Thomson Reuters Foundation News, July 13, 2020: Redlining in America: How a history of housing discrimination endures
As the United States reckons with its history of racial injustice and inequality, the country is revisiting a topic that some say is at the root of the problem: housing discrimination.
The average white family in the United States is about 10 times wealthier than the average Black family, according to 2016 data, and white households are 75% more likely to own a home.
Experts say that the vast racial wealth gap is rooted in a system of housing discrimination that the government spearheaded decades ago, called redlining, which discouraged investment in Black neighborhoods. Its effects are still being felt today.
