As a black taxpayer, I have always been aware of redlining, the practice of making it harder for African Americans in black neighborhoods to obtain home loans. This practice has been blamed for the lack of wealth in black families compared to their Caucasian counterparts. However, a recent academic study by economist Price V. Fishback and his team found that in ten major U.S. cities in 1930, white households accounted for 82% of individuals living in the risky areas that were redlined. Further, Caucasians were the sole owners of 92% of homes in these areas, likely members of abused ethnic populations such as the Irish and Italian Americans. While it is true that a higher proportion of black individuals owned homes in the redlined neighborhoods, this was more due to poverty than racism.
It is worth noting that redlining was made illegal by federal law in 1968 and has little to do with contemporary patterns of settlement in many of the largest and fastest-growing American cities. The idea that cigar-chomping bigots in suspenders drew lines around where black people lived while giving loans to poor whites is essentially false.
This discrepancy between the accepted narrative and reality is not unique to the history of redlining. In fact, many social movements associated with the “heroic Sixties” turned out to be complete disasters, including the embrace of drug culture, the extremes of the sexual revolution, and mental-patient deinstitutionalization, among others.
The curation of information about what did and did not happen in the past is often intentional, perpetuated by partisan left-wing activists dominating academia and the contemporary national media. This is relevant today because opponents of conservative or normal citizens often ask if they want to be on the wrong side of history, assuming that the left was on the right side in the past and will be again in the future. However, this assumption is often incorrect, as evidenced by the Tuskegee Experiment, which was largely administered by a famous center-left black college.
It is important to use common sense as our guiding star toward the future, rather than blind trust or hope. For example, letting male rapists into women’s prisons is as insane as it sounds. While we revisit the stories of the past, we must remain aware of the discrepancies between the accepted narrative and reality and use critical thinking to guide our decisions for the future.
