The New America Foundation: 'The Shot: Reniqua Allen: Civil Rights in Present Day'

Source:New America Foundation- with a look at fair housing in America.

"This week marks the anniversary of the 1968 Civil Rights Act --intended as a follow-up to the 1964 Act -- and emphasized equal opportunity in housing. Above, 2012 New America Fellow Reniqua Allen explains why even today, owning a home is still elusive for many in the African American community.

CORRECTION: A previous version of The Shot misidentified the anniversary of the Fair Housing Act." 

From New America Foundation

I just want to correct the record on something that Reniqua Allen said in her video: it's not minorities in general that have issues with let's say the majority population in America, when it comes to decent, affordable housing. It's African-Americans, when you are talking about minorities. 

Asian and Middle Eastern Americans, aren't suffering from a lack of decent and affordable housing in America. American-Indians, yes but for obvious reasons having to do with the fact that they're still on reservations, in the middle of nowhere, under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, living in extremely underdeveloped parts of the country. Similar to Anglo-Saxon and Dutch-Americans living in Appalachia. 

If you count Latino as a race in America, that would be very difficult, since Latinos are of either pure European background, mostly Spanish, or they are of mix race and ethnicity, which is very common with Latino-Americans, who in many cases tend to be of both European and West-Indian background, or European and African background, or a mixture of all these races into one. But Latino by itself is not a race. Similar to Scandinavian, or Slavic, or Australian, it's more of an ethnic division.

The 1968 Fair Housing Law was one of the best acts of the civil rights era of the 1960s.  It said that if you serve the public selling and renting homes, the public is the public and it includes everyone.  People can't be denied housing in the United States simply because of their race.  This followed the 1964 Civil Rights Act that banned racial discrimination and the 1965 Voting Rights Act that banned racial discrimination in voting, as well.

The lack of adequate housing for African-Americans today is not about race but about education and good jobs. Too many African-Americans do not have them compared, with the rest of the country.   Poor, rural, Caucasian-Americans and American-Indians also lack them.  These things are due to the lack of quality education and economic development in these communities.  People in these communities are not denied quality housing because of their race.

If you want to close the housing gap between low-income Americans of any race or ethnicity and middle class and wealthy Americans, you have to close the education and achievement gap and provide better schools and educational opportunities for low-income Americans, regardless of race or ethnicity. Kids who are in school now and their low-skilled, low-income parents need better education and opportunity. 

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on WordPress.