1968, the year the Fair Housing Act outlawed redlining (the practice of systematically denying financial services to residents of specific neighborhoods often based on race), was over half a century ago. And yet, the destructive effects on Black Americans’ health and economic status are still felt to this day due to racist urban planning.
Take a look at an area not even an hour away: San Francisco’s Hunter’s Point. Purchased by the US Navy in 1937, the construction of a shipyard to build ships for World War II brought in many African Americans seeking jobs, shifting the population into predominantly Black. However, once the war came to an end, the U.S. built the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory to research effects of radiation, atomic weapons, and decontamination methods. As a result of careless disposal, many toxic chemicals were dumped into the surrounding environment, leaving residents of the neighborhood susceptible to chronic illnesses such as asthma and cancer.
Due to the persistence of external health factors, Black Americans living in redlined communities have increased odds of preterm birth, and higher rates of diabetes specific mortality and years of life lost. Furthermore, these issues are exacerbated by racist urban planning. In 2022, Dr. David J.X. González and his team found that neighborhoods of the lowest-grade quality lived in proximity to nearly twice the density of oil and gas wells as those in highest graded areas causing cardiovascular and respiratory issues among ethnic residents. And despite the life-threatening effects that these factors pose to citizens and the thousands of complaints filed annually, the government is slow to implement change. In Hunter’s Point, the contaminated soil was designated a Superfund (the highest designation of pollution) in 1989; clean up “efforts” are still taking place decades later.
Evidently, lawmakers are fine with letting marginalized communities disproportionately experience the effects of its past mistakes compared to their higher-class, white counterparts. While these practices were banned 50 years ago, Black communities in the US continue to bear the burden of redlining and the modern effects of race-driven urban planning.