How Structural Racism Works

Culturalist

( Sanneh "Don't be Like That: Does Black Culture Need to Be Reformed") Definition: The idea that culture is to blame for inadequacy in black communities. Cultualist believe that lack of upward mobility in black communities is a product of black culture. Application: Culturalist identify black culture as the reason for continued inequality. Culturalists believe in the idea that racism is over and that inequalities are due to a lack of effort on the part of black communities (failing to take advantage of opportunities) and therefore they must have "deficient" culture. Culturalist replaced biological arguments for inequalities with cultural ones that would defend the status quo of hard work vs. handouts. Connection: This is a common technique in today's practice of New Racism. Culturalists avoid acknowledging and taking responsibility for their role in inequalities that exist. Instead, they victim blame to ensure that structures they benefit from remain since they won't take part in dismanteling them.

Othermothering

( Sullivan's "Dis-ease of Color Blindness") Definition: Middle class white women taking up the fight against racism and discrimination by discussing issues of race and racism with white children who are not their own. Application: Othermothering is a term inspired by Sullivan's analysis of the work of Patrica Hill Collins who explains that black women have a tradition of informal and extended kin networks where they have taken responsibility for other black children who are not "theirs." This tradition helped black children survive and thrive. Sullivan suggest that the same practice by white women could serve as a model for anti-racist work. Connection: The practice of othermothering could be both controversial or uncontroversial. For example, an uncontroversial form of othermothering is white parents volunteering to give presentations on race and racial justice struggles at their children's schools. A more controversial practice of othermothering is white authoritative figures responding to offensive racial behavior of other white children instead of solely focusing on the attitude and behavior of their own child.

Rhetorical Incoherence

(Bonilla-Silva Racism without Racists) Definition: Described by Bonilla-Silva as one of the stylistic/ rhetorical components of color blindness where grammatical mistakes, lengthy pauses, or repetition leads to a level of incoherence when people discuss sensitive subjects. Application: As Bonilla-Silva suggests, the new racial climate in America forbids the open expression of racially based feelings, views, and positions which causes White people to become almost incomprehensible when discussing issues that make them feel uncomfortable. Connection: Rhetorical incoherence relates to DiAngelo's piece on White Fragility wherein "racial stress results from an interruption to what is racially familiar." Since whiteness works as a racial category that is racially unmarked, conversations about race often seem as only relating to people of color. Thus white people often feel uncomfortable when confronted with racial challenges, hence white fragility, due to the psychic freedom that allows white people to place social burden of race on people of color.

New Racism

(Bonilla-Silva; Racism without Racists - Chapter 2) Definition: New racism is the replacement of Jim Crow racism. It appears to be subtle and non-racial but produces persistent racial inequalities. Similar to other ideologies, New racism victim blames and does so in an indirect "now you see it now you don't" style. Application: New Racism has five key elements to its structure. It is increasingly covert in racial discourse and racial practices. It avoids racial terminology and promotes increased claims of reverse racism by whites. It elaborates on a racial agenda over political matters that avoids direct racial references. It has the invisibility of most mechanisms to reproduce racial inequality. Lastly, it articulates some racial practices characteristics of the Jim Crow Period. New Racism is different from Jim Crow racism because it is a less obvious practice of racism. Connection: New Racism shows that the civil rights movement did not produce fixed victories. Instead, new racism in a way for whites to reproduce inequality covertly. For example, a practice of new racism could be a realtor choosing not to show a black family all available units when searching for a house. Another example could be a company denying an African American an opportunity for a job by telling them they aren't hiring even though they are.

Individualism

(Bonilla-Silva; Racism without Racists - Chapter 2: "The Central Frames of Colorblind Racism") Definition: individualism is a justification for opposing policies to improve racial inequality because they are group based rather than case by case. Application: Whites use the idea of individual choice to defend their right to live and associate primarily with other whites (segregation) and for choosing whites exclusively as their mates. Racial pluralism is also involved in individualism because it assumes that all racial groups have the same power and ability to make individual choices. Since whites have more power, their individual choices reproduce a form of white supremacy in society. Connection: Individualism is a problem because it does not allow for policies that demand individual treatment because whites have group-based advantages so and minorities face group based discrimination. Therefore, individual treatment would only benefit the advantaged group.

