WANNA SELL YOUR HOUSE? BEST NOT BE BLACK

The fight against racism in the US has been ongoing since the first Africans disembarked from slave trading ships. Centuries later, Africans still fight to be treated with dignity and fairness as humans amidst state-sanctioned police violence, mass incarceration, discrimination in many sectors of life including housing, and a wealth gap.

Take Abena and Alex Horton, a couple seeking to sell their home in Jacksonville, Florida. The New York Times highlighted their case in 2020, reporting that the first appraisal valued their home at $330,000, significantly below their expectations. Suspecting racial bias, Abena, a Black woman, removed all signs of her African heritage from their home, including family photos and culturally significant books. She and their 6-year-old son left her white husband alone in the house to meet the second appraiser, who valued the house at $465,000, a more than 40 per cent increase.

Far from being an isolated case, Black neighbourhoods are consistently undervalued compared to those in white areas, costing Black homeowners $156 billion in cumulative losses, according to a 2018 report published by US polling company Gallup and think tank the Brookings Institution. The report found that a home in a majority-Black neighbourhood is likely to be valued at 23 per cent less than a nearly identical home in a majority-white neighbourhood.

Video credit: @PBDspodcast (X)

Source:News:

https://archive.ph/zzeeF