African Americans and Housing Discrimination Literature Essay

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African Americans and Housing Discrimination
Richard Rothstein’s book “the Color of Law” presents a disturbing history of the contribution of the government to the segregation of residential areas in America. He believes that the policies initially created by the government are still practiced years after they had been removed. Over the past 100 years, black people have faced major discriminations and brutality ranging from physical abuse, jest, ridicule, incarceration, unequal opportunities in life and many others. However, the main issue that has been the subject of major discussion is the housing discrimination practices. With the passing time, black people have faced major difficulties in trying to rent or buy homes even when they have the financial ability to do so.
The discrimination is mostly imposed by realtors and property merchants who refuse to lease out to black people for fear of losing the majority white customers. There has been little follow-up to ensure commitment to the new policies aimed at being remedy to the injustice. Black people are still separated geographically and therefor still face exploitation. For instance, he contends that the police and public officers are racially biased and are also instigators of racial discrimination to the African- American people who they were also sworn to protect (Rothstein, 145). In a public riot against a black veteran who had bought land from Levitt development, police are seen watching and even aiding the white mob throwing stones to the black family’s house. The incidence happened after the Supreme Court had passed laws granting the African Americans the right to buy property.
In the case of Levittown development company who with help from the Federal Housing Administration were able to segregate the African Americans from living in the development. The government allowed and helped fund the transfer of land to the company which in addition to the great tax relief policy, went on to declare that the development complex which would comprise of about 17500 units would be for the whites only (Rothstein, 72). Demonstrations by the black people made the company to compromise and let only a few black families that they deemed fit to rent their apartments. Even with the compromise, the city’s policies abetted the discrimination by allowing rental increase to vacated apartments while the whites were allowed to pass down their leases to new white tenants.
I agree with Rothstein that unlike the common myth of people thinking that the cities in America are divided by default from differences in income, realtors, prejudice and individual’s choice, the main cause of segregation is the government through its federal, local and state policies. The government has been putting policies on paper to end discrimination but no one is on the ground to enforce them. For instance the 1968 Fair Housing Act was passed but not adhered to and moreover, it could not automatically undo the violations often imposed by the state for decades (Rothstein, 183). Years later there’s still racial unrest caused by the same injustices that the act had aimed to eradicate.
In Chicago, the 1940s saw an onset of gov...