Racial discrimination remains one of the main problems in the United States and has deep historical roots. A society founded by white people has shown a negative attitude towards people of different skin colors—Indians, the indigenous people of America, and African Americans — essentially since the colonization of this territory.

Historical Background

The active struggle for the rights of people of color has been going on for decades, but various problems still persist. One of these is the issue of the settlement of Black in the cities and suburbs of the country.

Despite the end of segregation policies and the adoption of the Fair Housing Act, as well as numerous subsidy measures, African Americans cannot access wealthy neighborhoods, facing unspoken displacement to poorer parts of the city.

Historical Segregation Policies

Housing zoning ordinances in several American states were in effect more than 100 years ago. They prohibited whites from selling their property to Black if the majority of the neighborhood’s residents were white.

Subsequently, these ordinances were officially declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, white homeowners found a way to keep their neighborhoods isolated. The solution was new rules on the minimum size of homes, which restricted the construction of affordable housing in certain areas of the city. In the suburbs, the focus was on reducing the number of multifamily homes—also a cheaper housing option.

Current State of Segregation

At the legislative level, segregation has been illegal in the United States for over fifty years. But in many parts of the country, Americans of different races still do not live as neighbors: they use different schools, stores, and even churches. Today, against the backdrop of the BLM campaign, this problem is becoming a subject of interest for politicians and scholars—and it remains a topic of public discussion heard around the world.

According to the latest U.S. Census data, segregation between Black and whites is decreasing in large cities but remains a serious disintegrating factor for American society. To achieve ideal indicators, more than half of African Americans would need to leave their traditional places of residence; only in this case would integration be full and sufficient.

Economic and Social Factors

Some researchers believe that segregation in the social and economic spheres is closely interrelated. African Americans in the United States face significantly more economic problems and live in poor neighborhoods. This is not a matter of chance. Some things that led to the current situation have been part of state policy for decades, directly prohibiting Black from settling in certain areas.

Government Efforts

Some hopes in this area were associated with the name of Joe Biden, who promised to continue Obama’s course to reduce barriers and introduce additional measures for integration and reducing discrimination. But this only applies to state developers; private individuals can build whatever they want and trade it according to the rules they set for themselves.

His administration approved the provision of $300 million in grants for local housing policy, including the abolition of zoning policies in urban planning.

The second point is the course to restore the so-called «Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing» (AFFH) rule. The White House intends to reinstate President Barack Obama’s amendment, under which entities receiving federal funds for construction must promote fair housing choices and the development of inclusive communities free from discrimination.

This will allow Washington to cut funds for any given locality if any violations are found during inspections. The rule itself was repealed last year by former U.S. President Donald Trump, but the Biden administration has already spoken about the high likelihood of its restoration.

Limitations of Government Influence

The influence of the White House is largely limited to entities receiving federal funds, meaning it does not affect private areas where unfair zoning policies can continue. Moreover, this will not solve one of the main problems—the economic gap between ordinary Black and whites.

The problem of the lack of access for the majority of African Americans to wealthy neighborhoods and their conditional settlement in ghettos still exists, despite laws aimed at eliminating discrimination in one form or another. The U.S. authorities, in fact, do not have many levers of influence on the zoning system, as this issue is the prerogative of local self-government.

Although the law originally provided that communities receiving money for housing construction would do everything necessary to solve the problem of fairer distribution. However, in practice, the requirement was not fulfilled.

Now they want to solve the problem by providing local authorities with data on the demographic situation, which is intended to improve planning.

However, the most important problem facing the state and society in the United States in overcoming segregation and respecting human rights is not solved. Many Black and whites still live in neighboring districts and do not intersect for years.

In fact, African Americans are not wanted in their neighborhoods not because of their skin color, but because they are on average poorer. That is, this is a situation where economic and racial problems are strongly intertwined.

The Fair Housing Act is supposed to prohibit people from considering race when renting housing, but there are a thousand small loopholes that can be used to circumvent this. In other words, ideology cannot yet defeat economics, meaning people always find a way to do what they want.

According to a study by the Brookings Institution, based on 2016 Census data, more than half of Black would need to change their place of residence to achieve full integration.

Economic Challenges

On the path to resolving these contradictions, African Americans again face economic difficulties. According to a 2019 report by the Statista Research Department, nearly 19% of the black population in the United States lives below the poverty line, while among whites, this figure is 7.3%.

Last year, against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, the situation worsened. According to official statistics, the unemployment rate among Black exceeded 17%, and the wage gap between black and white men was about $378 per week.

When will it be possible to untangle the knot of social, economic, historical, and racist contradictions? Or will Americans not be able to find the key to it?