Black Lives Still Matter, Con't

I've said this before and I will say it again: there is no greater example of systemic racism in America than the housing market.

Carlette Duffy felt both vindicated and excited. Both relieved and angry.

For months, she suspected she had been low-balled on two home appraisals because she's Black. She decided to put that suspicion to the test and asked a white family friend to stand in for her during an appraisal.

Her home's value suddenly shot up. A lot.

During the early months of the coronavirus pandemic last year, the first two appraisers who visited her home just west of downtown Indianapolis, valued it at $125,000 and $110,000, respectively.

But that third appraisal went differently.

To get that one, Duffy, who is African American, communicated with the appraiser strictly via email, stripped her home of all signs of her racial and cultural identity and had the white husband of a friend stand in for her during the appraiser's visit.

The home's new value: $259,000.

"I had to go through all of that just to say that I was right and that this is what's happening," she said. "This is real."

Now she wants justice. Along with the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, Duffy has filed fair housing complaints against the mortgage lenders and appraisers she accuses of undervaluing her home because of her race.

Housing experts and historians say residential real estate has been historically marred by discrimination. Across the nation, homes owned by Black Americans are significantly undervalued next to homes in comparable white neighborhoods, according to a study by Brookings.

 

Being Black in America costs you so much. There is a deliberate tax on everything we do, at every stage, at every turn, in every way, that white people do not have to pay or even think about.

In Indianapolis and cities around this country, being Black costs you more than half the value of your home.

That's just for starters.

 

It costs you wealth, opportunity, and security. It hurts your family, your ability to remain middle class, your ability to stay afloat.

 

It costs you status, peace of mind, and if the wrong person decides it, it costs you your life.

Every waking moment. The Black middle class has all been erased from existence. Every time we make progress, that progress is halted and reversed, and we are blamed for being too lazy to care about it.

Black Lives Still Matter.