“Systemic racism” has become a key term during the latest incarnation of the Black Lives Matter movement. Systemic racism has been spotlighted as a large contributor to societal ills disproportionately affecting black people: Poverty, increased risk of health problems, police brutality and arrests for minor offenses.
Merriam-Webster defines “systemic” as “fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice.” Something that is systemic affects everything — and not always in obvious ways. Sometimes the effects are so subtle and nuanced, we can’t see them until we intentionally look.
So what is systemic racism? Cambridge dictionary defines it as “racism that has become part of the normal behavior of people within an organization.” (If you’d like to research this yourself, try searching “institutional racism,” which was the more common term until recently.)
We’ve heard arguments that there is no more racism because of the Civil Rights Acts. Equal rights are enshrined in law, so that means there can’t be systemic racism, right? Not quite.
The modern conversation around systemic racism focuses primarily on how racist systems implemented in the past still contribute to inequality today. Even though we have made great strides in the last few decades, the influence of past racist systems can still be seen today.
A prominent example of systemic racism is “redlining,” which was the practice of scoring and color-coding residential areas based on the likelihood of a bank getting paid back for a mortgage loan. Factors for scoring included a neighborhood’s racial/ethnic makeup, average income, quality of housing and history of sales/renting. The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation created redlining maps for nearly every major city in the U.S. and, according to the Mapping Inequality project, these maps made in the 1930s-1940s set the rules of real estate for the last 80-90 years.
Redlining happened almost everywhere in America, but some cities have clearer documentation of it. We’re sure it happened here in Morgantown, but there isn’t a HOLC map like there is for Charleston. Therefore, we’ll be using Charleston as our example.
“A” (“best”) districts were colored green. These neighborhoods were predominantly American-born whites, wealthy and white-collar. These were areas where lenders were willing to give maximum loans. In Charleston, the A district was filled with business executives and was made up of only American-born whites.
“B” (“still desirable”) districts were colored blue. Similar to “A” neighborhoods in racial makeup and occupation type, but generally with a lower family income. In Charleston, the blue districts were upper-middle class, with no black people or foreign-born whites.
“C” (“definitely declining”) districts were colored yellow. These neighborhoods were characterized by “infiltration of lower grade population,” according to HOLC. In other words, black people and foreign-born whites. These also tended to be blue-collar workers with lower income. In the bottom graphic to your right, the yellow areas in Tracts 6 and 8 were lower-income but almost completely white. The yellow area in Tract 7 was lower income and the population was 10% black and 10% foreign-born.
“D” — or “hazardous” — districts were colored red (hence redlining). These neighborhoods were “characterized by detrimental influences in a pronounced degree, underdesirable population or an infiltration of it,” according to HOLC. HOLC recommended lenders “refuse to make loans in these areas.” In the bottom right map, the red area in Tract 7 saw a “slight influx of colored and mixed population,” which is what dropped it to a D. The red area in Tract 1 was 40% black.
If you lived in a red or yellow district, you were more likely to be refused a loan in general, let alone a loan that would allow you to move into a blue or green area. According to a CBS report on redlining, “banks and other mortgage lenders commonly rejected loans for creditworthy borrowers based strictly on their race or where they lived.” This continued policy, even after the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, led to an unofficial segregation that still persists.
Across the country, neighborhoods that were redlined in the 1930s and 40s are still predominantly low income and home to minorities. The middle map comes from a 2015 report by the West Side Neighborhood Association demonstrating redlining’s long-lasting impacts.
Tract 1 has the highest poverty rate at 40.6% and has a population that is 33% minority. That area was redlined in the past. Tract 7 is next with a poverty rate of 39.7% and is 55% minority. On the redlining map, Tract 7 was a mix of red, yellow and blue areas. Tract 8 has a poverty rate of 37% and is 36.2% minority. That area was largely colored-coded as blue and yellow. Finally, Tract 6 has the lowest poverty and minority percentages at 17.2% and 22.1% respectively. In the 1930s, this area had been predominantly white and wealthy.
Let’s put these numbers into greater perspective. The racial makeup of Charleston at the time of the 2010 census was 78.4% white, 15.5% black and 6.1% other minorities. For the tracts highlighted by the 2015 map to have such high minority percentages shows systemic racism in action. Systemic racism is the system that made social mobility — in this specific example, homeownership — significantly harder for blacks and other minorities in the past and continues to make it difficult for them in the present. Social and economic opportunities denied to past generations can and does affect the wealth and opportunity afforded to future generations.