4 Central Frames of Colorblind Racism

(Bonilla-Silva; Racism without Racists - Chapter 3: "The Central Frames of Colorblind Racism"). Definition: The Four Central Frames of Colorblind Racism are used to engage in narratives that directly work to diminish/mask the importance of discrimination. One frame is Abstract Liberalism, which is the ideal that the principle of equal opportunity is now invoked by white people to oppose affirmative action policies as they are considered preferential treatment. Moreover, Bonilla-Silva argues that abstract liberalism is used to sound reasonable and moral while opposing almost all practical approaches to deal with racial inequality. Additionally, individualism is used to justify opposing opinions. The second frame is naturalization which is used by whites to to explain away racial phenomena by suggesting they are natural occurrences. These racist ideals explain that preferences are biologically driven. The third frame is cultural racism which relies on culturally based arguments in place of biological ones that defend the racial status quo (example: Hard work vs. Handouts). The fourth frame is minimization of race which says that racism is no longer a central thing affecting minorities. Minimization allows the scope of what is considered discrimination to be more narrow which allows whites to brush off racially motivated incidents. Application: Minimization of race was used to normalize the way the government (under George W. Bush treated Black people during Hurricane Katrina). Cultural racism has also been used in arguments that express that Black people rarely work hard and instead collect handouts. Connection: The four central frames of color blindness can be connected to the culture of poverty expressed in the Moynihan report which uses cultural racism to attack the state of Black families.

Buying on Contract

(Coates, "The Case for Reparations") Definition: Buying on Contract was a form of housing discrimination. It was an agreement that combined all the responsibilities of homeownership with all the disadvantages of renting. Application: the seller would keep the deed until the contract was paid in full. Unlike a normal mortgage, the buyer would acquire no equity while paying off the contract. If a single payment was missed, the buyer would have to immediately forfeit the down payment, all the monthly payments, and the property itself. Contract sellers would lie about properties' compliance with building codes leaving the buyer responsible when city inspectors arrived. Sellers presented themselves as real-estate brokers when in fact they were the owners and guided their clients to lawyers who were in on the scheme. After sellers true motivations were exposed, black buyers created the contract buyers league where they demanded payback for all the money they had lost. Clyde Ross, a victim of the scheme was a part of the league that fought for justice. Unfortunately, despite the league's efforts they lost. Connection: Buying on Contract was a scheme that made contract sellers rich and communities of buyers ghetto since there was no leeway for missed payments. Lenders took black buyers for money and for sport. They used these contracts to build on their inherited wealth while causing blacks to lose everything if they made a mistake. Buying on Contract was a scheme used to make sure that blacks remained poor and wealthy.

Moynihan Report

(Daniel Geary - The Moynihan Report: An Annotated Edition reading) Definition: The report was written by Moynihan to persuade White House officials that civil rights legislation alone would not produce racial equality. He succeeded in getting Presidents Johnson's attention leading Johnson to admit that equal citizenship for African Americans was incomplete without the ability to make a decent living. However, after the report became more popular and caused heated debate the Johnson disowned the report.There was confusion over its aims due to contradictions in the writing and Moynihan's decision to discuss racial inequality in terms of family structure. Application: The Moynihan Report ignores the need for social and legal change that is actually responsible for high rates of poverty in black communities. The report says that family structure is responsible for rates of poverty in black communities instead of larger structural forces. The Moynihan Report categorizes a dysfunctional family structure as non-patriarchal, non-hetersexual, and non-nuclear family. The report also overlooks structural and economic forces that renders marriage or male involvement impossible. These structures are seen as atypical and destructive to successful outcomes for upward mobility. Connection: Many liberals understood the report to advocate for new policies that would work against race based economic inequalities. Conservatives found the report to be a convenient rationalization for inequality and argued that only racial self help could produce necessary changes in family structure. The report was also used to reaffirm stereotypes of loose family morality among African Americans. The report was interpreted in many different ways. For example, left wing critics attacked Moynihan for distraction from focusing on ongoing systemic racism to African American family characteristics. Centuries of injustice have brought deep seated structural distortions in the life of African Americans but the report does not focus on structural issues and instead provides excuses for larger systemic problems to be ignored.

