WHAT IS REDLINING?
Redlining was the denying of housing investments, access to health care, access to jobs etc. in low income communities where people of color lived. Redlining existed throughout the mid 1900’s to the late 1900’s. Generally low income communities were outlined with a red line, on a map, meaning that these communities could not receive any type of investments by banks. The reason why I chose this fire project topic was because when I was working on my history fair project, I came across the topic of redlining. I did not know what it was. I did not know how it was connected to me and my community. I had no idea until I began to research. When I read that maps were used to associate communities with amount of investments received, I was shocked. Low income communities were delineated with red lines to indicate they could not receive investments, in other words money for improvement. I found this to be very interesting. This is why it became captivating for me because I figured that maybe this was one of the root causes of why my community along with others is under developed.
It is important to know that although redlining does not exist in the form it did in the 1900’s, it still is one of the root causes of segregation and other forms of segregation such as gentrification, environmental racism, deprivation of resources etc. ,which all exist today. Minorities were not encouraged to move where white people lived and if they tried to, even if they could afford it, they were discouraged. It is important to understand these triggers that occurred in the past because not only have they elicited long term effects, but many other complications have arose from them that exist today. That is the reason why I find this topic exceptionally important for every one of low income communities and even those outside these communities to know about.
Some of the connections that I can draw from this are my community itself and the way it looks. Aside the violence, the representation of the houses themselves, they are not fancy, impressive, or picture perfect when compared to the appearance of homes in the suburbs or even just North from here. The houses here are also not unattractive, but if maybe redlining did not limit our communities to funds and investments, the rate at which our communities were progressing could have been a lot faster and at the same rate at which suburbs and other areas were upgrading. This is where I realize my community has been a victim of this practice with long term effects. Others might not view this with as much importance because perhaps they are not experiencing the consequences.
Redlining has caused long term effects in which we are now experiencing. Today, minorities are still separated from the rest of society through injustices, and various forms of racism and discrimination, which have blinded people to accept these wrongs. Redlining bordered “under developed” communities in red and today it seems like the very same communities are still under developed, except invisibly outlined in red.
Redlining was the denying of housing investments, access to health care, access to jobs etc. in low income communities where people of color lived. Redlining existed throughout the mid 1900’s to the late 1900’s. Generally low income communities were outlined with a red line, on a map, meaning that these communities could not receive any type of investments by banks. The reason why I chose this fire project topic was because when I was working on my history fair project, I came across the topic of redlining. I did not know what it was. I did not know how it was connected to me and my community. I had no idea until I began to research. When I read that maps were used to associate communities with amount of investments received, I was shocked. Low income communities were delineated with red lines to indicate they could not receive investments, in other words money for improvement. I found this to be very interesting. This is why it became captivating for me because I figured that maybe this was one of the root causes of why my community along with others is under developed.
It is important to know that although redlining does not exist in the form it did in the 1900’s, it still is one of the root causes of segregation and other forms of segregation such as gentrification, environmental racism, deprivation of resources etc. ,which all exist today. Minorities were not encouraged to move where white people lived and if they tried to, even if they could afford it, they were discouraged. It is important to understand these triggers that occurred in the past because not only have they elicited long term effects, but many other complications have arose from them that exist today. That is the reason why I find this topic exceptionally important for every one of low income communities and even those outside these communities to know about.
Some of the connections that I can draw from this are my community itself and the way it looks. Aside the violence, the representation of the houses themselves, they are not fancy, impressive, or picture perfect when compared to the appearance of homes in the suburbs or even just North from here. The houses here are also not unattractive, but if maybe redlining did not limit our communities to funds and investments, the rate at which our communities were progressing could have been a lot faster and at the same rate at which suburbs and other areas were upgrading. This is where I realize my community has been a victim of this practice with long term effects. Others might not view this with as much importance because perhaps they are not experiencing the consequences.
Redlining has caused long term effects in which we are now experiencing. Today, minorities are still separated from the rest of society through injustices, and various forms of racism and discrimination, which have blinded people to accept these wrongs. Redlining bordered “under developed” communities in red and today it seems like the very same communities are still under developed, except invisibly outlined in red.