Racism is rightfully one of the most significant issues that modern society faces nowadays. Having a long history, it managed to change and evolve from its default state of open xenophobia to systemic and more cunning forms. One of such forms is institutional racism when it is being validated on the organizational or state level. In particular, institutional racism can find its way through the housing policies, like racial covenants or redlining.
Racial covenants significantly contributed to the racial disparity in the U.S. These covenants were a type of private contract that restricted people who resemble certain racial features from buying property (Jim Crow of the North). It was primarily used by the real estate developers in the first half of the 20th century to “protect” their investments by forcing racial segregation. Moreover, such covenants were counted lawful by the court since, as contracts, they were not thought to be discriminating (Jim Crow of the North). This policy resulted in countless neighborhoods where people would aggressively enforce racial homogeneity.
Another practice that institutionally supports racism is redlining. It occurs when certain welfare services are systematically denied in the neighborhoods by the government or the private sector. Depending on their severity, redlining effects vary from the higher prices for people of color to the complete refusal of a service provision. According to Benson and Yuen, areas affected by redlining are not limited to financial ones but include healthcare and public transport availability. Redlining is called reversed if it occurs when a creditor or insurer focuses mainly on minority consumers in an area that is not subject to redlining directly. In this case, he does not intend to deny access to a loan or insurance but to charge more than would be assigned to a similarly placed “white” consumer.
The worst outcomes of institutional racism happened with combining the mentioned practices. While not being allowed to buy property because of the racial covenants, the discriminated people had to house in other areas. Those areas, with time, could turn into ghettos with poor infrastructure due to the lack of investments. Unfortunately, such investment unattractiveness awaited even those neighborhoods where the racial occupancy was mixed (Jim Crow of the North). Its effect is so impactful that if the research were conducted today on the cities’ least and most developed parts, it would become plain which areas were redlined and which covenanted.
Racial covenants and redlining resemble in their nature resemble institutional racism. In the case of the former, racism is enforced through the restriction of acquiring property for people of certain races. The most intimidating feature of these covenants was that they were legally supported at some point in time. As for the latter, the racism strikes at the quality of life of the redlined people. This practice might rob people of even the most basic welfare services, taking away possibilities of infrastructure development in the meantime. Such grim examples perfectly showcase how dangerous can racism become if left unchecked.
Works Cited
Benson, Lorna and Laura Yuen. “Structural racism’ blamed for some of state’s severe health disparities.” MPR News, Web.
“Jim Crow of the North.” Minessota Experience, Season 1, Episode 20, Twin Cities PBS, 28 November, 2018.