Join me as I talk about one of the most pressing sociological issues of the day- redlining- and what our friend Karl Marx has to say about it.
Transcription
Redlining is a discriminatory practice where banks divide cities into districts and set different policies for each district. It disproportionately affects minority communities, denying them access to financial resources. Redlining still exists today, contributing to racial and economic disparities. Examples include banks in Atlanta lending more to white people than black residents and a Wisconsin bank making it difficult for black and Latino residents to get loans. Redlining has negative effects on homeownership rates, credit scores, and home values. It also impacts political voting patterns, education funding, and family structures. Karl Marx's theory aligns with the effects of redlining, as economic factors shape other aspects of society. Redlining is a persistent issue that needs to be addressed. Hello all and welcome to the 13th episode of Sociology with Sumteam, my podcast where I talk about the many sociological issues that we face as a society. Today I will be talking to you about redlining, perhaps the most pressing sociological issue in our urban centers. So what is redlining? Basically it's when a city is divided into certain segments, usually by banks and financial institutions. Then, these banks will set up different policies for these different districts. In one district, for example, they may require less collateral for loans or may be more likely to issue credit cards to people who live in those districts. In others, however, they may require harsher terms for taking out loans or require higher insurance premiums for businesses. It should come as no surprise that redlining began and still is a racially and economically discriminatory practice. Redlining, which began in the first half of the 20th century, targeted minority communities at outsized rates, denying the residents of inner cities and traditionally black and Latin neighborhoods access to financial resources. Unfortunately, even as legal racial discrimination was ended, redlining still remains and is a potent force for racism in the modern era. In 1980, Bill Dedman, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, published a groundbreaking series of articles about how in Atlanta, Georgia, my hometown, banks were much more likely to lend money to poor and middle-class white people than even middle-class or upper-class black residents of the city. Dedman ended up winning the Pulitzer Prize for his work. Unfortunately, even though redlining is most common in southern cities, it has found its way into urban centers all over the United States. In 2015, the Department of Housing and Urban Development sued Associated Bank, a Wisconsin-based financial firm, because the bank had drawn its lending zones in such a way that it was almost impossible for black and Latino residents to get a loan. This court case ended when the bank agreed to open more branches in non-white neighborhoods. According to a 2017 report by the U.S. Census Bureau, for every $100 the average American white family has in assets, the average black American family has only $5. A Federal Reserve study from that same year found that redlining was at least partially to blame for that disparity. Redlining negatively affected the homeownership rates, credit scores, and home values in those districts. Now, seeing as this is a sociological podcast, I would be remiss to not mention Karl Marx here. Marx's base superstructure theory of culture argues that a society's economic features set the stage for all other aspects of that society. It does not take a wild stretch of the imagination to see how this relates to redlining. If Marx's theory is correct, then the aspects of these societies, such as politics, family, and education, would be different than in those favorably redlined districts. And wouldn't you know, that's exactly what we found. In the 2020 U.S. presidential election, we saw that according to CNN's National Exit Poll, a survey collecting information about how people voted, we saw that black people and Latin voters voted for Democrat Joe Biden at surprisingly high margins, 75 and 33 points respectively. Voters who live in urban areas and those who had incomes of less than $50,000 voted for Biden by 22 and by 11 points, respectively. As for white voters, the story is different. White voters voted for Biden's Republican Party opponent, Donald Trump, by 17 points. Rural voters voted for Trump by 15 points. Of those who had incomes greater than $100,000 yearly, Trump won them by 12 points. Education shows that Marx's theories are still alive and well. Closely related to financial redlining is discriminatory school zoning practices, which can often produce sharp differences in areas quite close to each other. According to a 1998 study by the Brookings Institute, the top 10% of school districts in the U.S. spend 10 times as much money per student than the poorest 10% of districts. One of the richest school districts in the country is in Brookings, Alabama, a state with one of the largest black populations in the country. This district has almost 4,500 residents, only nine of whom were black. And finally, in regards to family, that too has an influence by redlining. According to a 2016 Aurora University study, in the urban cores of Chicago, Indianapolis, Fresno, and Tucson, half of all children grow up without a father. In some cities like Cleveland and Detroit, the number of children growing up fatherless is closer to 75%. It goes without saying that these cities were some of the hardest hit by redlining and still suffer from those policies to this day. In conclusion, my friends, Marx had a point. In regards to redlining, Marx's theories accurately captured the effect that these discriminatory practices have had. Redlining, though a practice that belongs in the dustbin of history, is unfortunately alive and well today. Thank you all. I've been Harrison Coleman. This has been Sociology with Some Tea, and thank you for joining me.
