Ally Action Project Week 2: Examining Racist Policies

We spent our time this week educating ourselves on the racist polices of redlining, microaggressions, and the impact of covid-19 on black owned businesses. We began with the residential security maps, created in 1935 to measure the risk associated with lending money for real-estate loans in minority neighborhoods throughout the US. The Federal Home Loan Bank Board requested the Home Owners' Loan Corporation create these maps to show lenders where to deny loans. The resulting maps have shaped our cities and the economic progress of minorities for nearly a century, and further solidified racist stereotypes. The highest risk neighborhoods on the maps were outlined in red, hence the name, redlining. Redlining persisted using these maps to steer away investments for over forty years, until they were outlawed in 1977. During that period, black families lost out on $212,000 in personal wealth each. Many of these banking policies are perpetuated today in more covert ways, and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) created The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to police the banks and verify equal lending. Each bank’s investments are tested and rate on a scale from being “outstanding” at lending equality to “substantial noncompliance”. The results are available via search and you are able to view your own bank’s rating, and find better banks in your area.

https://ncrc.org/holc

https://www.redfin.com/blog/redlining-real-estate-racial-wealth-gap

https://www.ffiec.gov/craratings

The impact of redlining has created economic segregation by race, suppressed minority home ownership rates, home values, and credit scores. White neighborhoods in some cities received four times the investment of ones minority between 2011 and 2016, choking development of urban neighborhoods. The National Fair Housing Alliance was formed to help unblock development in formerly redlined neighborhoods and fights for equal housing. We recommend supporting this organization by donating, joining their mailing list, and volunteering.

https://citiesspeak.org/2019/03/29/reversing-the-residual-effects-of-redlining

https://nationalfairhousing.org

After the race-wealth gap in housing, education is one of the next most impacted by redlining. Redlining has caused racial segregation in our school system, doubling the number of segregated schools between 1996 and 2016. These redlined school districts receive $2,226 less for each student enrolled than comparative white districts. The governing body for the school districts is the local school board, who are elected by us. We can hold the school boards accountable by voting for officials who are working to change the segregated districts and bring equality to education. XQ provides a search for your local school district where you can make an impact.

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/26/696794821/why-white-school-districts-have-so-much-more-money

https://xqsuperschool.org/school-board-lookup

The redline maps have been used to impact the cost of insurance in nearly the same way that lenders would avoid a neighborhood. Insurance companies are claiming there are more traffic and congestion in minority zip codes as a proxy for redlining. Since this practice is unregulated, insurance companies are able to charge minorities more, despite studies showing equal risk for policy holders in white zip codes. Minority neighborhoods pay 30% more for auto insurance premiums than white areas with similar claims. We need to demand transparency from our state insurance commissioners to show the disparity in pricing and force the insurance companies to provide equal costs. You can make a difference by supporting the Consumer Reports petition that is sent to the 50 State Insurance Commissioners and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to demand change.

https://www.propublica.org/article/minority-neighborhoods-higher-car-insurance-premiums-white-areas-same-risk

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/car-insurance/auto-insurance-special-report1/index.htm

We moved to another topic to educate ourselves on microaggressions, which are insults, indignities, and demeaning messages sent from a largely white perspective, but are oppressive to other groups. The term was coined by psychiatrist and Harvard professor Chester M. Pierce in 1970 to describe a demeaning and hidden language. Microaggressions are all around us, such as Confederate imagery, blackface, and slave owners on US currency, which are all oppressive to black people. Imagine living in a world that uses language and imagery you find offensive all around you. How would you free about going to a school named after a Confederate who enslaved your ancestors, attending a college funded by slave trade and built by slaves, having people of another race portray you as a joke, or being rewarded for hard work by receiving money with portraits of slave masters and ethnic cleansers. Examine your own surroundings as through you were part of a minority group to notice microaggressions that you can change.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/microaggression

Microaggressions are pervasive in our world, but one that we think warrants a deeper look is in technology. Since technology is a language of the future, removing microaggressions from that future would be an impactful step forward. Technology uses terms like master, slave, blacklist, and man hours that are not inclusive and have damaging undertones and oppress minority workers. There has been movement forward in recent years and weeks, including at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), who creates standards for federal groups including science and technology. In June 2020, NIST decided to update their language to remove many words like master, slave, whitelist, and blacklist from their standards. The downstream effect will be a positive change towards the future. Companies like GitHub, Google, and Twitter have embraced inclusive language, but we can all make a difference by changing these words in our own language to stop these microaggressions.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53050955

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/25/agency-ends-use-technology-terms-racist-associations-339880

Finally, this week we took a look at some impacts of redlining and racist polices and the economic impact of the covid-19 global pandemic. The US government passed the Paycheck Protection Program to help small businesses stay solvent during the crisis where they would not be able to open their businesses, but wanted to still pay their staff and avoid a larger unemployment wave. This program was meant to help pay employees and if the businesses followed the rules set, they would not have to repay the loans back to the government. The rules of the Paycheck Protection Program require businesses to apply via an approved Small Business Admin (SBA) lender. Due to the impacts of redlining, 52% of white businesses are started or have loans via the SBA vs only 31% of black businesses. This disparity makes many black and minority businesses unable to take advantage of the Paycheck Protection Program and the expected closure rate of black business during the pandemic is 41%. This racist policy will set minority business ownership back across the US. The My Black Receipt program is a terrific way to find where to spend your money to keep these businesses running. Their goal is to have $5M spent at black businesses by 7/6/20. To help keep black and minority businesses open, find, support and buy specifically from those businesses.

https://www.responsiblelending.org/sites/default/files/nodes/files/research-publication/crl-cares-act2-smallbusiness-apr2020.pdf

https://myblackreceipt.com/blackbizlist

Upon completing week 2 of our education, we are inspired to keep trying to make a difference and are relentlessly building on our actions. We continue to hope that you participate with us to create action that accelerates bringing equality to our society.