Right, right. The Federal Housing Administration was also developed under FDR. This organization guaranteed mortgages for up to 90 percent of the purchase price, which meant that people who wanted to buy a home only had to cough up 10 percent rather than the 25 percent to 30 percent required before the FHA. The FHA made home ownership possible again—which was an important part of recovering from the Depression. In the thirty-five years after its creation, home ownership skyrocketed.
What was the catch?
The catch was that the FHA refused to guarantee mortgages in Black communities due to a process called redlining. In most of these places, Blacks couldn’t receive loans at all. Once the FHA refused to give loans to Blacks, private lenders replicated the government’s policy and position, which, really, was about denying Black humanity.
Can you talk about what redlining is and how it affected you?
The term “redlining” was coined in the 1960s by activists in Chicago. It refers to a process where affluent or white neighborhoods were outlined in blue and considered type “A;” working class neighborhoods were outlined in yellow and considered type “B;” and of course, Black neighborhoods were outlined in bloodred ink and considered type “D.” These maps were created for FHA manuals as well as private lenders. The FHA advised banks to stay away from areas with “inharmonious racial groups” and recommended that municipalities enact racially restrictive zoning ordinances and prevent Black home ownership.
During the second great migration (1940–1970), when 4.5 million Blacks came North, industrial cities decided to segregate the industrial from the residential areas. Remember, during this time, Blacks had absolutely no political power and overt racism was at an all-time high. Therefore many Black areas were tagged as industrial neighborhoods.
And what did that industrial tag mean?
The industrial tag prevented these neighborhoods from undergoing any new construction and even limited the improvements that could be made.
So, why didn’t Blacks just leave these redlined areas?
Those redlined areas were me. I told you earlier that I’m a place where people are forced to live, because of discrimination via racism in the real estate market and segregation. Blacks could not, I repeat could not, live where they pleased, even if they had the money, and because of those things I just mentioned, they probably didn’t.
So you’ve been around for a long time?
Well yes, but I didn’t always look like I do now.
See, during the sixties and before, Blacks, although segregated and isolated, lived in me very viably. I was anchored by Black-owned businesses and Black-run institutions. Believe it or not, “crime” during this period was not a problem in me. But then…
Crack?
Whoa—not yet, slow down. That’s later.
Way before crack, there was “nigger removal,” as it was sometimes called by government officials.
Okay, yeah, you mentioned that earlier.
Right. Officially dubbed Urban Renewal, this program was designed to transform poor neighborhoods into new, architecturally attractive structures that would attract tourists and increase business. The Urban Renewal program had its shaky origins in the Housing Act of 1949, but it did not get under way in a serious fashion until 1954, when the Eisenhower administration made several changes in the law. Of course I was chosen for Urban Renewal because the people who lived there didn’t have any political power. Whites during this time made all the decisions for Blacks with no input or say from Blacks.
Under Urban Renewal, I was razed and rebuilt and the Blacks who lived in me were forced out.
When you say “forced out,” what do you mean?
I mean forced out. Eminent domain, the process whereby the state seizes private property for government or private use, gives the government the authority to jack residents.
Where did the displaced Blacks go?
Uncle Sam decided that they needed to construct new areas for these displaced Blacks to live. So they built shabby, health-hazardous, cheap housing in me called housing projects.
For every ten homes they destroyed, they built one unit in the projects.
So is this why you are the way you are today?
Not quite—there are a few more things that happened to me that I feel contributed significantly to who I am today.
On top of “nigger removal,” the federal interstate system had a devastating effect on me physically and psychologically. When I wasn’t razed for Urban Renewal, they would build highways that went right through me and separated my people from others. This created further isolation for Blacks and it simultaneously created insulation for whites as they fled to the suburbs.
Thanks to these new highways, though, whites could get into the city when they needed to. Between 1950 and 1970, 70 million whites fled the city and moved to the suburbs. The reason this white flight was so devastating is that whites took jobs with them when they left and eventually moved businesses out of me and into the suburbs.
Soon after, the factories left, too. See, post-World War II the factories had been one of the primary ways for Blacks to climb out of the quicksand of poverty. However, those jobs fled with the whites.
To the suburbs?
No, overseas. Multinational corporations got out of me and headed for places like India, Indonesia, and other impoverished nations of the world. Places where the wages are dramatically less, unions are illegal, there are no environmental or labor laws. So, they’ve got twelve-year-olds working sixteen hours, making pennies per day. When companies don’t go overseas, they use prison labor instead of creating real jobs, which is, in essence, slave labor. I mean, the rates they pay prisoners rivals what they might pay a child in an impoverished country.
Major corporations do this?