Possessive Investment in Whiteness

(George Lipitiz, "The Possessive Investment in Whiteness- Chapter 1") Definition: Possessive Investment in whiteness is generated by disinvestment in U.S. cities, factories, and schools since the 1970s. Social problems like deindustrialization, economic restructuring, and neoconservative attacks on the welfare state and social wage are disguised as racial problems. Possessive investment in whiteness fuels a discourse that demonizes people of color for being victimized by these changes, while hiding the privileges of whiteness. Whites are encouraged to invest in there own whiteness bc society grants a monetary and concrete benefit for whiteness Application: European settlers who came to North America established structures that encouraged a possessive investment in whiteness. Europeans established power by creating a radicalized system of power that reserved permanent, hereditary, chattel slavery for black people. White settlers institutionalized a possessive investment in whiteness by making blackness synonymous with slavery and whiteness synonymous with freedom and also by pitting people of color against each other. The power of whiteness relied on white hegemony over separate racialized groups but also by manipulating racial outsiders to fight against one another to compete for white approval and seek the rewards and privileges of whiteness themselves at the expense of other racialized populations. Connection: The possessive investment in whiteness today always affects individual and collective opportunities. Even in cases where minorities secure political and economic power through collective mobilization, their collectivity will always be influenced and intensified by whiteness in U.S politics, economics, and culture. Whites continue to be rewarded for their historical advantage in the labor market rather than their individual abilities and efforts. These opportunities allowed for intergenerational transfers of wealth, educational advantages, and advantages in the private sector. Since minorities don't have this privilege, many whites think that blacks suffer deservedly because they don't take advantage of the opportunities in front of them.

Black Spatial Imaginary

(George Lipitz "How Racism Takes Place"?) Definition: Lipitiz defines Black Spatial Imaginary as a socially-shared understanding of the importance of public space and its power to shape opportunities and life chances. Black Spatial Imaginary is an artistic and cultural expression formed in resistance to white spatial imaginary. Application: BSI is the site of expressive culture where oppressed and displaced black communities are waging a struggle to resist and survive policies of racial segregation and white supremacy while conceiving of a different future. It is an example of black solidarity between and across spaces. It is a mindset that has less to do with what's actually happening and more to do with how you chose to understand what's happening. Connection: BSI allows for acceptance of feelings you have for yourself and the way you are living. For example, BSI may allow someone to accept that their living situation is the best they can do for right now. The collect thought of BSI was a catalyst for congregation in the black community during a time where policing and surveillance are high.

Refuse, Resist and Renegotiate

(George Lipsitz, "Civil Rights Laws and White Privilege") Definition: Phrase used by George Lipsitz in "Civil Rights Laws and White Privilege." It describes how whites continued segregation and protected whiteness. Application: At every stage over the past 50 years, whites have responded to civil rights laws with coordinated collective politics characterized by resistance, refusal, and renegotiation. While opposition to the implementation of anti-discrimination statutes stands as a strong indictment of the character of European Americans and shows the racial problem in the U.S. continues to be a white problem. Connection: This relates to Anderson's piece on "Rolling Back Civil Rights" in White Rage where Anderson describes white discomfort and unease as African Americans achieved greater access to their citizenship rights. As Anderson notes, white people challenged this access through policies, laws, and court cases.

Post-Racialism

(Lawrence D. Bobo "Somewhere between Jim Crow and Post-Racialism: Reflections on the Racial Divide in American Today") Definition: A theoretical environment in which the United States is free from racial preference, discrimination, and prejudice. The term is meant to signal a hopeful trajectory for events and social trends, not an accomplished fact of social life. Application: Post- Racialism is commonly used by three tropes that instill the idea of a "post-racial" America: Hopeful - Hoping that race disappears Symbolism implies that you don't want to talk about problems that race causes Rejection of Black grievance If you mention Black grievances people think you're contributing to a racist world Racial mixing will end race problems It doesn't matter what your skin tone is (color blindness) Connection: Post-Racialism is a belief that emerges in the US around breakthrough moments in racial representation. For example, the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which many whites believe ended Jim Crow segregation and thus racism (when in fact, as Bonilla-Silva and others argue that racism only evolved) or once Obama was elected. The notion that we are post-racial furthers the perpetuation of colorblind ideology that prevents us from addressing racial inequalities. If you can't "see" race, then you can't address policies with disparate racial outcomes or broader social problems that are racially-specific.

