Essay Questions

What is redlining?

Now outlawed, redlining was the racist process by which federal and local governments, as well as the private sector denied services (particularly mortgages) to people based only on the color of their skin. In doing so, redlining promoted racial segregation. For example, under a city which redlined, a black person who wanted to move into a white neighborhood would be denied a mortgage so that they would continue to live with members of the black community.

What is "white flight?"

"White flight" is a large-scale, and often sudden, migration of white people from places which become more racially diverse (i.e. a neighborhood once inhabited by mostly white people begins to have a majority black population) to a place with other white people - usually the suburbs. Although "white flight" occurred primarily in the 1950s and 1960s from cities like Detroit and Oakland, it still occurs to this day.