Redlining Laws Aren’t Making Much Of A Difference in Detroit
“In the 21st Century, people of color are still turned away by banks and mortgage lenders even when they make the same amount of money,” says Senior Reporter Aaron Glantz.
In the coming week, the investigative journalism program Reveal, from the Center for Investigative Research and PRX, will debut a deep look at redlining in the modern United States.
Redlining is the practical and social infrastructure that pushes people of color into very specific neighborhoods and living conditions. While redlining has occurred in cities across the country, it also happened right here in Detroit.
Kevin Boyle, professor of American history at Northwestern University and author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, joins Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson to talk about the history of housing segregation in Detroit.
Boyle calls the Metro-Detroit region “hyper-segregated” and points out that the practice of redlining “now stretches back almost a century.”
“[Metro-Detroit] has made progress in integrating its neighborhoods,” says Boyle. “But it’s still hyper-segregated.”
Aaron Glantz, Senior Reporter for Reveal and the Center for Investigative Reporting, also joins the program to talk about the year-long investigation into redlining.
“In the new milleninium, in the 21st Century, people of color are still turned away by banks and mortgage lenders even when they make the same amount of money,” says Glantz.
Click on the audio link above for the full conversation.
