Your primary source compels me to give you the benefit of my doubt. Simply put, you cite a report produced by the NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, which is a billionaire funded think tank, staffed by people who are “paid” to promote the agenda of the uber-wealthy. Key to that agenda, is the promotion of neoliberal economics, and the flat-out denial of racism in our economic, social and judicial systems.
While I can make a convincing liberal or neoliberal case for redlining, only one would be fact-based and accurate. In the future, I suggest you find out who funds your information sources before quoting them – or worse yet, allowing them to influence your thinking.
In this case, you chose to challenge racism was a key goal of redlining. You say in one of your comments, that you were “studying” housing issues during the Depression. As a result of your limited focus, you fell victim to an economic argument that intentionally obliterated the impact racism had on creating the housing crisis in the first place.
If you want to understand redlining you need to begin your research in 1900. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, can offer you a good introduction.
For now, suffice to say, that by the Great Depression, cities were so deeply invested in racial segregation it was written into their planning documents. In 1926, the United States Supreme Court made conforming with these plans, legally enforceable (as in, the use of police force).
Again, your focus on the Great Depression era limits you. By 1900, 90% of all black Americans still lived in the south. By 1940, 1.6 million African Americans had migrated out of the rural south – and into northern cities.
Between 1940 and 1970, another 5-million African Americans migrated into northern cities. Unbeknownst to these later migrants, they were entering cities where racial segregation was firmly and legally established – including police forces experienced in maintaining control over black populations. Harder still, white populations were accustomed to “enforcing” segregation in the cities with impunity. To put it bluntly, the police refused to protect black people from white mob violence – and in many cases facilitated white mobs.
Created between 1900 and 1926 the urban planning system remains a fixture in our daily lives today. Unfortunately, the legacy of enforcement we’ve also inherited has grown more vicious and destructive.
After 40 years working in land-use and urban planning, I attribute the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor to this legacy system. What goes in, must come out. The American land-use and urban planning system is as corrupt and violent as the behaviour of racists, because it was designed by racists.
