An excerpt from Level.com
The Loud Racism of Gated Communities and HOAs
Under the facade of race-neutral suburbia, racism persists
Dr. Allison Wiltz
Photo by Radu Prodan / Unsplash |
Consider, for instance, an advertisement for Lexington Real Estate in 1908, for a 5-room "brand new residence," № 640 on Euclid Avenue. Among other amenities, such as "hot and cold water, gas," was a statement, that read — "No Negros can buy property in this subdivision." This wasn't an off-the-cuff account made through casual observation, but a verifiable fact. You see, their claim referenced the community's racially restrictive covenant that prohibited Black people from buying or inhabiting homes in that area. This was one of the many strategies employed to maintain racially segregated communities.
While racial redlining controlled which areas Black people could inhabit, racial covenants further exacerbated the problem. The Prairie Village Homeowners Association in Kansas once had a "covenant [that] applied to all 1,700 homes." One restriction found in a St. Louis home built in 1906, five years after its construction, prohibited the property from being sold or inhabited "by people of the Negro or Mongolian Race." One home in San Diego built from 1950–51 included a covenant that prohibited anyone "other than the Caucasian race" from living there or occupying the property except "in the capacity of servants or employees." This language, as it was placed in deeds, sought to maintain the racial hierarchy. Racial covenants can be found in the deeds of homes in almost every state in the country. And while they are no longer legally enforceable, they serve as a pungent reminder of the nation's racist past.
Homeowners Associations of today are often accused of discriminating against Black people and other racial minorities. Many gated communities are located on the outskirts of cities, designed to separate themselves from those who live outside the subdivision. They’re typically more expensive, predominantly White, insular neighborhoods. Segregationists, such as Kansas City developer Jesse Clyde Nichols, helped “standardize the form of homeowner’s association in which deed restrictions ran with the land, and all common property and amenities fell under the governance of mandatory membership." This meant anyone who bought a home in that area was subjected not just to the federal, state, and city laws, but also to the policies implemented by the homeowners’ association. This enabled neighbors to police others’ lives and property. Nichols has also been credited with standardizing the use of racially restrictive covenants to control the racial makeup of communities.
"By tying property values and covenant enforcement to racially exclusive resident-governed communities on the fringe of cities," Nichols helped to exacerbate racial segregation and discrimination in this country. Many White homeowners bought into the false notion that they needed to keep Black people out of their communities to remain safe. And this became their go-to excuse to maintain racial segregation. In 1945, the Civil Liberties Committee reported that "some 80 per cent of Chicago is covered with anti-Negro housing restrictions." The Central Young Men’s Christian Association, which led an "anti-Negro crusade," crammed in 400,000 people into "the most crowded slum in the world, Chicago’s Black Belt." In this way, racial segregation maintained poverty for Black people. Racial redlining policies and covenants prevented them from living anywhere else.
While we often talk about America as a nation that has racially progressed, the truth is that there have always been two concurrent movements, one advancing civil rights and liberties, and the other seeking to diminish them. It’s not a coincidence that HOAs grew in popularity after Shelly v. Kraemer (1948), which "declared enforcement of racially restrictive covenants," unconstitutional. As so many times throughout the nation’s history, Black people’s progress was followed by White people finding a way to undermine their gains. Making these covenants illegal didn’t mean White people would abandon their racist beliefs about Black people. As we’ve seen, they found other methods of racial exclusion. Today, systemic racism does not need to be loud, as it is quietly effective. Case in point, Black Americans are less likely to own a home than in 1968 — this is the case without explicitly racist policies.
https://www.levelman.com/the-loud-racism-of-gated-communities-and-hoas/
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