along wealth to any future generations.

Land ownership has been held as the mechanism by which wealth and status are transferred.  The deliberately exclusionary nature of land and real property ownership over the past 400 years has led us to our modern-day housing crisis.  Our current housing circumstance in the US is precarious but we are here by design.

A disruption is necessary.

https://www.uncontainedlivingkc.com/post/necessary-disruption-housing-reimagined