Member-only story
The Long History of Redlining Makes Covid-19 Worse for Black Americans
Health effects of racist housing policy persist 80 years later
The data makes it painfully clear that Black Americans have been hit hardest by the coronavirus. Black people in the U.S., according to the Covid Racial Data Tracker, are dying at a rate 2.4 times higher than that of white people. In June, research showed that 31% of Black adults in the U.S. said they personally knew someone who had died from the coronavirus while only 17% of Hispanic and 9% of white people said the same.
There are many reasons why Black people are disproportionately affected by the coronavirus, including economic inequality and long-standing health care disparities. It’s also been proposed that the sickle cell mutation, which largely affects Black Americans, might play a role too. Now, new research suggests that the history of racist housing policy in the U.S. may also be a factor.
A new report released by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), a nonprofit fighting to end discrimination in lending, housing, and business, shows that people in neighborhoods that were redlined over 80 years ago are at a higher risk of severe illness or death from Covid-19. Redlining was a widespread government practice in the 1930s that excluded minorities…
