Republican Presidential candidate Nikki Haley recently stated that America has “never been a racist country.” Whether she truly believes this claim, or it was an attempt to appeal to her political base, Haley isn’t alone in her misguided stance on America’s racism (or lack thereof). In fact, the American public is deeply divided in their views on addressing the nation’s racial history. Data from the Pew Research Center suggests that a narrow majority (53%) of U.S. adults believe that increased attention to America’s history of slavery and racism is good for society. Black adults overwhelmingly agree (75%) that more attention to issues of racism is a good thing. At the same time, fewer than half (46%) of white adults hold this same view, and about a third (32%) believe that greater attention is actually bad. The research also found that Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to view increased attention to our history of slavery and racism as bad for the country.
As fair housing advocates, we know that pretending racism doesn’t exist will not make it go away or erase our country’s shameful history. Racial equity can only be achieved by acknowledging systemic racism in America — both past and present — and working to dismantle it. So, let’s talk about it.
RACISM IN AMERICA: A LONG HISTORY
We cannot begin to discuss America’s relationship with racism without first acknowledging our nation’s violently racist beginnings. While many Americans learned that “in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and discovered the “New World,” that isn’t the complete, or accurate, story. To know the full story is to know about the tragic massacres, forced removal, and genocide committed against Indigenous Americans — who had been living here for thousands of years before Columbus’ “discovery.” In order to justify the racism and atrocities committed against Native Americans, white settlers (falsely) painted the indigenous population as “pagan savages who must be killed” to maintain safety. By the late 19th century, fewer than 238,000 Indigenous people remained, a sharp decline from the estimated 5 million to 15 million living in North America when Columbus arrived in 1492. Today, Native Americans have significantly lower median incomes, lower homeownership, increasing health disparities, and twice the level of poverty, compared to the national population.
By the 16th century, we entered one of the darkest periods in our history — slavery in the United States. From the 16th to the 19th century, between 10 million and 12 million enslaved Africans were kidnapped from their homeland and brought to the Americas. Like Indigenous Americans, enslaved Africans were dehumanized, in an attempt to justify the inhumane treatment and exploitation of their labor. White supremacy and systemic racism allowed slavery to legally continue in the United States for centuries. Some argue that slavery never truly ended, but rather, changed form.
The abduction, abuse, and enslavement of Africans by Europeans for nearly five centuries dramatically altered the global landscape and created a legacy of suffering and bigotry that can still be seen today.
— Equal Justice Initiative, The Transatlantic Slave Trade
THE RACIST HISTORY OF HOUSING IN AMERICA
We know that, unfortunately, racism did not end with the abolition of slavery. In virtually all areas of public life, Black Americans continued to face bigotry and discrimination — both by individuals and within the systems of our society. Decades later, the effects of several racist housing policies continue to impact our communities today. Practices like redlining, sundown towns, and racially restrictive covenants contributed to the racial segregation and inequity our communities still experience in 2024.
REDLINING
In the 1930’s, the infamous federal policy of redlining systematically segregated our communities by race. This practice, in which color-coded maps were used to rank the loan worthiness of neighborhoods, was based explicitly on the racial makeup of communities. Redlining effectively barred Black Americans from getting mortgages and buying homes outside of the neighborhoods they were already living in. Because homeownership is one of the main ways to build wealth, this system of state-sponsored segregation significantly contributed to the racial wealth gap, which continues to persist. Today, white Americans hold ten times more total wealth than Black Americans.
Yesterday’s segregation is today’s wealth gap. We like to pretend that we live in a race-neutral, merit-based society now, that this is all in the past, but you can’t erase history. It shows up in our wealth. For many, it shows up in the lack of wealth.
— Jonathan Welburn, researcher at RAND
SUNDOWN TOWNS
In addition to redlining, sundown towns and racially restrictive covenants served as other methods of restricting where Black people could exist in America. By prohibiting non-white people from being within city limits after the sun went down, sundown towns maintained racial segregation in communities across the U.S. for decades. While the South is often associated with Jim Crow laws, which enforced racial segregation, sundown towns existed all over America, including throughout Ohio and other northern states. The methods for enforcing racial segregation in sundown towns were brutal, ranging from threats of violence to death by public lynching.
Throughout the country, white communities vehemently resisted the possibility of living alongside Black neighbors. On Feb. 27, 1942, one day before African Americans were set to move into Detroit’s Sojourner Truth Homes, a group of 150 white people picketed the new housing project. The crowd engaged in a Ku Klux Klan-style cross burning, and violent white mobs returned the next day, ultimately denying Black residents entry to their new homes. Two months later, with the assistance of more than 1,500 state troopers and city and state police, African American families finally moved into the Sojourner Truth Homes.
Here in Cleveland, Black families moving into all-white communities were met with similar resistance. In July 1953, Wendell and Genevieve Stewart purchased the house at 15508 Talford Avenue, becoming the first Black family to buy a home in Cleveland’s Lee-Harvard neighborhood. Despite the couple’s solidly middle-class background and their prominence as church and community leaders, the Stewarts were met with outrage from their future white neighbors. The widespread belief that the presence of Black residents would inevitably lower property values prompted hundreds of white residents to attend nightly “mass meetings,” where speakers denounced the Stewarts. Some meeting attendees even called for the use of violence to get the couple to move, and community members harassed the home seller.
