Because of redlining, residents of minority neighborhoods have shorter life spans (as much as 20 to 30 years shorter than residents of white neighborhoods in the same city). Researchers have highlighted the direct effects of redlining on Black neighborhoods and how it took a toll on Black people’s current economic status & health condition. Redlined neighborhoods today are found to have higher rates of poverty and a higher risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, kidney disease, and hypertension. These neighborhoods are also more vulnerable than others in their ability to withstand and prepare for natural disasters.
This evidence also sheds light on the depth of racism in America and how institutionalized it truly is. Redlining is without a doubt a form of systemic social oppression and, although no written in laws, it is practiced by the privileged through the social structure. Privilege plays a significant part in all of this as well. In the FDHA grading system--with Green being the best and Red being the worst--the FDHA would classify a neighborhood that was predominantly Black as a red zone because Black people were looked at as “lower class citizens” according to their guidelines. This is the legacy these hateful institutions left behind.
Intersectionality in redlining is very real as well. Intersectionality is defined as the multiple identities you associate with and the different obstacles that come with each identity. If someone is disabled and Black they are marginalized because of their race as well as their disability. Because of that their oppression could drastically differ from the oppression of just a Black person. In the US Intersectionality can work to your benefit if you are a white male and as a disservice to you if you are a Black female.
The evolution of Redlining throughout history has a connection to the liberation paradigm. To begin there was the critique of Ideology. In the early 1960s, the Civil Rights movement began which prompted a critique of ideology in all of the US. It pushed for equality for Black people and resulted in the Fair Housing Act of 1968 to be passed by Congress in hopes of amending injustices done to Black families. The public processing of pain occurred when Black people had tangible & emotional proof that they were being treated unfairly by their own government. Segregated schools, bathrooms, restaurants, and even jobs are examples of this. Let's go further back, Blacks were taken from their homeland, placed in boats, and shipped like cargo to another country as enslaved people. Families were separated for work and not compensated for that work because of the oppressors' lack of respect for their dignity. Children were deprived of education because of the belief that they din't deserve to be educated. That list goes on and on, but that is plenty to display the public processing of pain of a Black family in America. The release of social imagination happened when social activists like Martin Luther King played a huge role. All can be treated justly and equally if you choose to not judge someone because of the color of their skin but rather the content of their character.