Redlining - Income and Housing Inequality - US History - Extra History

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♪ Outro Music: "Visions of a Martyr" by Tiffany Roman
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#ExtraHistory #blackhistory #History

[HistoryOfRevolutions]

Montesquieu once wrote:

"In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state"

[Darasilverdragon]

The most insidious aspect of redlining seems to have been accidental, as well - this octopus has a 9th tentacle it doesn't even know about.
You see, these redlined areas where income is low and housing maintenance is done poorly if at all...
...these houses, and apartments... never lost their lead piping, or paint. While the law has mandated for decades that these features be removed from residential districts, homes in redlined or previously-redlined areas have always been too poor to get the work done, and the governmental oversight there is weak when even present at all. Many houses in formerly redlined districts can be tested positive for high levels of lead even to this day. And, since the whole point is that the people there are economically disadvantaged, tap water is the most common form of hydration - tap water that comes from a poorly maintained system that receives little funding, where acid can often leech into the lines and eat at the lead piping, allowing the metal to enter the water in unsafe trace amounts
And this won't cause acute poisoning - not at those levels. ...but it builds. Children are born in these towns and spend entire lifetimes in them, drinking down that weak poison as it accumulates more and more. Now, what do we know about the effects of chronic lead poisoning in children? Lower IQ. Violent tendencies. Lack of motivation. More pronounced risk-seeking behavior. All this shit that deeply unpleasant people claim is some sort of trait inherent to black people... extensive childhood lead exposure can cause it all. And gee, wouldn't you know it - black americans from wealthy neighborhoods or backgrounds as children don't regularly display any of those traits.
So... the hospitals that could recognize and treat chronic heavy metal poisoning are underfunded, understaffed, and underequipped in these areas.
The schools have the same problems, and the lowered IQ and motivation from lead poisoning compounds the issue.
Access to healthy dietary options is restricted, compounding on the issue with hospitals and making the body more vulnerable to attack by the condition.

...and this wasn't even intended. I guarantee you that no one thought, while doing this nonsense, 'haha yes, and let's poison the children while we screw the parents over'. I mean, that last part yeah, they definitely knew what they were doing in regards to screwing over the adults living there... but I deeply doubt that a single thought was spared for all the lead, which almost makes it *more* tragic.

[JackEverfree]

I feel that this is a snowball effect that has turned into a self fulfilling prophecy. Districts that were marked as declining were forced to and now that the redlined districts are actually declining, a knock on effect causes an increase in poverty which in turn leads to other issues. So due to something that happened 100 years ago a group could now have honest concerns about investing in such an area.

[fantasylover]

I’m so glad you guys covered this topic. I didn’t learn about it until college, and now as a medical professional, I see this impacting my patients whole lives. It’s a sad fact, but the biggest predictor of someone’s health is not any medical condition: it’s their zip code.

[seanpoore]

"this is a racist octopus, remember"
quote of the year so far

[shawnheatherly]

There must be a harsher penalty for banks caught redlining. It's not like they don't realize what they're doing.

why the hell does the USA still funds schools with neighborhood taxes instead of just a minimum base + X for each student tailored to each state? the current system you americans have is extremely biased.

[mishlimon]

i really like these episodes on almost every Thursday talking about black history in the USA it is very interesting

[badgerguy]

"Banks have still been caught redlining as recently as 2015, and suffered little consequence."

Ugh. Just ugh.

[aidanpeterson]

5:57
Me a Michigander: hey they said Michigan!
3 seconds later: oh oh no
6 seconds later: man. Can’t have schools in Detroit. 🤦‍♂️

[toyamwarr]

As my uncle use to say “telling minorities that they need to stop complaining and pick themselves up by their bootstraps if they want to succeed in life is like telling a person whose drowning to just keep their head above water.”

It’s maddening how some people who have been handed everything in life can’t seem to comprehend that others don’t get the same treatment. I was roommates with a girl in college who could not understand why my parents couldn’t just pay off all my student loan debt. Her parents were rich and didn’t bat an eye to all the money she cost them. Why couldn’t my parents do the same? Taking her to visit my hometown taught her quickly that everyone doesn’t have rich parents and even quicker than not everyone has the opportunity to live in pleasantville like her. I didn’t grow up dirt poor but faaaar from what she knew.

[richardavsmith]

And now, depressingly, so many of those communities who accumulated huge wealth and power through this process watch only TV stations and consume only online media devoted to telling them they've been hard done by, making sure that they continue to vote against anything that would make this situation better.

[cometmoon]

Thank you for highlighting this. Too many of these despicable systemic vices go ignored.

[ACMelendrez]

I gotta say as a housing organizer, this is the kind of material we want more people to see. Thank you!

[DragoniteSpam]

This, of course, is exactly what we mean when we talk about "systemic racism."

[barrystrickland]

This is the video that Prager U doesn't want you to see.

[desciplesofthomassankara]

Wonderful! If we don't learn about these issues it's easy for us to overlook the generational ills caused, facilitating the denial of systemic racism

[leflamewolf]

the one thing ONE THING that I absolutely hate is the fact that schools still are not talking about this the children of today are the adults of tomorrow yes schools are talking about stuff like Martin Luther King but stories of our past aren't enough we not the reality of today to be taught that way at an early age we can show kids that the current system is failing and that hopefully the next generation can do better if we don't address current problems they will not go away they will just become future problems

[AlRoderick]

An interesting side effect of the low-cost government loans from the new deal is that it started the breakdown of labor unions, maybe accidental but probably on purpose. Because if you take workers and you turn them into atomized small property owners, suddenly they become far more concerned about their property taxes than about their wages and working conditions.

[lkawsome]

Ireland circa 1840: Hey I’ve seen this one!