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Segregation is such a problem in the United States for a very long time, and in a
busy city like New York, which has the highest population in the United States, the
problems that is associated with segregation is much worse than the other state or city
here in the country. The reason for this is that the diversity of the city continues to
increase but the segregation policy remains the same, making the lives of each minority
group to be so miserable.
Segregation usually starts in housing and segregated housing brings up segregated
schools, segregated churches, segregated life (Metcalf-Baker Bill). In order to fight the
core of the problem, the New York State government, particularly the NYC Housing
Authority established a policy of non segregated housing in both public and private
housing projects. One of the projects created was the Red Hook Housing adopted by the
New York City Housing Authority, which promotes non segregated houses for its tenants.
The experiment in which people of different ethnic backgrounds live under the same
building shows that black and white people can live on a same building harmoniously,
where each one helps the other positively on many ways.
The success of this project leads to the declaration of the new Public Housing
Law that implies for the whole people of New York State which requires “no person shall,
because of race, creed color, or national origin, be subjected to any discrimination.” Also,
in terms of private housing, New York City became the one to outlaw racial
discrimination. Following this, according to Stanley Isaacs during a debate about housing
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discrimination, “the Supreme Court of the United States declared that restrictive
covenants in private property are enforceable because they’re against public policy. And
it’s been declared in New York City and in the State of New York that discrimination in
property that is aided by public funds- whether it’s tax exemption or the right of eminent
domain.”
On the other hand, there are certain arguments that block the success of this
project such as according to Glenn Fowler, “the law contains no penalty provision, which
means that violators cannot be punished in a specified manner.” Another thing about it
was that according to Dr. Gallagher, the President of the City College during the 1950’s,
“those who oppose integrated housing argued that lowered property values and increase
in crime and disease resulted from the influx of the intruders.” Also, even when the
Supreme Court declares that restrictive covenants, which bind home buyers to resell their
houses to minority groups was declared as illegal, the ruling became worthless because
many ways were done to beat it.
Fifty years have past since New York passed the fair housing to all residents, yet
segregation in houses still remains in the American society. Since the government passed
the banning of house segregation, up to now, discrimination in housing still exists. This
time, discrimination doesn’t come directly to white racists that occur fifty years ago. The
enemies of many New Yorkers today were the mortgage lenders and property insurers
whose practices and policy hurt the minority groups when they look, rent or buy the
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house of their choice. These people usually favor the whites. One example of this
discrimination is the experience of Mr. Burnett, a black successful entrepreneur who saw
an advisement in the paper about houses being sold in the Levittown area. He and his
wife try to check the houses there but when they met up with a salesman, the salesman
then shockingly says “It’s not me, but the builder of this development has not yet decided
to sell these homes to Negroes.” This statement only shows that New York still struggle
in fighting segregation in the city.
New York became the first city to outlaw racial discrimination in the land, but the
attitude of the home sellers in choosing their buyers based on their ethnic background
makes the city to “backward”, as said by Andrew Cuomo, in terms of implementing the
law because most of the time, according to V. Elaine Gross of the group Erase Racism,
“Blacks often have a hard time getting mortgages, even with good credit histories, and
are victimized by exorbitant charges.” The reason for this is because many real estate
agents and federal housing officials still consider the conclusion of the 1933 Federal
Housing Administration advisor Homer Hoyt that blacks and Mexicans had a very
detrimental effect on property values (Squires 1999). Because of this, one can say that
restrictive covenants and unfair housing for minority groups were still practiced even
though it was declared illegal when home sellers consider the home buyers race, creed or
ethnic background upon selling the property to them.
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In my own experience, I’ve noticed that in my own building, there’s no much
diversity in the place because most of the tenants were Spanish and Filipinos. All I hear
was that the reason for this was that the building owners choose their prospective tenants
thoroughly because they just don’t want to have trouble-maker tenants. I don’t know if
race is one of their criteria for this selection but hopefully not.
In my opinion, housing discrimination in New York City still exist until now but
the attitude of the people towards it lessen through time. Based on the information on the
neighborhood survey that my Urban Sociology class has come up with is that with the
question regarding if whites still mind when minority groups live next to them, more
respondents answered that today, whites wouldn’t mind if other racial background
would live next to them. Surprisingly, the majority of the respondents were of AfricanAmerican descent that has an age range of 18-25 years old. This result only shows that
the concept of diversity outnumbered racism issues in the country. Younger people tend
to not mind if other people not of their race live next to them. Knowing that the majority
of the respondents were the so called dark-skinned people, I can say that the core of the
problem which is the Black-White segregation that became a problem for many
generations hopefully will diminish as time goes by.
In conclusion, I could say that New York City as of today serve as a hard physical
evidence of a successful implementation of fair housing in the city even though rare
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certain situation still occurs that some people tend to discriminate. Fifty years ago, the
issues of housing segregation strongly exist between the blacks and the whites. Many
laws and programs are created and implemented to fight the issue, since housing
segregation is the root of many problems here in New York. Even though the laws
became successful, by looking at it fifty years later, the black-white discrimination issue
decreased through time but people like mortgage lenders and real estate agents are the
new enemies of fair housing that hurt many minority groups who wish to buy a place that
they want. For me, discrimination can end as long as each people stop practicing any act
of discrimination and by teaching the children to follow their act. America would be a
better place to live in when there’s no segregation in our country that our ancestor have
fight for many years ago.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Farrell, Thomas. “Object Lesson in Race Relations.” New York Times
12 Feb. 1950
Fowler, Glenn. “Long-Term Impact of Bias Law Seen.” New York Times
8 Dec. 1957: p.101
Squires, Gregory. “The Indelible Color Line.” American Prospect
Jan. 1999
Richardson, Lynda. “The Sting of Racial Exclusion is Easily Recalled.” New York Times
7 May 2003:B2 col 03
New York Times. “Discrimination in Housing: A Debate.” 21 Jul. 1957: SM7
Housing Discrimination in New York
By
Mariel Leynes
SSN187: Urban Sociology
Professor Janet Michello
December 6, 2006