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Thursday, July 9, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com MICHIGAN IN COLOR
No place like home: American
housing insecurity
A significant part of the tradi-
tional American Dream includes
buying your first house as a cumu-
lative result of hard work and
steady income. For many people, a
home is where you lay down roots,
establish a family and a community.
However, as a result of redlining —
real estate discrimination and lim-
ited access to mortgages — there
has been a large gap in homeown-
ership when comparing white fam-
ilies to Black, Hispanic and Asian
family units. The rate of homeown-
ership among white communities
in the first quarter of 2020 was 73.7
percent — almost 10 percent higher
than the whole country’s average of
65.3 percent. Meanwhile, the rates
for Black, Hispanic and Asian com-
munities were much lower: Black
communities had 44 percent; His-
panic communities had 48.9 per-
cent; and Asian, Native, Hawaiian
and Pacific Islander had 59.1 per-
cent. The effects of these dispari-
ties go far beyond home owning, as
this ownership is often a gateway
to wealth building through better
public education, — for which the
level of funding is determined by
property taxes — tax benefits, etc.
The homeownership gap has exist-
ed since the end of slavery but was
only exacerbated by events such as
the Great Depression and the 2008
Housing Crisis. While homeown-
ership rates, in general, have risen,
the gap among white people and
Black and other POC has remained
drastic. There are several reasons
for this gap:
Real Estate Discrimination
Real estate discrimination can
arise for many reasons and in many
forms. Some of the major reasons
include race, sexuality, disabilities,
language barriers, gender or mari-
tal status. It is illegal to discrimi-
nate against a potential homebuyer
for these reasons. Some common
forms of discrimination include
refusing to return phone calls,
providing false information about
the cost or availability of a unit or
falsifying eligibility requirements.
In numbers, 26 percent of Black
people report having been treated
differently due to their race dur-
ing the homebuying process, while
Asian and Hispanic people report
19 percent and 16 percent respec-
tively. Another extension of this is
realtors are more likely to assume
a higher income status for potential
white homebuyers, whereas they
are more likely to assume a lower
income status for non-white poten-
tial homebuyers. A study conduct-
ed by a professor at Northwestern
University produced data — which
supported data from the Depart-
ment of Housing and Urban Devel-
opment — that stated in “about
10% audits in which a white and
an African-American auditor were
sent to apply for the same unit after
2005, the white auditor was recom-
mended more units than the Afri-
can-American auditor.” Similarly,
“about 16% of Latinxs say they’ve
been treated differently in their
search for housing because of their
race.” There are several other stud-
ies asserting similar claims: People
of color are notably discriminated
against when it comes to potential
home ownership. Other studies
include a Housing Discrimination
Study in 2000 by the Office of
Policy Development and Research,
the Complexities and Process of
Racial Housing Discrimination and
Breaking Down the Black-White
Homeownership Gap.
Check out this article
about a man advocating
for feminism
Last week, College Republicans
at the University of Michigan, a
student organization on campus
dedicated to promoting the princi-
ples of the Republican Party, post-
ed a tweet making light of various
majors and minors offered through
LSA. Included on this list were
not only areas of study promoting
equality, intercultural leadership
and interdisciplinary studies but
also one dedicated to challenging
injustices faced by women for gen-
erations — the University’s Depart-
ment of Women’s Studies.
In doing so, the organiza-
tion effectively dehumanized all
women and reminded many that
the University is not exempt from
misogyny and sexism on its cam-
pus. As a Voluntary Student Orga-
nization, College Republicans at
the University is a recognized stu-
AAKASH RAY
MiC Staff Writer
Read more at michigandaily.com
PRISHA GROVER
MiC Staff Writer
Read more at michigandaily.com
Legislative Vendetta
Read more at michigandaily.com
Design by Hibah Chughtai
dent organization that is directly
affiliated with the University yet
consistently ignores its mission to
foster a community built on “civil-
ity, dignity, diversity [and] inclusiv-
ity.” What the organization fails to
recognize is the same department
they are mocking is one of many
advancing research, teaching and
activism for countless of their own
members, friends and family —
those who identify as women.
The Department of Women’s
Studies, founded in 1973, is built on
the bedrock principles of coalition
building, social change and femi-
nist theory. Utilizing these prin-
ciples, many graduates strive to
replace outdated information about
women, gender and race with new
knowledge and challenge unequal
distributions of power perpetuated
by American systems.
As millions of Americans were
celebrating
Independence
Day
within the various physical capaci-
ties embedded across the nation, I
could not help but feel choked in
a muzzle of falsified liberation we
citizens of this country not only
surrender to, but praise. I recite
the annual literary antic, “Happy
Fourth of July” to my peers, friends
and family. This being a muttered
dig at the naive walk of shame
proud citizens acclaim, oblivious
that it is they, we, him, her, all of us
IZZA AHMED-GHANI
MiC Staff Writer
who lay fugitive as the blunt of the
joke.
Human nature, as it goes, would
have many individuals bask in bit-
ter contentment. Stoically-bodied
in reaction to the times, there is
an inherent discomfort when one
knows we, as a society, accept and
hold ourselves captive to an old
dictorator: ignorance. I’m no physi-
cian, but I’d assess the state of this
nation’s well-being with the diag-
nosis of “Stockholm Syndrome.”
Often I come across comments
reading:
“Our laws aren’t racist… [and to
gesture so] will do nothing to help
people RIGHT NOW.”
And then some more...
“How can you say one of the
most diverse countries in the world
is racist?”
The legislation we uphold from
our founding fathers is outdated.
Metastasizing
discriminatory
roots into local, state and federal
legislation. These policies have
systemically rendered differences
in the opportunities marginalized
populations have to achieve opti-
mal health that leads to unequita-
ble but avoidable health outcomes.
Design by Hibah Chughtai
Design by Maggie Wiebe