As a black taxpayer, I have always heard about redlining, the practice of making it harder for African Americans in black neighborhoods to obtain home loans, and how it contributed to the wealth gap between my family and my Caucasian high-school friends. A quick Google search for “redlining stole black wealth” confirms this narrative, with reputable sources such as CBS News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times all highlighting how redlining robbed black families of generational wealth and contributed to the racial wealth divide.
However, a recent academic deep dive by my friend and spiritual big brother John McWhorter revealed a reality that differs from the accepted narrative. According to economist Price V. Fishback’s paper, white households accounted for 82% of individuals who lived in redlined areas across ten major US cities in 1930. Furthermore, Caucasians, likely members of then-abused ethnic populations such as Irish and Italian Americans, were the sole owners of 92% of the homes in these slum areas. While it is true that proportionately more black individuals owned homes in the redlined neighborhoods studied, this seems to have been due more to poverty than racism.
McWhorter points out that the commonly accepted narrative of redlining being a result of cigar-chomping bigots in suspenders drawing lines around where black people lived while giving loans to poor whites is false. Additionally, redlining was made illegal by federal law in 1968 and has almost nothing to do with contemporary patterns of settlement in many of the largest and fastest-growing American cities.
While it is easy to assume that the accepted narrative of history is accurate, a serious review of history often reveals surprises. For example, two of the four killers of Emmett Till, a young black boy who was murdered, may have been black. Similarly, the Venona cables revealed that most individuals falsely accused of espionage during the Red Scare were, in fact, Russian spies.
It is important to note that much of academia and the contemporary national media is dominated by partisan left-wing activists who intentionally curate information about what did and did not happen in the past. This is relevant today because opponents of conservative or normal citizens often challenge them by asking if they want to be on the wrong side of history. However, history often proves that the Anointed opponents of the dirty-handed hoi polloi were not on the right side of history in the past and will not be in the future.
Therefore, while we try to revisit the stories of the past, it is crucial to use common sense as our guiding star towards the future rather than hope or blind trust. For instance, inviting male “trans women” into women’s spaces poses predictable risks, such as most male rapists preferring to enter women’s prisons rather than men’s prisons. It is essential to use common sense and not blindly trust the narrative of history or the intentions of partisan left-wing activists.
