Racism & housing - resource list

Racist housing segregation has a ripple effect on various parts of the lives of Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color. Since housing is our expertise, we’ve shared below some resources on learning more about the origins and impacts racist housing policies have on the personal lives of our BlPOC neighbors and the harmful impacts for our community as a whole.

We should note that while Habitat for Humanity’s origins are as a housing ministry that brought together Black and white families specifically to help Black families access homeownership in rural Georgia, Habitat today partners with families of all races, ethnicity, creeds, and countries of origin. We primarily build in low-income census tracks, which also happen to be Black-majority neighborhoods with histories of disinvestment due to racist housing policies and practices.

We hope our non-Black and white supporters have also committed to engaging with anit-racist work, including supporting Black Life Matters and Movement for Black Life, donating to bail funds and Black movements, and patronizing Black-owned businesses. We hope that while you explore other anti-racism resources, that you find the resource list below helpful for educating yourself on systemic racism related to housing. Our list is by no means exhaustive of racist housing history, and we’re reminded that although housing segregation and injustice deeply affects everyone on a personal level; it is especially the responsibility of white individuals to take an equitable share of the work to dismantle unjust systems.

Books

The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, on the history of the racist practice of redlining. *The author of this book is white.* A critique of this book by Destin Jenkins, a Black academic specializing in racial capitalism, can be found here. You can watch a preview of the film based on the book here.

Race for Profit by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, on how the real estate industry and racist housing policy continued after redlining ended. Taylor is a Black woman, academic, and writer of many books on Black resistance and liberation. Listen to the author talk about her book here or read an article about the book here.

The Big Sea: An Autobiography by Langston Hughes includes memories of how his integrated neighborhood racially disintegrated over time due to racist urban renewal policies and practices during the 1930s.

Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America's Black Cities by Andre Perry, a national economic policy expert, tours a history of racist policies that devalued Black lives, Black property and wealth, and Black communities. You can also read an article about the book and about Andre Perry here, and you can listen to an interview with the Boston Foundation here.

Video & Audio

NPR’s Code Switch has a feature of redlining and racist housing policy available here. The video explains how these policies effect the lives of Black households and communities, including school, health, family wealth, and policing.

Urban Institute’s Evidence to Action series on the racial wealth gap, why it exists and why wealth matters.

WAMC’s series on housing trends in Albany, available for listening or reading here.

Owned: A tale of two Americas (2018) is about the pervasive racism and commodification of the US’s housing and homeownership sector.

Albany Public Library’s workshop on Housing Discrimination in Albany and House History Research, an hour long video showing historic housing discrimination and overview of how to conduct research on your Albany home’s history in that discrimination (eg racial covenants, redlining).

How Housing Redlining Contributed to the Racial Wealth Gap and Segregation from NowThis.

Urban’s video and other resources on zoning, available here.

How Redlining Shaped Black America As We Know It, from The Root’s Unpack That

Alliance for Housing Justice produces many videos that explain current fights for furthering fair housing and housing justice, which you can find here.

“Segregated by Design,” is a short video part of a teaching curriculum based on Richard Rothstein’s book book Color of Law. Find the video and teaching resources here.

This video, Systemic Racism Explained, by act.tv, explains some of the ways housing segregation effect the lives of Black and white Americans.

A list of films on housing inequality can be found here.

Articles

Housing Supply Constraints from before the Pandemic Will Worsen Inequality as We Start to Recover (May 27, 2020) from Urban.com.

The Government Created Housing Segregation. Here’s How the Government Can End It. from The American Prospect

A Look At Housing Inequality And Racism In The U.S. (June 3, 2020) from Forbes.com

Policing and Segregation discussions from NYU’s Furman Center

How Segregation Shapes Fatal Police Violence from NPR’s Gene Demby, CodeSwitch

The black-white economic divide is as wide as it was in 1968 (June 4, 2020) from the Washington Post.

Housing, health, and why we build (by us!), which also links to TU reporter Bethany Bump’s article on the role of housing in health in the Capital District.

Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation: How America's Housing System Undermines Wealth Building in Communities of Color from Center for American Progress.

This infographic from United for a Fair Economy summarizes the US government’s “boosts and blocks” for building wealth.

What would it take? Explore Urban Institute’s run-down on the challenges and solutions to ensuring everyone has decent, affordable housing.