Redlining and Institutional Racism

In college I wrote a paper on how funding for education needed to be changed. I wrote about tying it to localized property taxes was an unfair system. Since writing that 10 years ago nothing has really changed, in fact because of defunding education at the state level, it has gotten worse.

One of the best way to get out of poverty is an education. The system has made it very difficult for people in poverty to get a good education. This has in turn made generations of families stuck in poverty which then leads to other means to provide for your family. This is where the system has played a huge roll in keeping it that way. The redlining tactic is still very prevalent when you look at larger cities and the property values of certain areas. It is even more prevalent when you add in values of suburb cities in comparison.

I mentioned earlier, when there is generational poverty people find another way to get money. This leads to illegal activity, which then eventually leads to incarceration. This is just another example of the system acting out exactly as it was intended. Now we see an increase in arrests in neighborhoods that have been redlined, that have poor education systems, all because their are systems set in place to keep people of color at a distance from white people.

The system allows for policing acts to be racist, and therefore we have seen a significant disparity in people of color, specifically black people, being arrested in incarcerated. This is why the current protests are so significant. I hope that the momentum does not die down like it has in the past, that the protests continue until there is actual change!