Racial Segregation In The Housing Industry

Racial segregation in the housing institution has existed in America’s social structure since the inception of America. Racial segregation in the housing industry is a separation of different racial groups into distinct neighborhoods. The percentage of racial segregation in the housing institution has remained stagnant for the entire biography of America because of structural racism. Despite nationwide claims of approval of integration among American, the housing industry today has the same percentage of racial segregation that existed during the Jim Crow era. Several factors have contributed to structural racism being able to maintain a static percentage of racial segregation in the housing industry. One factor is the effects of social

This allowed white people to move into whatever neighborhood they desired without any legal limitation or resistance from industry practices. Lawndale was originally an exclusively white neighborhood until black folks began to move in after World War II. The response of white neighbors was to move into a different neighborhood, usually a suburban neighborhood, that was inhibited with white people only. This phenomenon of white people moving out of neighborhoods that black people began to move into is historical called the white flight. Industry practices such as real estate agencies strategical moving in one black family into an all white neighborhood to intimidate white neighbors. Then, agencies would coerce white families to sell their homes at a cheap price by warning them that more black people were going to move into the neighborhood and lower property value. Agencies would then sell these houses to black people at an inflated price, and they would sell the home on strict contracts that made it nearly impossible for black people to ever own the home. If a black family made any mistake, they would lose their home and forfeit their down payments. After the real estate agency evicted one black family out, he would move another one in under the same contract and

Racial attitudes affect the housing industry by racial groups wanting to live in a neighborhood inhibited by their own racial group. So when an individual tries to move into a neighborhood inhibited by a different racial group, they face various forms of resistance from individuals in the neighborhood. Some sociologists would explain these social events as resistance stemming from in-group preference or preference against an out-group. This theory could explain why racial segregation has maintained a static percentage in the housing industry, but statistics state that black people would prefer to live in a neighborhood that has an equal percentage of white people and people of color. This statistic could be influenced by fear of white hostility if black people moved into a neighborhood that was inhibited by primarily white people. This fear of white hostility is another factor that contributes to structural racism in the housing institution. Ta Nehisi Coates writes about violent forms of resistance in his article, “A Case for Reparations”. Coates describes mobs pelting houses with rocks, riots, and burning of houses. These displays of violence were used to deter people of color from wanting to live in neighborhoods that were primarily inhibited by white people. In the case study of Levittown, a large suburban housing division built in New York after World