3 Unsettling Truths about Neighborhood Segregation

by Sara Alvarado

The Black Lives Matter movement is forcing many White people to open our eyes to inequalities we have long ignored. One such issue is neighborhood segregation and unequal access to homeownership.

Since the Fair Housing Act passed in 1968, the gap between Black and White homeownership rates has widened —growing from 27 percentage points in 1960 to 30 points in 2017—and the Black homeownership rate has actually stayed almost exactly the same.

After many years of silence, White communities are beginning to talk about the ways segregation shuts Black, Indigenous, and People of Color out of opportunities to gain wealth, attend well-funded schools, and be safe in their homes.

Many White people are asking, “What can I do?”

Before we can take any action to desegregate our neighborhoods, we need to understand three unsettling truths about neighborhood segregation.

Truth 1: The segregation of our neighborhoods was deliberate, legal, and rooted in racist lies…