The Disturbing History of the Suburbs | Adam Ruins Everything

it's not so white here look that example ignore sweater dog people a tote bag full of kale you're killing me lady okay maybe this neighborhood is mostly - completely - insufferably white but that's just the way things are here it doesn't mean we're racist I'm sure you're not Ron but the fact that so many suburbs are mostly white is no accident it's the result of decades and a racist federal policy that effect us to this day look what the heck kind of game is this it's Settlers of the suburbs redlining edition oh you'll be green Ron you're red all right red just like the name looks like I've got the advantage no you don't see in the 1930s as part of the New Deal fer created loan programs to help Americans finance their homes but to decide who got those loans the government created color-coded maps in which green neighborhoods were good and red neighborhoods were bad this practice became known as redlining because of these policies if you lived in the green neighborhoods it was super easy to get a home loan but for folks in the red areas no loans were available I can barely afford rent with this there's no fair the red areas are screwed yeah they were and you know why some areas were designated as red no but I can guess those were the neighborhoods where African Americans and other minorities lived and redlining systematically prevented them from getting home loans well I know what I'll do just take my little guy and put him in the green neighborhood sorry that's against the rules early suburb developers like William Levitt instituted explicitly racist policies Levittown homes MA not be used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race and the federal government itself encourage developers to discriminate developers I want you to exclude non-whites the result of these policies is that from 1934 through 1968 a whopping 98 percent of home loans were given to white families okay this is not fair I did not get to pick what color I was when I started yeah no one does and this advantage compounded over time the families in the green or white neighborhoods were able to purchase homes and accrue wealth the market went up I can sell my house and buy a bigger one whereas the people in the red neighborhoods got none of those opportunities I can't afford property I'm behind on my electric bill in the green neighborhoods the influx of new wealth attracted new businesses oh we got again a grocery which caused property values to go up which meant white families could sell their homes and send their kids to college they grew up so fast passing down their wealth and advantages to future generations meanwhile the red neighborhoods had far less ability to build wealth and many remain trapped in poverty this game is rigged yeah it was that's why laws were eventually passed that made most of these discriminatory practices illegal great finally I can move I don't have enough money exactly without wealth families and the red neighborhoods couldn't afford to move up keeping these communities separated by race today seventy years after Levittown was created it's still less than 1% black I may be dead but the effect of my racism lives on and if the neighborhoods are segregated that means the schools are too why no no that can't be true we ended school segregation back in the 60s sorry Ron but I'm afraid that's not true this is Nicole Hannah Jones she's a New York Times investigative reporter who covers civil rights issues including school and housing segregation Nicole what am I telling Ron but most people get wrong about segregation people tend to think of segregation as an archaic term for Jim Crow policies that led to the civil rights movement but the truth is that black children are more segregated in schools now than at any time since the 1970s and in the u.s. schools are largely funded by property taxes since property values and the white neighborhoods are so much higher their schools get way more money to spend on things like facilities teachers and supplies on the other hand predominately black and Latino schools are massively underfunded and less likely to have AP science and math courses and they're the least likely to have experienced and qualified teachers the truth is Bill Donovan doesn't just go to the best school he goes to a segregated school no no this is a direct result of decades of redlining policies enacted by our own government to build the suburbs highways that were built to make access to the suburbs easier for white Americans were often runs right through black middle-class neighborhoods destroying them people in the past for the worst it's not just the past banks still regularly charged black homebuyers higher rates on loans than they do white homebuyers even when they have the same credit worst of all black and Latino home seekers still experience four million incidents of illegal housing discrimination every year but I mean I didn't do any of that stuff I'm not racist and I worked hard to get this house of course but without realizing it you've also gotten a leg up from America's history of racist housing policies the suburb you live in was built on a foundation of segregation and we can't close our eyes to that hey Adam here if you like that be sure to watch all new episodes of Adam ruins everything every Tuesday at 10:00 on truTV

Channel: Dropout

Views: 7,553,973

Keywords: Collegehumor, CH originals, comedy, sketch comedy, internet, humor, funny, sketch, suburbia, red lining, adam ruins the suburbs, dark history of the suburbs, suburban segregation, adam ruins everything redlining, adam ruins redlining, are redlining episode

Id: ETR9qrVS17g

Length: 6min 19sec (379 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 04 2017