By KYLE ODEGARD
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Monday, January 21, 2008 12:00 am
Government discrimination led to huge wealth gap, OSU profs say
Two Oregon State University professors are advocating for billions of dollars in reparations for black Americans, who they say were victims of government discrimination that made it harder to buy houses - and continues to put them at a disadvantage.
"We can show very clearly the harms that were inflicted on black Americans through government policy on who was able to get housing loans," said Jonathan Kaplan, an associate professor and chairman of the department of philosophy.
"The result of that has been an enormous difference in the amount of wealth that black Americans have been able to accumulate, and what whites could accumulate," Kaplan said.
Home ownership has been a huge factor in wealth acquisition in the United States, Kaplan said. While houses might not be passed down to future generations, the wealth resulting from increases in home values is passed along.
Today, the majority of young, white first-time home buyers get money from their parents to help them buy a home, but that isn't the case for black first-time homeowners because of the lack of ownership history in the family, according to the study.
Discriminatory practices continued well into the 1980s, said Kaplan and Andrew Valls, an assistant professor in the department of political science. "There were some amendments to the Fair Housing Act that gave it more enforcement teeth," Valls said.
The two academics don't suggest cash payouts, but rather economic policies aimed at giving blacks very low interest loans for homes and businesses, as well as improved economic safety nets.
Other racial and ethnic groups also faced housing discrimination, but the hurdles to blacks seeking home ownership were the most significant and also the best-documented, Valls said.
Terryl Ross, 48, director of community and diversity for OSU, said his parents' generation of blacks is the first to be able to pass on its wealth to its children.
"There were always individuals in the past who could, but across the board … most people could not do that," Ross said.
Over the holidays, his mother had a conversation with him about passing on her house and her other assets.
Racism still exists, Ross said, and it's still affecting black people who want to buy a home. He said real estate agents sometimes don't show black clients the same selection of homes that they show to white people - even when the blacks have the same income and credit. "This is recently, like now," he said.
The phenomenon is known as "steering," Valls said.
"A big problem is perpetuating poverty," said Zel Brook, president of the Corvallis chapter of the NAACP.
Last year, when Valls was selling his 1949 Corvallis home near Kings and Buchanan, he discovered a deed restriction that prohibited it from being sold to blacks or Asians.
"In sweet little Corvallis, these sorts of things were going on," Valls said. "It's incredible, especially considering the fact that the Supreme Court had ruled in 1948 that these racially restrictive covenants could not be enforced," he added.
Before the creation of the temporary Home Owner's Loan Corporation in 1933 and its successor, the Federal Housing Authority, in 1934, relatively few Americans owned their homes.
While whites could get financial assistance, blacks were excluded because the agencies assigned risk ratings to neighborhoods based on race. Mixed and predominantly black neighborhoods were generally not eligible for loans.
Black veterans returning from service in World War II were largely excluded from the housing benefits of the G.I. Bill.
Some of the policies suggested by Kaplan and Valls would be colorblind. But they would help close the wealth gap.
Kaplan said he hopes the study will get people to focus on the lasting harms of discrimination, and have them think about reparations.
"People haven't taken this as seriously as we think they should," he said.
"The issue of black reparations is often misunderstood as being only about slavery. This isn't about things that have happened a long time ago, but things that have happened in the relatively recent past," Valls said.
Event honors King
The 26th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Breakfast takes place at 7:30 a.m. today in the Memorial Union ballroom on the Oregon State University campus.
The event includes breakfast, speakers LaVonda Wagner and Renee Roman Nose, an awards ceremony, as well as performances by several musical groups.
The cost is $10 for nonstudents, $6 students and free for children under 5. Tickets are available at the door.