• banneryear1868@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Look into redline mortgage laws and issues around housing developments in northern cities from the 60s to 90s. This was how racial division was perpetuated by northern white middle class liberals who became the consistent base for Democrats into the present day. Issues around property relations and the notion of the “neighborhood” which developers and mortgage brokers used to ensure blacks were segregated to low income areas. Even though a lot has been done to address these issues they’re still very relevant to the generational wealth and have impacted a lot of issues around racism and the sort of programs the government has introduced to address it.

    Some pop culture depictions of this… the HBO series “Show Me A Hero” with Oscar Isaac playing Yonkers mayor Nick Wasicsko, as his white middle class constituents fought against public housing developments. The Randy Newman song Rednecks is an infamous and shocking satire of the same issue written from the perspective of a (very) openly racist southerner.

    Also can’t recommend Barbara and Karen Fields’ book “Racecraft” enough. Completely dissects what race is in America and how this notion of race came to be. A lot of well read people on the subject have praised it for completely changing their perspective on race. It’s also completely readable and doesn’t talk down to the reader or any of that bs (cough D’Angelo cough).