Owning a home represents the American Dream. Historically it has been the number one way to build wealth.
This is how millions of white people were lifted out of poverty in America.
Between 1934 and 1962, the federal government handed out $120 billion in home loans, to white Americans. These government handouts helped lift millions of whites into the middle class.
One example of these government handouts was Levittown, NY(shown in the video). It was there that they built 17,000 homes for ONLY white people.
The deal was zero down payment and 60 dollars a month.
The large wealth gap between black people and white people can be partly traced back to government handouts given to whites. This does not even include the wealth stolen from hundreds and hundreds of years of free labor during slavery.
During this same time in which white Americans were given handouts, (which allowed them to build wealth for decades), black people were prevented from building wealth.
In the early 1900’s, the mayor of Baltimore stated “Blacks should be quarantined in isolated slums.” This became the mission of the American government. Congress created the Federal Housing Administration(FHA) in 1934. Between the 1930s through the 1960s, black people across the country were prevented from buying homes and moving out of these slums. This was done through bombings, lynchings, and the policy called “redlining.” The Fair Housing Center of Boston, defines redlining as, “the practice of denying or limiting financial services to certain neighborhoods based on racial or ethnic composition without regard to the residents’ qualifications or creditworthiness.” The FHA would color the black neighborhoods on maps,red, as a way to show that loans should not be given to those neighborhoods. This was done to prevent loans and other resources from going out to the black community. A 1943 brochure from the National Association of Real Estate Board included a list of people to prevent from buying homes in certain neighborhoods. One of the groups of people included on that list was “a colored man of means who was giving his children a college education and thought they were entitled to live among whites.”
To this day housing segregation still exists. A 2012 study done by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Urban Institute, reported that real estate agents showed blacks and latinos fewer homes and properties than whites. The study also showed that blacks and latinos were only shown homes and properties in certain neighborhoods. A study from 2018 confirmed this as well. Despite being banned 50 years ago, redlining is still affecting blacks and other minorities.
Analysis | Redlining was banned 50 years ago. It’s still hurting minorities today.
Washington Post: Breaking News, World, US, DC News & Analysis
Modern-day redlining: How banks block people of color from homeownership
In America, we have been conditioned to use euphemisms for what the country does to minorities. For example, instead of labeling it economic warfare, an act of war, or a military blockade,it is called“redlining”. The vast majority of low-income African American and Latino neighborhoods are simply the effects of 70 years of a military blockade by the United States of America.
Below is a list of other government sponsored handouts given to white Americans that allowed them to build wealth.
1. The 1830 Indian Removal Act. The US Army exiled the Cherokee, Creeks and other eastern Indians to west of the Mississippi River, and handed out the land to white settlers.
2. The 1862 Homestead Act. The US government handed out millions of acres (for free) to white Americans. These millions of acres belonged to Native Americans. In 2000, it was estimated that at least 46 million white adults were descendants of white families who received this government hand out.
3. Social Security Act of 1935 handed out a safety net for millions of workers, guaranteeing them an income after retirement. At the time, it was only for white people.
4. 1935 Wagner Act. It Granted unions the power of collective bargaining and helped millions of white workers to gain entry into the middle class over the next 30 years. The Wagner Act allowed unions to exclude non-whites and deny them access to better paid jobs and union protections and benefits such as health care, job security, and pensions. Many craft unions remained nearly all-white well into the 1970s. In 1972, for example, every single one of the 3,000 members of Los Angeles Steam Fitters Local #250 was still white.