Redlining was a form of financial and housing discrimination that arose in the United States between the 1930s and the 1960s.
The Home Owners Loan Corporation produced maps of metropolitan areas that used data provided by real estate agents, banks, and insurance companies to classify neighborhoods in a color-coded scale of "risk." Areas that were designated in red were considered the most risky, and residents of those areas were more likely to be poor and working-class people of color, in particular African Americans. As a result, black, Asian, Latino, and other working-class communities could not get home mortgages, and were largely excluded from the major boom in housing-related wealth that occurred in the post-WWII era. Although redlining and related forms of housing discrimination became illegal by the Fair Housing Act of 1968, lenders continue to discriminate against individuals and neighborhoods deemed to be "riskier." And the legacy of redlining continues to this day, since housing wealth, and the inter-generational nature of homeownership are one of the driving factors in wealth inequality today. |
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