Review of 'The color of law' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I just finished The Color of Law. I suggest you read it. Rothstein's thesis is supported in crushing detail. The laws and history behind mortgages, zoning, and deeds are boring, but without an understanding of them, you don't understand government-sponsored apartheid in the United States.
"While private discrimination also deserves some share of the blame, Rothstein shows that “racially explicit policies of federal, state, and local governments…segregated every metropolitan area in the United States.” Government agencies used public housing to clear mixed neighborhoods and create segregated ones. Governments built highways as buffers to keep the races apart. They used federal mortgage insurance to usher in an era of suburbanization on the condition that developers keep blacks out. From New Dealers to county sheriffs, government agencies at every level helped impose segregation—not de facto but de jure."[1]
De facto: practices that exist in reality, even though they are not officially recognized …
I just finished The Color of Law. I suggest you read it. Rothstein's thesis is supported in crushing detail. The laws and history behind mortgages, zoning, and deeds are boring, but without an understanding of them, you don't understand government-sponsored apartheid in the United States.
"While private discrimination also deserves some share of the blame, Rothstein shows that “racially explicit policies of federal, state, and local governments…segregated every metropolitan area in the United States.” Government agencies used public housing to clear mixed neighborhoods and create segregated ones. Governments built highways as buffers to keep the races apart. They used federal mortgage insurance to usher in an era of suburbanization on the condition that developers keep blacks out. From New Dealers to county sheriffs, government agencies at every level helped impose segregation—not de facto but de jure."[1]
De facto: practices that exist in reality, even though they are not officially recognized by laws.
De jure: practices that are legally recognised
Here are a couple of topics worth knowing about:
Block Busting: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbusting
Mortgage Descrimination: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortgage_discrimination
Exclusionary Zoning: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusionary_zoning
Racist Deed Covenants: www.cnn.com/2020/02/15/us/racist-deeds-covenants/index.html
[Painting] Kerry James Marshall: Better Homes, Better Gardens, 1994. Found in the St. Louis Art Museum during December 2019.
[1]https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/02/22/when-government-drew-the-color-line/
