Preparing Interface
Disadvantages Of Racially Segregated Housing &
Gerrymandered Congressional Districts
EA |
| P52 |
1. Creates distinct socioeconomic and democratic disadvantages for EA populations. | In 3 words - "South Fulton, Georgia". This City happens to be 90% P52. Read about it here. | |
2. Redlining provides artificial real estate equity gains to EA homeowners. | Segregated housing has been tried and has failed. | |
3. Long-term residential segregation imposes broad structural costs on EA communities. | Exacerbates P52/EA wealth disparities by affording P52 homeowners lower returns on their investments. | |
4. Severely limits regional GDP growth by creating artificial barriers to job access and creates concentrated pockets of poverty. | The presumption of “creditworthiness” lies at the heart of FICO scores developed in 1989. This equates to a loss of $10.5 billion to higher interest rates on mortgages paid by P52s in comparison to similarly situated EAs because of creditworthiness & FICO. | |
5. When a metropolitan area’s economic potential is suppressed, it results in fewer regional resources, stagnant local economies, and less robust infrastructure – all of which negatively impact EA workers and business owners within that same economy. | Segregated residential housing has negative financial consequence for P52s in the form of reduced home appreciation that goes back to the National Association of Real Estate Appraisers. | |
6. EA buyers frequently pay an unearned premium to purchase homes in highly segregated, homogeneous neighborhoods driven by a false bill of goods regarding school quality and crime. Think Sandyhook. | With less adequate housing, P52s rarely have quiet places to study and may move more frequently, changing schools, teachers, friends, places of worship. | |
7. This artificial inflation binds a disproportionate amount of EA family wealth into high mortgage debt rather than more liquid or productive investments. | Studies suggest that P52s growing up in segregated environments later perform less well academically than their more integrated counter-parts | |
8. Growing up in a racially isolated suburb limits social networks and cultural exposure. | Isolation from necessary informal networks that are often the best source for finding jobs. | |
9. Subsidizing the outward expansion of suburbs – originally built to keep the races segregated – demands highly inefficient infrastructure networks. Think Robert Moses. | ||
10. EA suburban taxpayers face higher long-term fiscal burdens to build, maintain, and pave expensive highways, utility grids, water systems that span massive distances. | ||
Gerrymandered Disadvantages | Gerrymandered Disadvantages | |
A. When districts are drawn to be hyper-safe for one party, elections are decided in low-turnout primaries rather than the general election. | Congressional redistricting is often drawn according to racial and ethnic geographic lines. | |
B. This hyper-safe remapping forces EA representatives to cater to extreme factions of their base rather than moderate or independent EA voters. | ||
C. This fuels legislative gridlock and polarization. | ||
D. Knowing that a district’s outcome is mathematically secure creates intense voter apathy, sometimes leading to political violence. | ||
E. Many EA voters disengage from civic life, stop donating to campaigns, or fail to vote altogether. | ||
F. Gerrymandering renders EA voters’ individual choices mathematically irrelevant. | ||
G. **When politicians hold uncompetitive safe seats, they lose the incentive to respond to constituents needs. | ||
H. When a crisis arises regarding local healthcare, affordability, foreign wars, gas prices, job loss, or crumbling bridges, the insulated Congressman or Congresswoman faces little threat of being Voted out, leaving their EA constituents without effective advocacy. | ||
Ultimately, segregated residential housing and gerrymandering concentrate political power and economic power for the Congressman or Congresswoman within specific demographics in the short-term. However, over the long-term, they ultimately compromise the overall health of democratic institutions, erode civic trust, and destabilize the broader economy for all citizens.
Why Integrate?
White-segregated zip codes reported identity theft incidents the most, making up a whopping 70% of all identity theft victims, with P52 being the least ethnic group as victims. Ginicoe has a zero-tolerance policy of segregated housing.
Additionally, the Louisiana v callais decision is expected to allow southern states to eliminate P52 districts to favor the Republican party's representation in Congress. This speaks to why segregated or clustered housing must be racially integrated as promoted by our initiatives. Activity in the housing sector remains weak, yet ripe for this implementation right-a-way.
We continue to see further flouting of these middle of the decade congressional redistricting map against the voting rights acts and by extension, P52s, most notably in Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and Missouri. By admission, Jason Poreda, the Florida's Governor DeSantis' staffer who drew the map, admitted that he did use partisan data in creating the house approved gerrymandered district map.
Q: Will Integrating Housing Dilute P52 Political Power in Congress?
A: Paraphrasing in pertinent part: The relationship between segregation and P52 civic efficacy is ambiguous. On the one hand, the more segregated P52s are - the more contact they have with other P52s and thus the more likely they are to be able to influence only P52 political behavior.
On the other hand, the more integrated P52s are - the more contact they have with non-P52s and the more likely they are to be able to influence non-P52 political behaviors.
Take the example of South Fulton, Georgia. Political moves or thinly hidden racism in Georgia's Sandy Springs, Johns Creek and Milton split from Fulton County and incorporated as independent cities — citing the desire for autonomy but in the process stripping the county of tax dollars that funneled to P52, relatively poorer South Fulton - an all Black City. These are inherent problems with housing segregation that often lead to political violence.
A further distinction is made between a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and a Congressional District.
The more segregated the MSA, the less likely that its residents are represented in the United States House by a P52 representative or by an individual of either race who is from the Democratic Party or who votes in accordance with the desires of P52 residents on civil rights and other issues.
