Tag: poverty
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Redlining and the Reality of Homeownership in Black Neighborhoods
As a black taxpayer, I’ve always heard about redlining, a practice that makes it harder for African Americans to obtain home loans in black neighborhoods. It’s a common belief that this practice is responsible for the lack of wealth in black families in comparison to their Caucasian counterparts. However, a recent academic deep dive into…
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Redlining and the Accepted Narrative: Examining Discrepancies Between Truth and Perception
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…
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Redlining and the Black Wealth Gap: Separating Fact from Fiction
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…
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Poverty in America: A Sociologist’s Perspective
In his new book, Poverty, by America, sociologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Matthew Desmond seeks to answer the question, “Why is there so much poverty in America?” He approaches this question as both a social scientist seeking a “fundamental theory” of the problem and a “poverty abolitionist” on a moral crusade to eliminate poverty and…
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Examining the Flaws in Matthew Desmond’s “Poverty, by America”
Sociologist Matthew Desmond poses a simple question in his new book, Poverty, by America: “Why is there so much poverty in America?” Desmond, a MacArthur genius-grant recipient and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Evicted, seeks to answer this question both as a social scientist and as a “poverty abolitionist.” He argues that we collectively exploit the…