Great Black Migration

(Lecture 1/25) Definition: (1916-1940 & 1940-1970) Until 1910, 90% of African Americans lived in the South, mostly in rural areas. The exodus to urban areas in the South such as New Orleans, Memphis and the massive move to Northern Midwestern and Western Cities is called the great migration. 6.5 million Blacks fled from the South (roughly half in 1930 total Black population). Additionally, the railroad system made the great migration corridors possible; also encouraged by employee agencies that needed cheap industrial labor. Application: The Great Migration dramatically changed the shape of Black America culture and life and created what we now think of as an urban Black population/culture. Connection: The Great Migration is largely linked to northern urban racial/spatial containment that took the form of redlining, blockbusting, and racial violence as discussed in Sharkey, Stuck in Place - Chapter 4: Neighborhoods and the Transmission of Racial Inequality.

Gears

(Lecture 1/28) Definition: Gears is part of metaphoric language describing interconnectedness of racism. Gears represent the interlocking elements of structural racism that signify how each institution plays a role in structural racism. Further, gears are like a domino effect and one gear will affect another. The distinction between the web and the gears is that each gear is relying on the previous gear to make it operational and functional. Application: The metaphor of gears can be seen in the practice of redlining. Red-lining is a foundation and has a lot of consequences like inherited racial inequality, criminal justice, environmental racism, wealth inequality etc. There is a negative spiraling effect. Connection: Gears representation of redlining is expressed in the Sharkey Stuck in Place - Chapter 3: 40 Year Detour on the Path toward Racial Equality.

Birdcage

(Lecture 1/28) Definition: The birdcage is used as a metaphor to provide a symbolic way to envision structural racism. More specifically, the birdcage represents the way in which structural racism provides limited to no autonomy because unless the birdcage is locked from the inside you must be let out from the outside. Essentially, once you are in the system it is very difficult to get out. Additionally, in a birdcage, even if a bird can escape the cage, the cage still exists and more "birds" will be put back in. Application: The prison industrial complex is reminiscent of the birdcage. Once convicted of a felony it becomes more difficult to get a job, public housing, food stamps, etc. Connection: The birdcage metaphor is connected to redlining that is defined in The Color of Law by Rothstein because many communities that were listed red and yellow still are poor and communities of color today. Once locked into being in these particular neighborhoods, it was hard to overcome these circumstances (build wealth).

Story Circles

(Lipsitz Lecture) Definition: A way of mobilizing the community through art-based community making. Story circles are a form of art that stayed in the minds of the people it reached through the "free Southern Theater." Story circles were brought into education and into the classroom where students would read challenging pieces and then reflect on how the stories speak about power in the world, then they would reflect how it relates to them. In essence, story circles are a process whereby multiple people share out stories and in the end, a story is formed by the circle. These stories are often turned into a performance. Application: Story circles serve to bring the community together to share experiences that are reflective of a person's lived experience. As Professor Lipsitz mentioned in their lecture, story circles were utilized in education in Louisiana which inspired students to share their personal experiences and find common ground with their peers. Connection: Story circles relate to the Black Radical Tradition, as well as the types of racism as denoted by Keith Lawrence. These four types of racism include individual racism, interpersonal racism, institutional racism, and structural racism. Story circles relate to these types of racism because people share their experiences that showcase how racism is at play in everyday life. The use of story circles can mobilize and organize community members around issues that affect them and those around them.

Dog Whistle Politics

(Lopez Dog Whistle Politics - Chapter 2: "Beyond Hate: Strategic Racism) Definition: Dog whistle politics is the process of linguistic abstraction. It encompasses coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general public while simultaneously having an additional or more specific resonance of a targeted sub group. Application: Dog whistle politics was used by Reagan Administration Lee Atwater exposed this in 1981: You start out in 1954 by saying, "******, ******, ******." By 1968 you can't say "******"—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states' rights, and all that stuff, and you're getting so abstract. Now, you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.... "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "******, ******." Connection: Dog whistle politics is largely related to the Southern Strategy used after the 1960s to advocate for policies that have racial implications but did not use racist terminology. Bonilla-Silva in Racism without Racists discusses this in Chapter 2: The New Racism.

