By Andre Perry/The Hechinger Report
President Trump regularly sows racial division and fear, invoking age-old stereotypes through his words and policy. It was clear he was promising to protect suburban whites from an incursion of Black and Brown people when he wrote in his now infamous tweet about the “Suburban Lifestyle Dream” that suburbanites would “no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood.” This isn’t dog-whistle language. We all hear and recognize the racist undertones of the policy he was pushing.
The Trump administration’s new housing rule is titled “Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice.” It rescinds an Obama-era mandate that encouraged local municipalities that receive federal funds to address systemic bias. Trump promised housing prices will go up and crime will go down in the suburbs, once the rule, meant to make housing more equitable, was removed.
This is poorly veiled bigotry rooted in negative perceptions about poor and Black people. No, poor and Black people don’t bring housing prices down. Negative beliefs about Black people do. Similarly, Black schools aren’t failing: They’ve been starved of needed resources and hampered by prejudice and systems organized against their success.
“Choice” has always been a term a racist can love. In theory, choice means allowing people the freedom to choose the home, neighborhood and school that’s best for them. In practice, choice is frequently a code word for preserving white preferences – in housing and schooling – and excluding Black and Brown people. In education, the word “choice” too often accompanies statements about the need to escape failing schools and zip codes. Read: Black schools and neighborhoods.
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Posted on September 16, 2020