American Airlines, Boeing, Compaq, Dell, Eddie Bauer, Chevron, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM, JCPenney, TWA, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Motorola, Nordstrom, Pierre Cardin, Revlon, Sony, Texas Instruments, Victoria’s Secret, and Toys “R” Us, to name a few.
In addition, the mechanization of many low-skilled jobs left a lot of people well below the poverty line. So jobs in the domestic and service sectors are all that’s left for low-skilled workers. Since 1975, however, these jobs have been declining in real dollars and in relation to other sectors.
What about Black professionals?
Integration was another fierce blow to me.
After the end of legal segregation, the Black middle class—who had traditionally been instrumental in creating, maintaining, and patronizing businesses in me—bounced. They, too, fled for the burbs, leaving the poorest of the poor behind.
Finally, Blacks left me in a mad exodus along with the whites at the end of legal segregation.
That reminds me of a Malcolm X speech.
Which one?
It’s called “Message to the Grassroots.” He says,
This modern house Negro loves his master. He wants to live near him. He’ll pay three times as much as the house is worth just to live near his master, and then brag about “I’m the only Negro out here.” “I’m the only one on my job.” “I’m the only one in this school.” You’re nothing but a house Negro. And if someone comes to you right now and says, “Let’s separate,” you say the same thing that the house Negro said on the plantation. “What you mean, separate? From America? This good white man? Where you going to get a better job than you get here?” I mean, this is what you say. “I ain’t left nothing in Africa,” that’s what you say. You left your mind in Africa.
[A chuckle is shared]
I know this is kind of off topic, but I gotta ask: Why are there so many damn check-cashing places, liquor stores, and take-out Chinese restaurants in you?
Actually, not off topic at all. I just told you that the Black middle class fled. Well, when affluent Blacks left me and bounced to the suburbs, the businesses, following the money, left, too. To give you a popular example, there were, during segregation, more than three hundred Bl
ack movie houses around the country. You’re a filmmaker, right? Tell me how many are there now.
Okay, let’s see, um —
Exactly.
So with the flight or destruction of viable Black businesses, that left only the businesses you mentioned—the businesses whose primary goal is to capitalize on Black poverty. Check-cashing spots capitalize and exploit low-wage earners unable to afford a bank account and who need quick money; pawnshops capitalize on poor folks who need to liquidate personal valuables in order to make rent. Fast-food Chinese restaurants, through the thick bulletproof glass, capitalize on the Black poor by offering food—very unhealthy food that the owners admittedly don’t eat—to Blacks at a low monetary cost but with high health costs. And liquor stores, which can be found on nearly every corner, capitalize on the depression and despair that come with being poor and living in me.
Rick James once commented: “One thing ‘bout the ghetto, you don’t have to worry, it’ll be there tomorrow.” That said, where do you see yourself in ten years?
It all depends.
On…?
What it has always depended upon: the people.
What are some of the things you’d like to see the post-hip-hop generation do? Things they could do that would improve you and the lives of the people who live in you?
How much time you got? [Laughter]
Tell me what time it is.
All right, first, the post-hip-hop generation should understand the relationship between poverty and health. That’s something that we haven’t talked about yet and it’s absolutely essential.
Lack of income, clean water, food, and access to medical services and education are all related to poverty and health—and all of this is intensified in me. Because of urban diets and environments, people in me have extremely high rates of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and asthma. Not only are my residents more likely to have illnesses, but because they are poor, they are more likely to be limited by these conditions. Health issues prevent many from working or, at the least, limit their productivity—ultimately lowering income.
Asthma, lead poisoning, malnutrition, anemia, ear infections—all of these are not only costly to treat or even diagnose, but all lead to permanent impairments. So, for example, children who live in me are twice as likely to suffer from lead poisoning, which many, many studies have shown has serious effects on the brain causing learning problems, hyperactivity, coordination issues, aggression, erratic behavior, and brain damage. There is a lot of lead in much of the housing in me, especially in the projects, so children are exposed to lead.
See, health is connected to everything. Both lead poisoning and asthma are severe problems on their own; however, they mushroom because they greatly diminish a child’s school performance and are the leading causes of absenteeism. Not to mention many children are malnourished, which leads to headaches, lack of concentration, frequent colds, and fatigue. You would think that schools in me would be more equipped to deal with these kind of issues, but they are actually given less funds. It’s a systematic holocaust.
Every illness, especially untreated, makes it more difficult to deal with an already extremely difficult environment. People who live in me are more likely to work and live in conditions that are detrimental to their health.
What do you—
Oh, not to mention that just being poor—period—and the stress from poverty is a huge detriment to one’s health.
Dr. King, in a book called Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? said—
Are you paraphrasing?
