Bad example.
Ignore sweater dog people.
A tote bag full of kale. You're killing me, lady!
Okay, maybe... this neighborhood is mostly to... completely to...
insufferably white,
but that, that's just the way things are here.
It doesn't mean we're racist.
I'm sure you're not, Ron.
But the fact that so many suburbs are mostly white
is no accident.
It's the result of decades of racist federal policy
that affect us to this day. Look!
Hooray! Games!
What the heck kinda game is this?
redlining edition.
Cool!
Little Donovan, you be green.
Ron, you're red.
All right, red, just like the name.
Looks like I've got the advantage.
No. You don't.
See, in the 1930s, as part of the New Deal,
FDR created loan programs
to help Americans finance their homes.
But, to decide who got those loans,
the government created color-coded maps
green neighborhoods were good
were bad.
became known as redlining.
Because of these policies,
if you lived in the green neighborhoods,
it was super easy to get a home loan.
All right, I can buy property!
in the red areas?
No loans were available.
I can barely afford rent with this.
It's no fair.
The red areas are screwed.
Yeah, they were.
And do you know why some areas were designated as red?
No, but I can guess.
Those were the neighborhoods
where African Americans
and other minorities lived,
and redlining systematically prevented them
from getting home loans.
Well, I know what I'll do.
Just take my little guy
and put him in the green neighborhood.
That's against the rules.
Early suburb developers like William Levitt instituted
explicitly racist policies.
And the federal government itself encouraged developers
to discriminate.
The result of these policies
is that from 1934 through 1968, a whopping 98% of home loans
were given to white families.
Yes...!
O-okay, this, this is not fair.
I did not get to pick what color I was
when I started.
Yeah. No one does.
And this advantage compounded over time.
The families in the green-- or white-- neighborhoods
were able to purchase homes and accrue wealth.
The market went up!
I can sell my house and buy a bigger one!
Whereas the people in the red neighborhoods
got none of those opportunities.
I can't afford property.
I'm behind on my electric bill.
In the green neighborhoods, the influx of new wealth
attracted new businesses.
Whoa... we got an organic grocery!
Which caused property values to go up.
could sell their homes
and send their kids to college.
They grow up so fast.
Passing down their wealth and advantages
to future generations.
♪ Money, money ♪♪
Meanwhile, the red neighborhoods
to build wealth
remained trapped in poverty.
This game is rigged!
Yeah, it was.
That's why laws were eventually passed
discriminatory practices...
illegal.
Ah! Ha, great! Ha!
Finally, I can move, and...
I don't have enough money.
Exactly.
Without wealth, families in the red neighborhoods
couldn't afford to move up,
keeping these communities separated by race.
after Levittown was created,
it's still less than one percent black.
Ha-ha! I may be dead,
but the effect of my racism lives on.
And if the neighborhoods are segregated,
that means the schools are too.
What? It...
No, no, that, that, that can't be true.
We ended school segregation back in the '60s.
Sorry, Ron, but I'm afraid that's not true.
Ron, this is Nikole Hannah-Jones.
She's a New York Times investigative reporter
who covers civil rights issues,
including school and housing segregation.
Nikole, would you mind telling Ron
what most people get wrong about segregation?
People tend to think of segregation
as an archaic term for Jim Crow policies
that led to the civil rights movement.
But the truth is that black children
are more segregated in schools now
than at any time since the 1970s.
And in the U.S.,
schools are largely funded by property taxes.
Since property values in the white neighborhoods
are so much higher,
their schools get way more money to spend on things
like facilities, teachers and supplies.
On the other hand,
predominantly black and Latino schools
are massively underfunded.
They're less likely to have A.P. science and math courses,
and they're the least likely
to have experienced and qualified teachers.
The truth is, little Donovan doesn't just go
to the best school.
He goes to a segregated school.
Oh, no, no, no.
This is a direct result
of decades of redlining policies
enacted by our own government to build the suburbs.
Highways that were built
to make access to the suburbs easier for white Americans
were often run right through
black middle-class neighborhoods,
destroying them.
were the worst.
It's not just the past.
Banks still regularly charge black home buyers
higher rates on loans than they do white home buyers,
even when they have the same credit.
Worst of all, black and Latino home seekers
still experience four million incidents
of illegal housing discrimination every year.
But... I mean, I didn't do any of that stuff.
I, I'm not racist
and I worked hard to get this house.
Of course.
But without realizing it, you've also gotten a leg up
from America's history of racist housing policies.
The suburb you live in
was built on a foundation of segregation,
and we can't close our eyes to that.
You know what?