How institutional racism fuels urban violence

In 1935, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) directed the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) to look at 239 cities, including Chicago, to develop ‘Residential Security Maps’ identifying levels of security for real estate investment. HOLC came up with a 4 color scheme. Green was for affluent suburbs and outer city areas, blue for ‘still desirable city neighborhoods, yellow for declining neighborhoods and red for areas too dilapidated for loans. Thus was born America's infamous 'Redlining'. These ‘redlined’ areas were virtually all poor minority communities. Private banking and home loan institutions took their cue from the Fed, resulting in nine decades of disinvestment which turned Chicago’s South and West Sides into violent urban wastelands. Whites living there also took the Fed’s cue, moving west toward green and blue lined areas where housing loans were readily available to those with the right color.

American capitalism had a couple more surprises for the residents left behind. Virtually no jobs or vital community resources but unlimited guns. There’s no Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing employment, a decent food store or nearby hospital, but there is one allowing guns galore to flood into the hands of dispossessed youngsters and confirmed criminals to ignite a daily shooting gallery claiming over 2,000 annual victims in Chicago alone.

Institutional racism that fuels a slaughter on 7th Avenue and every other street for that matter in Chicago and elsewhere, is not hard to discover. It’s been written into federal legislation; indeed, enshrined in Constitution. It remains at the heart of the protests, mostly peaceful, but occasionally destructive, aimed at addressing that scourge. All of us of good will must take note and act.