If someone told you redlining was making a comeback, would you believe them?

If someone told you redlining was making a comeback, would you believe them?

Because while everyone's distracted, the same discriminatory housing systems that once blocked Black, Asian, and immigrant families from owning homes… are quietly being rebuilt.

In the 1930s, the government literally drew maps — color-coded by race. Neighborhoods with people of color were marked red, labeled "hazardous," and denied loans. That practice was called redlining. And its effects are still visible today — just look at East and West Oakland, or Brooklyn, or Charlotte. Decades later, those red zones are still underinvested and undervalued.

Then came 1968. After MLK’s assassination, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act — but not without a fight. Some lawmakers, like Rep. James Utt of California, not only opposed it, but compared civil rights enforcement to Hitler. Yes, really.

Today, that law is still on the books — but it's only powerful when it's enforced.

Under the Trump administration, enforcement was gutted. Fair housing grants? Slashed. Disparate impact rules? Rolled back. Appraisal bias investigations? Dismantled.

The result? Discrimination didn’t disappear — it just went underground.

Just ask the Black family who had to remove their family photos and have white friends pretend to own their house just to get a fair appraisal. That’s not a myth. That happened.

Housing inequality didn’t start with us, but it will continue without us — unless people speak up.

Fair housing doesn’t happen automatically. It happens when people demand it.

So demand it.