Web of Institutional Racism

(Miller and Garran - study in Smith College Studies in Social Work) Definition: The web of institutional racism is a metaphoric language that speaks to the interconnectedness of institutions that perpetuate racism. Each institution has its own version of racism and when you add all them up it forms a web. Institutional racism in the U.S. together form a web of oppression which obstructs social, economic, and political mobility for POC. Application: The web of institutional racism includes: Residential racism Educational racism Employment racism Racism, wealth accumulation, and upward mobility Environmental and health racism Mental health racism Criminal justice system racism Political racism All these types of racism are connected even though they happen across different institutions. Connection: The tangle of pathology discussed in the Moynihan Report discusses that the Negro family has been forced into a matriarchal structure budding from slavery that has created undesirable circumstances and a lack of achievement for black families. Although the tangle of pathology has been largely attacked for its inaccurate portrayal of Black inequality, Moynihan views the tangle of pathology as a web of circumstances that suppress Black America.

Blockbusting

(Rothstein Color of Law - "Own your own Home") Definition: Blockbusting is the practice of persuading white owners to sell property cheaply because of the fear of Black people moving into the neighborhood and thus profiting by reselling at a higher price. White realtors profit from forced growth due to overcrowding. Profit from forced growth due to overcrowding. Application: Blockbusting largely happened after the Great Migration when Blacks crowded into cities. Blockbusting is one of the causes of white flight which sent white people to flee to the suburbs. Connection: Blockbusting is largely connected to segregation due to its separation of white people from Black communities.

Fair Housing Act of 1968

(Rothstein, Color of Law, "Own your own Home") Definition: The FHA was passed on April 11, 1968 and introduced meaningful federal enforcement mechanisms. It outlaws: refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of race, color, disability, religion, sex, familial status or national origin. It was deemed as one of the weakest laws ever passed. Individuals had to bring forth convincing evidence on their own even though they have no subpoena power; therefore discrimination had to be extremely overt. Additionally, it enabled discrimination to continue while bieng on the books as wrong. Application: The FHA's lack of power allowed for segregated communities to continue as there was not much implementation power. Connection: The weakness of the FHA allowed for subprime lending to happen which was a predatory inclusionary practice. Under the banner of including previously excluded people, the expansion of loan products on substandard property, insured by the FHA went unregulated. Unscrupulous lenders, mortgage brokers and appraisers targeted segregated Black communities. This is discussed in Taylor, Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership, Chapter 4: Let the Buyer Beware

Home Owners Loan Corporation

(Rothstein, Color of Law- "Own your own Home") Definition: (1933-1977) The HOLC was created by the federal government. Its goal was to save white middle-class homes on the brink of foreclosure during the depression. They opened home ownership to the middle-class and issued new mortgages with repayment schedules for up to 15 years. HOLC mortgages were amortized meaning that each month's payments included a principal and interest so that when the loan was paid the borrowers would own the property. This allowed for working and middle-class owners to gain equity while their property was still mortgaged. Application: The HOLC assessed financial risk of borrowers, the condition of the homes, and the surrounding homes to see whether the property would maintain value. The primary risk of the HOLC was the race of the borrower. In order to map where they would have the lowest risk, the HOLc mapped american cities and neighborhoods with a color rating system to determine areas with "suitable (white)" residents. Residents in these areas were a suitable risk and were able to apply for a federally backed loan. The color coding system leads to the process of red-lining. Red was the worst rating an area could receive. This rating was based off of race instead of the value of the homes. Connection: the impacts of red-lining are still present today. Red-lining resulted in overcrowding in cities, neighborhood instability, neglect of the city (fewer city services), urban school segregation, inherited racial inequality, multigenerational disadvantages etc.The HOLC has a major part in today's racial wealth gap. The effects of red-lining such as inherited racial inequality and lack of opportunity to accumulate wealth has resulted in African Americans located in major cities affected by red-lining to remain in those cities since they have not had the chance to generate wealth or benefit from generational wealth building like white Americans did.