No, I memorized it. It’s that good. He said,
The children’s clothes are too skimpy to protect them from the Chicago wind, and a closer look reveals the mucus in the corners of their bright eyes, and you are reminded that vitamin pills and flu shots are luxuries which they can ill afford. The “runny noses” of ghetto children become a graphic symbol of medical neglect in a society which has mastered most of the diseases from which they will too soon die. There is something wrong in a society which allows this to happen.
What do you think can be done about this?
People need universal health care, for starters, to begin to climb out of the desolate pits of poverty. Right now, nearly all of my citizens, and more than 43 million Americans in total, are uninsured and it doesn’t have to be like this. Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA), for example, proposes a single payer plan that would provide coverage for all Americans without increasing total costs, every year; however, it’s never been approved. Moreover, this is what the people want—not just my people, but most Americans. A USA/Harris poll recently conducted showed that 77 percent of the general public believes the government should provide universal health care.
The other important thing is unemployment insurance. Unemployment insurance keeps people who have been laid off above the poverty level; however, the way it’s structured now, 60 percent of people who are laid off don’t receive any temporary monies. We must do this. It would mean no person willing and ready to work should be living in poverty.
Another thing is expanding Supplemental Security Income, a program that provides benefits to those permanently disabled, and workers’ compensation, a program that provides benefits to workers who have been injured on the job. Everyone who cannot work should receive benefits. Right now, people who have been temporarily disabled from injuries caused off the job cannot receive benefits from either program. What’s worse is that even those who are permanently disabled—by mental illness, disability due to addiction, and hard-to-prove conditions like back pain—are not eligible to receive any benefits.
How much would all this cost?
That can’t be determined for sure, but consider this: in 1999, the “poverty gap,” which is the amount of money needed to raise all the incomes to at least the poverty line, was $65 billion. Yearly Social Security income is $500 billion. And the tax cut we got in 2001 was $1.3 trillion. America has the loot.
Why are your schools, some of which I attended, failing?
Because poor African-Americans are forced into me, my schools are almost completely segregated. Secondary and elementary schools are funded mainly through local taxes, so my schools have much fewer resources per child and significantly less money to fund education.
My students are bringing noneducational issues like hunger, domestic violence, homelessness, abuse, and many other personal problems that demand greater resources. However, despite this, my schools are getting far less money than, say, suburban schools, which don’t have to deal with these issues.
Can I read you a passage? I came across it recently and it echoes this point.
Sure, go ahead.
This is from Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools by Jonathan Kozol:
“Don’t tell students in this school about ‘the dream.’ Go and look into a toilet here if you would like to know what life is like for students in this city.”
Before I leave, I do as Christopher asked and enter a boys’ bathroom. Four of the six toilets do not work. The toilet stalls, which are eaten away by red and brown corrosion, have no doors. The toilets have no seats. One has a rotted wooden stump. There are no paper towels and no soap. Near the door there is a loop of wire with an empty toilet-paper roll.
“This,” says Sister Julia, “is the best school that we have in East St. Louis.”
Almost anyone who visits in the schools of East St. Louis, even for a short time, comes away profoundly shaken. These are innocent children, after all. They have done nothing wrong. They have committed no crime. They are too young to have offended us in any way at all. One searches for some way to understand why a society as rich and, frequently, as generous as ours would leave these children in their penury and squalor for so long—and with so little public indignation. Is this just a strange mistake of history?
That’s the sad reality.
Along the same lines, the late, great artivist Ossie Davis once said, “I believe the ending of pove
rty is the cultural assignment of our time.” Do you agree?
Yes, and racism in this country is intertwined with poverty—so yes, poverty and racism. I mean, in America, the richest nation in the world, on any given night, 562,000 American children go to bed hungry.
Do you think the U.S. government cares?
Follow the money, the budget, and you’ll see what the government cares about. The U.S. budget represents not only political and economic interests, but moral ones as well. Don’t believe what politicians tell you their priorities are, look at the budget and decide for yourself.
A child is born into poverty every forty-three seconds, and without health insurance every minute in America. This is public information.
One of the most common misconceptions is that the government can’t solve the poverty problem and that everything that could possibly be done has been tried. The government can in fact solve the problem and it’s not that expensive. The reality is they haven’t been willing to consider eradicating poverty in this country.
So what do we do?
Didn’t Frederick Douglass say that “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
Yeah, he did.
Well, there you go.
It’s up to the people, in me and outside of me, to make this a priority. Demand justice and true equality.
But they don’t understand because of misrepresentation. That’s why I agreed to this interview.
KRS-One once said, “It’s not a novelty, you can love your neighborhood without loving poverty.” Do you agree with that?
Most definitely. Poverty is nothing to love. My image has been distorted and misrepresented, though, so you have a white media that both glorifies and demonizes me at the same time, while never really addressing who I am.
It's Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip-Hop Generation Page 5
