And To Think...You Paid Them 6%

Marie Sams a

            This week in American Apartheid by Massey and Denton, the authors wrote, “The most salient feature of postwar segregation is the concentration of blacks in central cities and white in suburbs” (1993: 67).  This quote got me thinking about why this might be the case. Is it really because we can’t stomach the thought of living next to someone with a different skin color than ours? Are people really that racist? The population maps shown in class yesterday were really eye-opening because they illustrated modern day segregation in all its glory. You’d have to be pretty thick not to see how bad it is. How can this be the case when there are laws that prohibit discrimination in all aspects of life, especially in housing?   I believe that part of the issue for why there isn’t much integration in communities has to come down to the people on the front line...the realtors. The agents and brokerages in the real estate business have routinely practiced discrimination for a very long time (it’s even well-documented), so it seems pretty unrealistic to believe that they decided to drop the racist practices all-together when laws were passed. I don’t think that every realtor discriminates, and the ones who do may not even realize they are doing it. However I know someone on the other end of the spectrum.   

            Story time: My fiancé’s, brother’s, mother-in-law (whoa) has been a real estate agent for years and works in the city and the surrounding suburbs. If I asked her today (off the record, of course) if she would show me a place in a predominately black community, I know for a fact she would refuse. At the same time she would flat out deny that she is a racist (she’s a “realist”…gag), even though I’ve heard her on more than a handful of occasions saying shockingly racist things about black people, and basically all non-whites (she’s lovely). The point is this woman is out there with her clients (who are probably largely white folks) not showing them any properties that are racially diverse. And, if the clients don’t insist to see places that are racially diverse, then the segregation inevitably continues. I would also say that it is as much up to the clients to speak up about their desire to live in a racially/ethnically diverse neighborhood as it is a problem with the realtors themselves. I would argue that the absence of realtor-client conversations like this is probably a reason why the population charts we looked at read the way that they do.  People in our society let “experts” make too many decisions for them, and we simply let it happen.

Realtors making suggestions about where we should and should not live based on the color of our skin is a big problem. These professionals are on the front lines and are at least partially responsible for the racial divide. They are basically calling the shots, and they could be the biggest hurdle we need to get over in order to see changes made to our segregated landscape. Who are these people anyway? As this link shows, http://www.investopedia.com/articles/professionaleducation/10/6-steps-becoming-a-real-estate-agent.asp?performancelayout=true you don’t even need to be college educated to become a real estate agent. If you think about it, this too is a serious issue.  I’m not saying real estate agents aren’t smart, but college is where you do a whole lot of learning about really important life stuff. College is where many people have their first meaningful interactions with people from other backgrounds and people who look different than they do. Personally, if all I had in my toolkit-for-life was the crap I learned in K-12, I would hardly know anything about diversity or how important it is to the future of our country. So, do I think it’s wise having people out there with limited educations placed in positions of power, choosing how my future children will understand the dynamics of our world living in a neighborhood filled with people who look just like them? I absolutely do not. There should be some sort of test that makes sure we don’t wind up having a bunch of racists partially in charge of the diversity of our national landscape. Sweet, there’s a free Are You a Racist test available right here! http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/34t0lr/Are-You-A-Racist Hey, it’s a start. Not for nothing, the most racist people I have met in my lifetime have been the ones with the least amount of education, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.