Inherited Ghetto

(Rugh and Massey "Racial Segregation and the Foreclosure Crisis") Definition: The inherited ghetto stemmed from decades of discriminatory land-use practices ranging from restrictive covenants and mortgage redlining, steering and blockbusting by real estate brokers, the city government collecting taxes from Black people but routinely deprived them of city services, and having a discriminatory police department who cared little about protecting the safety and security of neighborhood residents. Application: The conditions of the ghetto usually include: streets that need paving, police harassment of ordinary citizens, garbage that sits uncollected, and inadequate bus services. The ghetto is a byproduct of inherited racial inequality and multigenerational disadvantages. Some of these disadvantages started with the process of redlining, a color coding system that segregated blacks from the white suburbs. Segregation created a natural market for subprime lending causing riskier mortgages resulting in foreclosures leading a disproportionate accumulation of blacks in racially segregated cities. Connection: Segregation creates minority dominant neighborhoods. Given the legacy of redlining and institutional discrimination, these neighborhoods continue to be underserved by mainstream financial institutions. The financial institutions in these minority areas are usually services that charge high fees and interest rates so that minority group members are accustomed to exploitation and frequently unaware that better services are available. Therefore, minorities in these communities likely won't have generational upward mobility if the conditions are the same.

Gentrification

(Smith, The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City - Chapter 2: Is Gentrification a Dirty Word?) Definition: Gentrification is the process of poor and working class neighborhoods in the inner-city being refurbished due to private capital and middle-class home buyers. More specifically, it's the process of "urban pioneers" moving into predominately black neighborhoods that showed promise in promoting wealth. Gentrification often follows urban renewal policies which are the redevelopment of areas within large cities ("clearing of slums"). Application: Gentrification has displaced marginal vulnerable communities, the working class, the poor and non-white people. Gentrifications can be measured by quantitative and qualitative impacts. Quantitative impacts measure gentrification by socioeconomic and real estate indicators (ex. Income, ethnicity, race, education, age) to identify where these characteristics have changed at the neighborhood level more quickly then for the city as a whole.Qualitatively: measure gentrification by cultural displacement which can be accompanied by physical displacement. (Ex. the disappearance of jazz clubs). Additionally, the wealth generated by the incoming whites caused the community to be unaffordable lead to street based economies → drugs, sex trade, and other underground economies. Connection: Gentrification is connected to minimization as its impacts are coded as a restoration of communities and uses colorblind ideology to justify pushing Blacks out of their neighborhoods. Minimization is discussed in Bonilla-Silva; Racism without Racists - Chapter 3: "The Central Frames of Colorblind Racism."

Culture of Poverty

(The Moynihan Report and "Re-Evaluating the 'Culture of Poverty' by Suh and Hiese) Definition: The culture of poverty supports the idea that children growing up in poor families would learn to adapt to the values and norms that perpetuated poverty; children would replicate these in their own lives thus creating a cycle of intergenerational poverty. Argued as a cause of racial disparities. Behaviorism used to describe culture. Additionally, the appeal of the "culture of poverty" is that it offers a clear explanation for poverty, removing both individual agency and collective responsibility from the equation.The "culture of poverty" is dangerous because it results in policies that seek to change Blacks. Culture of poverty is a hidden safety net for whites → allows them not to reflect on themselves and their role and instead blame the victim of poverty for the disparities they are facing Application: We have learned to see Black culture as deficient, as something we ought not to value. This is evident through the ideals that Black communities are unstable and are in need of fixing/saving. Connection: Ideals of urban renewal are coined as helping to refurbish Black communities but actually work towards removing Blacks from these neighborhoods as expressed in the video Gentrification: The New Age of Colonialism.

Southern Strategy

Definition: A republican electoral strategy to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans. Application: This strategy was put into place after the dismantling of Jim Crow laws in the 1950s and 1960s by presidential candidates like Richard Nixon and Senator Barry Goldwater. This strategy attempted to appeal to racial grievances to gain white support because running on a segregationist platform often led to more support. Connection: The Southern Strategy connects to dog whistle politics and strategic racism as racial terminology was no longer used but policies still carried racial implications. This was achieved through dog whistle politics where coded language appeared to mean one thing in the general public while simultaneously having an additional or more specific resonance of a targeted subgroup. The Southern Strategy was implemented to pursue political power through strategic racism that used race as a powerful force to separate people, create power, and drive the political climate. Bonilla-Silva in Racism without Racists discusses this in Chapter 2: The New Racism.

