Chicago Tribune, January 28, 2020: Discrimination against black homebuyers persists. Here’s how one Northwestern grad and housing expert wants to fix it.
Among Chicago’s many notable histories, one narrative in particular stems from real estate. Issues like redlining (the practice of systematizing discrimination based on where one lives), housing projects and segregation persist within that space — and their effects still resonate.
It was this space in particular that Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an assistant professor of African American studies at Princeton University, wanted to explore in her recent book, “Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership.” As she wrote, she scrutinized the level of segregation unique to Chicago (she considers it “overwhelming”), the historical lineage that preceded the collapse of the housing market in 2008 and the role the private sector plays in it all.
“Race for Profit” explains how, after the urban uprisings in the late 1960s, bad policy through the Federal Housing Administration, coupled with malicious processes within the mortgage, insurance and real estate industries, ultimately exploited Black homeowners instead of delivering on the American Dream that homeownership promised the White population.
