From "Affirmative Action for Whites/The houses that racism built"

A set of New Deal programs led by the Federal Housing Administration allowed millions of average white Americans to own a home for the first time. Down payment requirements were reduced from up to 50 percent to 10 or 20 percent and the time to pay off the remaining mortgage was extended from five years to 30 years. Federal investigators evaluated 239 regions; communities with a mere one or two black families were deemed ipso facto financial risks ineligible for low cost home loans. Government appraisal maps colored those communities red -- hence the term "redlining." Between 1934 and 1962, the federal government backed $ 120 billion of home loans; more than 98 percent went to whites. Of the 350,000 new homes built with federal support in Northern California between 1946 and 1960, fewer than 100 went to African Americans.

Today, according to New York University economist Edward Wolff, the typical white family has eight times the net worth of the typical black family. Even when they make the same income, white families have over twice the wealth -- much of that gap due to home equity and family inheritance.

Many whites who grew up middle class in the suburbs like to think we got where we are today on merit -- hard work, intelligence, pluck and maybe a little luck. We wonder why non-white parents didn't just work hard, buy a home and pass on the appreciated value like our parents did. We tend to be blind to how the playing field has been -- and continues to be -- tilted to our advantage.

Ennis posted this on September 28, 2003
It is filed under National News

It is also indexed with the following tags: Affirmative Action | Race & Ethnicity |