{"id":132132,"date":"2024-09-30T15:39:45","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T19:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=132132"},"modified":"2024-10-04T15:56:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T19:56:34","slug":"housing-segregation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/housing-segregation\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Housing Segregation an Effort to Protect White Identity?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are the long-lasting effects of housing segregation<\/a> in America? Why did such a practice happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an exploration of white supremacy<\/a>, Ijeoma Oluo dives into the history and consequences of housing segregation in the US. She examines how this practice emerged and how it continues to impact wealth distribution, urban landscapes, and social dynamics today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to understand the ins and outs of housing segregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Housing Segregation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Oluo contends that, when women and people of color gain a foothold in the arenas that were once exclusively the domain of white men, white men push back. One way they do this is by seeking to limit the scope of the progress. She provides the example of housing segregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This came about after Black people began competing for industrial jobs in the northern US after the end of the Civil War. Following the abolition of slavery, much of the South\u2019s Black population migrated north to escape growing attempts to suppress their newly won civil rights. Oluo says that white northerners resented this influx of new job competitors and initially reacted with racist violence, as when a series of anti-Black riots swept through a number of cities in 1919.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: This rash of violence in 1919 was only the latest in a long line of tactics\u2014some violent, some legislative\u2014designed to restrict Black people\u2019s rights following the Civil War. In fact, the period ranging from roughly the late 1870s through the early 1920s is sometimes referred to as the \u201cnadir\u201d of race relations in the US<\/a> because of the prevalence of voter suppression, lynchings, Jim Crow segregation<\/a> laws, and mainstream racist propaganda during this time.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, Oluo says, to protect their sense of white identity<\/a> and to limit Black wealth and influence, many cities began adopting racially restrictive housing covenants<\/strong>\u2014rules that prevent the sale or rental of a given property to people of color. According to Oluo, these covenants have had several long-term effects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n