Social Welfare
Please watch this video and answer the numbered questions below. have the questions handy while you watch the video.
RACE THE POWER OF AN ILLUSION: The Genesis of Discriminatory Housing Policies:
1. What is ‘redlining’ and how did the term originate? What are the consequences of redlining on housing patterns? What attitudes and beliefs might such practices reinforce?
How much of the $120 billion in home loans underwritten between 1934 and 1962 went to non-whites? Why? What effect did that have on such families?
2. Explain the terms “white flight,” “blockbusting” and racial “steering.” Why do property values decline when a neighborhood changes from white to nonwhite?
3. How are the reasons given by the film different from what you’ve heard or what people commonly believe?
4. A typical (median) white family has a net worth how many times that of a typical African American family? Why? If we do nothing to address the wealth gap, will it go away on its own or continue to grow? Why?
5. What happens to measures of racial disparities like graduation and welfare rates once groups of similar income AND wealth are compared? And what does this mean for us as a society?
