Institutional Discrimination in The United States Housing Market - Discrimination

Discrimination

In the past, African Americans have faced overtly racist policies, such as being legally prohibited to use the same parts of restaurants and beaches. Jim Crow racism was based on the idea that blacks are biologically different from white European Americans, and that difference made them lesser. This type of racism led to a great deal of discrimination. However, such blatant discrimination has taken a back-seat to a much more secretive type of racism. Laissez-faire racism is based on the idea that black people have a cultural inferiority to other races, i.e. African Americans' are responsible themselves for the gap between whites and blacks in America. This idea allows white people to hold blacks responsible for the inequalities that they face, including the discrimination that they receive in the housing market. By assigning fault to blacks for the discrimination that occurs, whites are then able to perceive themselves as not racist, because they are not at guilty for the flaws of the African American community. Whites in different areas of the country surveyed about the characteristics of African Americans admitted to believing that they do not keep their homes as well as whites and other minorities and cause lower property values in their communities that they inhabit. People surveyed also believe that blacks are more likely to become violent and will increase crime in their neighborhoods. This type of racism employs many contradictions between how a person acts and what they say. It gives whites the ability to express racist views, while not sounding traditionally racist.