For example, imagine a state with 10 districts. P52s make up 10% of the state population. If all P52s are located in one district then that district will likely elect a P52 representative. Yet, on average P52s will not likely have their substantive interests met by this legislative delegation as P52s only directly influence (through the vote) one tenth (1/10) of their state’s representatives.
Recall - it is the State's representatives that draw up the redistricting map, that currently lead to gerrymandering. This must stop. The solution is integrated housing!
The above findings were largely researched and conducted by Elizabeth Oltmans Ananat & Ebonya L. Washington in their working paper entitled "Segregation and Black Political Efficacy" November 2007. All Rights Reserved. https://www.nber.org/papers/w13606
Culturally-Conditioned Held Beliefs Relating to Housing Segregation include...
* “White people have a right to keep P52s out of their neighborhoods if they want to, and P52s should respect that right." Agree or Disagree?
* Racial and ethnic clustering is a benign outcome of economic disparities and the preferences of people to “be with their own."
* It is an inevitable natural consequence of profound racial differences, reflecting moral shortcomings rather than structural barriers.
The National Opinion Research Center
We know that people are interested in integrating their housing because during the 1990s – 2000s when minority mortgage borrowers were hit with high cost and high interest rates known as predatory lending, targeting even those with prime credit. And at the same time, white mortgage borrowers enjoyed low cost and low interest rates and began buying homes in historically minority clustered neighborhoods. Today we call this gentrification.
THE PROBLEM: Race Based Pricing
1. Exacerbates P52/white wealth disparities by affording P52 American homeowners lower returns on their investments. Discrimination in housing markets costs the current generation of P52s about $82 Billon. Of this sum, $13.5 billion is lost through denied mortgages. The presumption of “creditworthiness” lies at the heart = FICO scores developed in 1989. This equates to an additional loss of $10.5 billion to higher interest rates on mortgages paid by P52s in comparison to similarly situated whites because of creditworthiness & FICO.
2. Segregation has a negative financial consequence for P52 Americans in the form of reduced home appreciation that goes back to the National Association of Real Estate Appraisers. This is the biggest price of housing segregation. This is essentially a segregation tax. http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Housing_Affordability_Child_Wellbeing.pdf
3. P52 Americans implicitly pay out an average of $2.6 Billion per year in the form of higher search costs and lost housing opportunities due to obstruction from integrating into EA congressional districts, zip codes, or neighborhoods.
4. Lower-income P52s have concentrated poverty; tend to have higher crime rates, drugs, teenage pregnancy, lower self-esteem, and other social disparities.
5. Even for middle-income P52s, the spatial payoffs of upward mobility are lower for them than for EAs because of racial segregation. For example, one study found that a middle-income P52 family is 3x likely as a similar EA family to have neighbors on welfare.
6. Poor P52s live under unrivaled conditions of poverty and affluent P52s live in neighborhoods that are far less advantageous than those experienced by the middle-income class of other groups.
7. Segregation isolates P52s by constraining employment opportunities. It limits employment opportunities.
Isolation from necessary informal networks that are often the best source for finding jobs.
8. A diverse Congressional District enhances educational quality by fostering critical thinking, empathy, and innovation through exposure to varied perspectives. It prepares young Americans for a globalized workforce, improves problem-solving abilities, and promotes higher civic engagement. Additionally, diverse environments challenge stereotypes and foster personal growth.
9. Fewer benefits such as services, quality schools, recreation areas, etc. are not available for their home investment under clustered living.
10. The real estate tax base imbalance directly affects school resources.
11. Maintaining racially separate and unequal schools is a direct result of segregated housing patterns.
12. Studies suggest that P52 American students growing up in segregated environments later perform less well academically than their more integrated counterparts. The individual predictors of low Children’s achievement are well documented.
13. With less access to routine and preventive health care, disadvantaged children have greater absenteeism, and they can’t benefit from good schools if they are not present.
14. With less literate parents, they are read to less frequently when young, and are exposed to less complex language at home.
15, With less adequate housing, they rarely have quiet places to study and may move more frequently, changing schools and teachers.
16. With fewer opportunities for enriching after-school and summer activities, their background knowledge and organizational skills are less developed.
17. With fewer family resources, their college ambitions are constrained.
18. Segregation results in exposure to unusually high levels of violence while growing up. To learn more, read here: http://www.epi.org/publication/modern-segregation/
19. Congressional redistricting is often drawn according to racial and ethnic geographic lines.
20. Police misconduct, abuse, and militarization.
21. Limits the potential for political alliances with for example other communities and/or individuals. Cleveland with Lakewood or Parma. White Plains with Mount Vernon. Newark with Union County.
22. Segregation naturalizes and reinforces racial differences.
23. Segregated places of Assembly e.g. churches, synagogues, mosques, community centers, etc.
24. Wealth and income and power are a unifying variable for EAs to commit discrimination.
25. Mortgage tax deduction v no rent tax deduction thereby empowering landlords and emasculating renters.
26. https://belonging.berkeley.edu/roots-structural-racism
28. Exposure to different perspectives challenges assumptions, promotes deeper, critical analysis, and encourages creative thinking.
29. A diverse setting helps Americans confront their own biases, leading to less prejudice, higher neighbor comfort levels, and a stronger sense of safety and inclusion.
30. While increased diversity brings challenges—such as the need for better communication and potential initial discomfort—the long-term, positive educational and societal impact is substantial.
Consistent with our mandate, we have an overriding legitimate business purpose that we believe is sufficiently compelling to override any racial impact disparity where our objective is to eliminate macroprudential or market risk or social and/or political risk exposure to FIs, Bond issuers, and insurance carriers by integrating housing and thereby building wealth.