These factors increase the risk for low birth weight , asthma , diabetes , high blood pressure , some cancers and now complications from COVID-19 , which kills Black and Hispanic people at much higher rates than white Americans . In these neighborhoods , life expectancy is lowest and rates of incarceration highest .
A 2018 report by the Environmental Protection Agency found that people of color are much more likely to breathe polluted air because of where they live . Specifically , Black Americans are exposed to 1.5 times more particulate matter than white people . Despite overall improvements in air quality across the U . S ., the most polluted parts of the country in 1981 remained so 35 years later , according to a recent study . Black Americans are also 75 percent more likely than other Americans to live in “ fence-line communities ,” those near facilities that produce hazardous waste , according to a 2017 report from the NAACP and the Clean Air Task Force .
Understanding how all this happened requires a look back to the early 20th century , when restrictive covenants in property deeds prevented racial minorities from buying homes or occupying properties in predominantly white neighborhoods . Going hand in hand with that practice , the Federal Housing Administration and banks in the 1930s began denying home loans to people of color in a practice called redlining .
The now-defunct federal Home Owners ’ Loan Corporation drew red lines around areas where racial and ethnic minorities lived , deemed those at high risk of default and assigned these areas the worst rating on its metric , a D . Government officials used these maps to help guide planning , and these “ hazardous ” neighborhoods were more likely to be zoned for landfills and other industrial uses . The A-rated neighborhoods , deemed “ best ” and coded in green , were where white people lived and were more likely to get parks .
The ramifications of this practice play out today in unexpected ways . A January 2020 study found that communities that were redlined are at least a few degrees warmer than their nonredlined counterparts , as fewer parks and trees means less shade and more pavement , and asphalt traps heat , thereby increasing air pollution and the potential for heat stroke among residents .
On Sacramento ’ s last rating map ( 1937 ), much of the red covers Old Sacramento , downtown , Alkali Flat and Mansion Flats — the old districts , or the “ melting pot ” of town , as written in the map ’ s corresponding notes , where in one case it was stated that “ Italians predominate but with a sprinkling of Mexicans , Negroes , and Orientals . The subversive character of the population constitutes the area ’ s principal hazard .” Meanwhile , Land Park , Curtis Park and East Sacramento were given good ratings ; decades later , these neighborhoods remain the most affluent and their populations the most white . The Fair Housing Act of 1968 banned racial discimination in lending , although questionable home loan denials and predatory lending continue .
These discriminatory practices limited Black people ’ s access to credit to pay for home maintenance or to buy homes , one of the most effective ways people can accumulate wealth . A 2013 report by Harvard University researchers examining this long-held argument in favor of homeownership confirmed “ the importance of assets in determining life ’ s opportunities , enabling investments in education and businesses , providing economic security in times of lost jobs or poor health , and passing on advantages to children .” The real-estate brokerage Redfin reports that Black families have averaged about $ 212,000 less in personal wealth over the past 40 years because of owning a home in a redlined area .
The way American cities have been planned , segregated and invested in also plays out in less overt ways : The quality of sidewalks , location of highways , distance between destinations and proximity of public transit to one ’ s home can affect a person from childhood to adulthood , says Alicia Brown , a project manager for WalkSacramento ,
When Nailah Pope-Harden was in her early 20s , she played a key role in stopping a plan to inject and store 7.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas underneath homes in her southeastern Sacramento community . She ’ s been working on environmentaljustice causes ever since . PHOTO BY RYAN ANGEL MEZA
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