At the same time, local groups like the Cleveland Community Relations Board, the Jewish Community Federation, and the Saint Augustine Guild attempted to calm fears and showed their support for the Stewarts. In an attempt to deescalate the hostility and tension the Stewarts were facing, Cleveland Mayor Thomas Burke and a neighborhood committee met with Wendell Stewart and his lawyers. After realizing that the Stewarts weren’t going anywhere, Mayor Burke publicly addressed an angry crowd of over 500 people, informing them that he would continue to provide police protection to the Stewarts and defend their right to live in the community. Although the house was vandalized on two occasions, neighbors grudgingly accepted the Stewarts after six tense months. The experiences of Sojourner Truth Homes residents and the Stewarts are just a few of many examples of the harsh racism Black Americans have faced, while attempting to do something as simple as move into a new home.
RACIALLY RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS
Through the use of racially restrictive covenants, or clauses added to property deeds and leases, Black residents (and sometimes people of other races and religions) were explicitly prohibited from occupying certain homes. Restrictive covenants, like the one shown below, excluded nonwhite residents by including statements, such as: “No person other than one of the White or Caucasian race shall be permitted to occupy any property […] except a domestic servant.” Under the guise of maintaining “neighborhood stability,” racially restrictive covenants used overtly discriminatory language in order to keep Black residents out of predominantly white neighborhoods. Today, although no longer enforceable, exclusionary language still exists in the deeds of some older homes.
Racial covenants and other tools of residential segregation are not just part of a long-forgotten history. Their effects are observed in today’s metropolitan residential patterns and in the vast and persistent wealth gap between African Americans and whites.
— Larry Santucci, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
THE FIGHT FOR RACIAL EQUITY CONTINUES
Fortunately, over the years, America has made progress — and that progress should absolutely be celebrated. Housing discrimination based on a person’s race or color has been illegal since the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968. Explicit forms of racism, which were rampant several decades ago, are no longer legal. In theory, Americans of all races should have equitable access to education, jobs, housing, and all facets of society. However, it would be naïve to conclude that this is the current reality, or that we have achieved a postracial society, where racism is no longer an issue.
PERSISTING SEGREGATION & RACIAL DISPARITIES
Although discriminatory practices like redlining and racially restrictive covenants are no longer legal, our communities still continue to feel the effects of these practices decades later. The Greater Cleveland area is one of the most segregated metropolitan areas in the country. Many communities are even more segregated today than they were a few decades ago. In fact, when we compare a 1940 redlining map to a current map of Cuyahoga County’s segregated patterns of living, we can see how much of an impact policies of the past still have on our communities. African Americans still make up the majority of residents in formerly redlined communities, which continue to lack equitable access to resources and opportunities, compared to predominantly white communities.
Even though it might look different than it did in the 1940’s, racial discrimination in housing is still prevalent. Sometimes discrimination is more explicit, but other times it is subtle, and not easy for the average person to recognize. Our research suggests that other, often legal, forms of housing denials, such as source of income discrimination can actually serve as a proxy for racial discrimination. When housing providers refuse to rent to families with housing vouchers, the majority of whom are Black, they are effectively limiting housing choice and perpetuating segregation and inequality. According to the National Fair Housing Alliance’s 2023 Fair Housing Trends Report, racial discrimination was the second most reported type of housing discrimination. Nearly 6,000 complaints of racial discrimination were received by fair housing agencies last year. Nationally, source of income complaints increased by 682, compared to the previous year, and complaints across all categories reached an all-time high.
REJECTING THE MYTH OF A POSTRACIAL AMERICA
The postracial idea is the hardest racist idea to put down. Everyone is inclined to consume it. White people and people of color alike long for racism to end. When we yearn for something to end—and don’t know what the end looks like—it is easy to make ourselves believe the end is near. Believing the myth of a postracial America is a cheap way to feel good, like buying the fast food down the block from my favorite restaurant in Philadelphia. We don’t realize that to believe the postracial myth is to normalize racial inequity and deny that racism is dividing and devastating our society.
— Ibram X. Kendi, Our New Postracial Myth
In a 2021 essay, Ibram X. Kendi wrote that “to believe the postracial myth is to normalize racial inequity.” In other words, if we believe that racism is not still a problem, then we allow it to continue. Racism cannot be dismantled unless, and until, we acknowledge the ways that racism has existed, and continues to exist, in our society. While the work of antiracism can feel overwhelming, and at times, impossible, it is crucial to remember that dismantling racism is possible. It won’t be solved overnight and no one person or organization can accomplish it alone. However, it is necessary to open our eyes to the reality of racism in America if we want to see a better future. We cannot fix or solve something that we refuse to look at. Once we have done the work of recognizing and understanding the ways that racism shows up in our world, we must collectively dismantle the systems of oppression that keep us from becoming a truly equitable society.