Racial Storylines

Definition: Racial storylines are stylistic tools used by whites. They are social shared tales that are fable like and interpersonal generic arguments used by whites. These storylines work are social products used to strengthen a collective understanding of how the world works (through a white lens). Oftentimes they are used to justify views whites hold that have no evidence to support their claims. Application: One example is when Bonilla-Silva says "I didn't get a job or was admitted to a college because of a person of color." This is a common racial storyline because it justifies viewpoints without factual evidence or limited data. Moreover, it allows white people to blame a person of color for not receiving the outcomes they deserved. Another example is the argument that "if other minorities can be successful , why can't blacks." This story line justifies the culture of poverty thesis commonly used by whites. It assumes the status of African Americans is their own doing ignoring the structural factors involved that keep them there and the role white plays in those structures. A few other examples: 'The past is in the past" → minimization of discrimination "I didn't own any slaves" → used to avoid responsibility for the ills of slavery Connection: Racial storylines are moves white people make that act as rhetorical shields to save whites from acknowledging their participation in systemic racism. They use these disclaimers to ignore their role but continue to accrue benefits from being white in America. There is a difference between the use of racial story lines and testimonies. Testimonies are accounts that involve the narrator in the story.

Steering

Definition: The practice of real estate brokers guiding prospective home buyers towards or away from certain neighborhoods based on their race. Application: Steering was one of the processes of northern urban racial and spatial containment, and was a critical piece of red-lining. Connection: Steering was one of the processes that contributed to reinforced segregation and went hand in hand with redlining. It connects to possessive investment in whiteness where whiteness is an institutional asset that is preferred and was maintained by steering people into segregated neighborhoods.

Red Lining

Rothstein "Own your own Home" and Sharkey "A Forty-Year Detour on the Path toward Racial Equality" Definition: Redlining is the process that emerged from the ranking system the HOLC used to determine the areas eligible for loans wherein predominantly black communities were outlined in red in the HOLC maps to signify that they had received the lowest rankings and were thus ineligible for federally backed loans. Race was the central determinant for risk assessment, with the color red suggesting the worst rating or "hazardous." The HOLC assessed financial risk of borrowers, condition of the homes and surrounding homes to see whether the property would maintain value. They did this by hiring local real estate agents to make appraisals to determine refinancing through the FHA's Underwriting Manual. Application: The process of redlining coincides with the Great Migration, which took place in two major waves, where internal migration of those in the South to urban areas led to about 6.5 million Black Americans fleeing the South due to several push and pull factors. Redlining was thus an exclusionary practice where fewer loans were given to Black people causing a reduction of market value based on race, limiting wealth accumulation, and creating racially favorable terms for whites, access to lower interest loans and increasing values of property over time. Sharkey states redlining maintained racial and economic segregation and showed that the federal government invested heavily in whiteness. Redlining impacted urban black communities by causing overcrowding, higher risk loans, lower equity, underresourced properties, neighborhood instability, neglect, and school segregation. This also led to intended racial inequality such as the creation of the ghetto, multigenerational disadvantages, intergenerational transfers of debt and disadvantages, and creating and reinforcing negative associations with black people. Connection: Massey and Danton suggest high levels of segregation created a natural market for subprime lending and caused foreclosures to accumulate disproportionately in racially segregated neighborhoods. This also relates to a possessive investment in whiteness where whiteness serves as an institutional asset and value of people is based on racial hierarchy. The general disinvestment in black communities and other communities of color has led to the process of gentrification that follows urban renewal where these previously under resourced areas are renovated and "revitalized." Economic forms of manipulation of the market, along with redlining, creates the need for urban renewal. Private capital, middle-class buyers and renters, displace current residents of communities that previously experienced disinvestment and a middle-class exodus (Smith).

Restrictive Covenants

[Need Citation] Definition: Restrictions written into deeds that enforced racial segregation by preventing property owners to rent or sell property to Black or Jewish people. Restrictive covenants were fundamentally about racial exclusion that were enforced through lending practices. Application: Restrictive covenants were one of the processes of northern urban racial and spatial containment. Connection: Restrictive covenants were one of the processes that contributed to reinforced segregation and went hand in hand with redlining. It connects to possessive investment in whiteness where whiteness is an institutional asset that is preferred and was built into housing practices.