John Oliver in “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” (NSFW Warning, language)
Housing discrimination has been in discussions more recently than ever before. This is a topic I had come across before the start of this semester and something I wanted to dive further into. There are so many questions when discussing housing discrimination; do the laws actually work, and does this target a certain group, is this racist? What sparked my interest in this topic was a YouTube video posted by British-American comedian John Oliver. One of the latest episodes on his late-night show on HBO called Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, delved into housing discrimination. Having watched many of his episodes, this one stuck out to me the most. Obviously more sources and research are needed for a lengthy post like this than just a late-night show provides. A warning for anyone who does seek out the episode/video, it isn’t school friendly with the jokes or language used.
First, we can look at the laws that have been passed over the years. There have been numerous laws passed whether it be local, state or nationally to combat housing discrimination. All of these laws look to prohibit the interference of someone’s rights to housing based on race, color, religion, sex and so on. This is obviously a good thing that we have these laws in place but something that many people don’t know about is racial covenants. These covenants, often racially restrictive, are common in deeds of homes but can be found in state or local constitutions. One example that was given in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver was pointed out by a Houston news station, where it stated that “no building erected thereon shall be used, owned or occupied by any person other than of the Caucasian Race” (5:25). This was shown to residents and their reaction would be anyone’s, of horror and shock. These restrictions are a serious reminder of what America has been and how far we have to go to change the views and deep-rooted evils that this country has. The next question would be, do the laws that have been passed after the covenants help fight against racial discrimination in housing. Obviously since I am talking about this in 2021, not as much as it should. In a court of law, it is hard to prove that someone has a bias which is what we are trying to fight against.
Redlining in Brooklyn
Someone might say “Well we passed the Fair Housing Act, so the problem should be solved”, which I wish that would be true but it isn’t. There are many secret forms of housing discrimination that has affected the Black community in American, one of them being redlining. Redlining is when banks and local governments graded zones of a city on their financial risk which mainly focused on minority groups, especially the African-American communities and neighborhoods. This has had a severe “trickle-down” effect on those communities today. One example of that is the difference in public schools and how they are directly affected by the property taxes of homes. Everyone can agree that an education changes the lives of families and their communities, so having this disadvantage can alter lives and neighborhoods. If a home is valued highly then their property taxes are surely going to be high, thus providing more money to the public school. This financial resource is massive to public schools and can help or hurt a young person who is trying to gain an education.
There are many other examples of housing discrimination, whether it be the blockbusting tactic of scaring white homeowners to sell their homes cheaper out of fear that minorities are moving in to their community. We can look at another example that is prevalent today is housing appraisals. Shown in the video, a young black woman was given a low appraisal on her house so she asked her friend who has a white boyfriend to act like the homeowner. The appraisal was much higher the second time when the white male was shown as the homeowner. Obviously, this is definitely a racial bias but like I said above, it’s hard to prove someone is bias in court. These are all key examples of a system put forth by government organizations and banks to discriminate and segregate areas. The systematic injustice from these programs have caused and still causing damage to minority communities, especially the black communities in America. The housing discrimination that they have faced is nothing short of sad and disheartening. There needs to be more voices and more push back against this discrimination and blatant racism. So yes, to my final question of Yo, is this racist? It most definitely is and has been targeting the black community for ages, something has to change. This change is a must to better the lives of the many people targeted, who have been left by the side and told to fight out of it when the system is stacked against them.
Reparations
Finally, what do we do then, how do we help and fix this problem. Well, I am far from an expert and will always listen to new ideas but I have a few from John Oliver that are a good start. One of said ideas is to fix the root causes that have gotten us into the mess to begin with. By passing laws that fix the redlining of communities which has caused that trickle-down problem I stated above. Obviously, the damage is already done from the redlining scheme that was established but we need to make sure it never happens again. Another idea is to pass and enforce stricter laws that deter discrimination from these organizations. These laws should be so strict and the punishments should be so harsh to deter the type of bias people have and shown to act upon. If these new laws are not followed, the penalties should be so severe that it would deter everyone from bringing bias or discrimination into the housing industry. Last but not least, we need to look at reparations as a country and look into it with a fair judgement. This is not a “cure-all”, none of these ideas are meant to totally fix the problem because there has been centuries of pain and suffering caused that cannot be wiped away. In the end though, it is only fair for the minority community to be given what they are owed. White communities were practically given generational wealth that has been passed down while the minority community was left behind. There are many examples of black families being forced to move by death threats while their local governments turn the other cheek. These houses and land would go on to be hugely valuable and giving them their property back or the amount it would be worth now is a start. All in all, this is so blatantly racist and it happens everyday in our country. This country should be past these things bud sadly we are much closer to the tensions and hate in the 60s than anything else and that, as a 23-year-old is sad to see.
Thank you for taking the time to read my entry, I have been struggling to put down the ideas I had and haven’t been healthy enough to sit down and type everything out. So, thank you and hopefully I wasn’t all over the place too much.
Works Cited
“S8 E18: July 25, 2021: Housing Discrimination.” Performance by John Oliver, Housing Discrimination: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), Home Box Office Inc., 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-0J49_9lwc&ab_channel=LastWeekTonight.
Blidner, Rachelle. “America’s First Suburb Still Trying to Shed Whites-Only Legacy.” Newsday, Newsday, 17 Nov. 2019, projects.newsday.com/long-island/levittown-demographics-real-estate/.
Oliphint, Joel. “Cover: The Roots of Columbus’ Ongoing Color Divide.” Columbus Alive, Columbus Alive, 28 June 2018, www.columbusalive.com/news/20180627/cover-roots-of-columbus-ongoing-color-divide.
Reece, Jason. “REDLINED: The History of Race and Real Estate in Cleveland & Its Relationship to Health Equity Today.” Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, The Ohio State University, Feb. 2015, kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/cleveland-place-matters.pdf.
Wu, Titus. “Discriminatory Property Restrictions, Long Illegal, Can Now Be Removed from Ohio Deeds.” The Columbus Dispatch, The Columbus Dispatch, 18 July 2021, www.dispatch.com/story/lifestyle/real-estate/2021/07/18/discriminatory-deed-restrictions-can-now-removed-ohio-racist-redlining-real-estate-property/7951111002/.