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In Context: Patterns in American Racism - Housing Discrimination and Education explains the role housing policy and the actions of financial institutions have played in creating and maintaining racial disparities in home ownership, wealth, health, and education.

Discussion Questions:
To understand the broad gap between Black and White homeownership in the United States today, it is useful to consider legislation enacted in the 1920s and 1930s. How did New Deal programs entrench and reinforce housing segregation in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s? What ramifications did those policies have for people of color at the time? In what ways do those ramifications impact people of color today?

The “redlining” put into practice by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) explicitly sought to segregate Black homebuyers and White homebuyers in the United States, expressing and perpetuating racial stereotypes in the process. What political and social conditions may have allowed redlining to succeed in the past? Can you think of any ways in which the impact of redlining is still being felt in the present day?

Imagine you are taking part in a conversation in which someone states that discriminatory housing practices are now largely curtailed by the fact that mortgage lenders and rental agencies rely primarily on credit scores, a neutral measure of a person’s financial status. How might you respond to this statement? What arguments might you make to counter this view?

Chicago’s Buy Back the Block is an initiative whereby people of color are pooling their economic resources to purchase and revitalize property in their communities. Can you envision other types of projects that might lead to reversals of the longstanding effects of systemic housing discrimination in the United States? How might the project operate? How might it impact the community it serves, in the short term and over time?

The video concludes by stating, “Dismantling housing discrimination is bigger than just changing policies and practices. It’s about changing attitudes and mindsets—righting the historical wrongs of federally sanctioned barriers to economic freedom.” What specific attitudes and mindsets have allowed housing discrimination to persist for so long in the United States? In what specific ways might people today go about changing such attitudes and mindsets so that “federally sanctioned barriers to economic freedom” can be eliminated?

The video touches on the connections between housing discrimination and school segregation, another area impacted by systemic racism. Just what are the systems that tie residential discrimination with education segregation? What are some specific ways in which we might dismantle those systems so all students have access to a quality education?

The video mentions school rezoning, voucher programs, and magnet schools as possible solutions to school segregation and its attendant problems. What do you think are the potential advantages of these approaches? What are their potential pitfalls? Can you think of additional ways to achieve greater equity in education in the United States?

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