Dissent

Abstract:

How could "fair housing" fail so spectacularly, forty years after it was signed into law? Recent scholarship shines a light on the nefarious role played by the government in locking African Americans into substandard housing and under-resourced public services from the early twentieth century on. However, it often fails to answer the question of why this discrimination persists long after the federal government formally renounced its own policies promoting segregation. A common explanation points to the continued resistance of white residents, renters, and owners to the presence of Black people in their communities. But for a fuller picture, we need to look to the one factor that has remained a constant even as administrations, policies, and public attitudes have changed. We need to look at the public-private partnerships that have sutured the federal government to the real-estate industry.