When we think of segregation, we usually think of the South, where Republicans openly oppose anything that might taint what they consider the purity of the white race. Many Americans do not realize that the problem is as bad in the north. The law is frequently unenforced. Barack Obama is working to change that.
When the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968, it barred the outright racial discrimination that was then routine. It also required the government to go one step further — to actively dismantle segregation and foster integration in its place — a mandate that for decades has been largely forgotten, neglected and unenforced.
Now, on Wednesday, the Obama administration will announce long-awaited rules designed to repair the law’s unfulfilled promise and promote the kind of racially integrated neighborhoods that have long eluded deeply segregated cities like Chicago and Baltimore. The new rules, a top demand of civil-rights groups, will require cities and towns all over the country to scrutinize their housing patterns for racial bias and to publicly report, every three to five years, the results. Communities will also have to set goals, which will be tracked over time, for how they will further reduce segregation.
“This is the most serious effort that HUD has ever undertaken to do that,” says Julian Castro, the secretary of the department of Housing and Urban Development, who will announce the new rules in Chicago on Wednesday. “I believe that it’s historic.”
Officials insist that they want to work with and not punish communities where segregation exists. But the new reports will make it harder to conceal when communities consistently flout the law. And in the most flagrant cases, HUD holds out the possibility of withholding a portion of the billions of dollars of federal funding it hands out each year… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Washington Post>
Click through for more details. I applaud this move and consider it long past due.
17 Responses to “Obama Targets Segregation”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
"Long past due." That is tactspeak for "About G****m time," right?
Those who are worried about the "purity of the white race" (which is stupid because there is only one race, the human race, anyway) don't seem to grasp that if you keep the "white race" "pure," the only thing that stays pure is the hatred.
and the hatred is pure Republican.
Yes past due. But I can hear the right ( who will try to block this kind of progress and one full proof way is by filling these people who voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012 (who by the way who have fell in propaganda well of Obama is worse than Bush). So between the two progress will not have a chance unless we elect another Demorcat in the White House in 2016.
Historically, the ethnic/racial neighborhoods were reinforced by routing the interstate highways to create a barrior between non-white and white in cities as north as St. Paul, MN and as west as Fresno and Sacramento, CA.
The small cities around me try to cluster low income housing so it is separate from other housing presumably due to larger non-white populations than the community as a whole.
CA's fair housing law preceded the federal law by 3-5 years and was done by proposition, not by the legislature. At that time many house title documents forbid selling to a non-white–you still see such on the records, but they are now unenforceable under the law.
I'm glad HUD is finally going after those gaming the system and perpetuating the problem to help change it as it was always supposed to be.
Before that, it was the railroad tracks that were used to separate people of color,
I'm really enjoying this "In-Your-Face" policy format by Pres. Obama. In retrospect, it would have been better if he'd started it six years earlier!
One small note, having spent four years in Chicago during medical school, I'd recognize the aerial shot of Cabrini-Green anywhere. It derserved to be demolished – and it WAS! It hasn't existed since March, 2011. While not perfect, what's replaced it is definitely better that what was there before.
I knew it was the infamous Cabrini-Green. I did not know it has been destroyed. Good!
You are right, TC, discrimination and prejudice are as bad in the north as in the south. Detroit and surrounding areas are rife with discrimination. I lived there in the late sixties and early seventies. We bought a home in an integrated neighborhood, one that had been all white, but was becoming mixed. I was told repeatedly by white friends that we shouldn't do it. We did, and were glad because our son started life with friends of several different colors, and recognizes people for who they are, onot what color or how much money they have. He is teaching his daughter to be the same. Too many assume that the civil rights act took care of everything, it clearly did not.
This should have happened 50 years ago. That is just abysmal!
Laws can encourage people to change, but ultimately it is up to people to change their attitudes.
Within my area, we have whites, blacks, Middle Eastern, South Asian and Oriental peoples. I can go to a Chinese grocery store or a Persian grocery store if I want. There seems to be much more acceptance of integration here, thank goodness!
It's way past due. We forget that this still goes on all over the country, not just in the South. I don't see it up here but this is diffenent that the big cities.
Hmm the little glitch demon has followed me here too. This is what I've posted here around 10:20 AM
Bear with the ignorant foreigner, please; if I understand this correctly this is not a law that has to pass through Congress with the certainty it never will, but the amelioration of existing law by rules that all cities and towns need to abide by if they want federal funding to continue to come their way? If so, that is good. Better late than never. But nearly 50 years to update a law with rules so finally every municipality has to man up and foster integration in stead of segregation, isn't something I'd brag about if I were you.
It'll keep the Republicans busy for a while, I suppose. Next to repealing Obamacare, they're sure to spend a lot of time and effort on ways to repeal this Fair Housing Act and these new rules. Oh sure, SCOTUS has just reaffirmed the FHA, but that has never stopped Republicans from waisting time and taxpayer's money on trying, has it.
You've got a much better grasp of America than most Americans!
And these new AFFH ( “Affirmatively Further Fair Housing”) Rules are driving the wingnuts just ShatBit Crazy – they're back to using terms like "Commie Apparatchiks" etc.
(Click the link below only if you REALLY want to go to the Dark Side to see what these loons are frothing at the mouth about)
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/420896/massive-government-overreach-obamas-affh-rule-out-stanley-kurtz
It's strongly doubtful the Rethuglicans will ever try to repeal FHA – especially now w/ Donald Trump constantly bloviating away. And give "The Donald" a bigger mike … AND a bigger shovel, since he insists on violating the "First Rule of Holes": When you find yourself in one – STOP DIGGING!
Nameless beat me to this. Your "ignorant foreigner" understanding is spot-on
To give you all an idea of how bad this is, Republican former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist purchased two homes for which he signed illegal compacts that he agreed not to sell the homes to non-whites.
THAT is truly disgusting.
Indeed!