Is your home racist? Check deeds for redlining language
Is your home racist? Not in the literal sense, of course, but if you own a home in Marin, does its deed perpetuate America’s history of racial segregation?
By now most are aware of redlining, whereby local, state and federal governments kept African Americans and other communities of color from buying homes. More precisely the Depression-era Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, established to protect Americans from foreclosure, created color-coded maps as a way of assessing the probability of loan default — from safe green to risky red. Neighborhoods with large Black populations were labeled explicitly with the latter.
As a result, Black people were less likely to obtain loans and more likely to lose their homes. On top of this, even if a Black family was able to secure a loan, many developers required homes to be sold exclusively to white people, writing such preconditions into contracts and deeds. This history is as true in Marin as it is across the nation.
Consider a well-cited example from a developer building homes in Tam Valley in 1913: “Neither the said land, nor any part thereof, shall be conveyed or leased to any person of African or Mongolian descent.” Similar examples abound in housing deeds from Greenbrae to San Rafael to Fairfax.
If you are a homeowner can such racially repugnant, legally unenforceable vestiges be found on your deed? And if so what is to be done about them? Requesting documents from the Marin County recorder is fairly straightforward for those interested in investigating whether their home includes a restrictive covenant. If so, deciding what to do next is a bit more complicated.
In the book, “Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America,” Richard Rothstein offers this advice: “even where it is practical, deleting (racial covenants) may not be the best approach. The covenants are an important reminder and educational device, which we still need.” He recommends inserting a paragraph into your deed noting the covenant’s moral abhorrence, expressing your collective shame that such policy was ever carried out and welcoming neighbors of all racial backgrounds.
Other than its symbolic value as historical artifact, a deed’s racially restrictive covenants point to lingering economic inequalities between Black and white Americans. Research from the Brookings Institution and the Federal Reserve finds that the average white family has almost 10 times more wealth than the average Black family. Since a substantial amount of wealth comes from the equity in one’s house, when African Americans are intentionally prohibited by business and the government from purchasing a home they are unable to enjoy the benefits of its rising value.
Marin City resident and community leader Paul Austin was recently quoted in the Marin IJ: “Due to redlining, my grandparents were not able to create generational wealth.” This is a prime example of what Austin is referring to.
Yet how many of us have benefitted from generational wealth when going to college, buying a car or cobbling together the down payment for a home? And at whose expense?
I was reminded of all this not long ago when talking to my parents. Fairfax residents for over 40 years, they bought a house in Oak Manor in 1996 only to discover a racially restrictive covenant upon signing.
Disgusted by what they saw, my mother and my father, who was severely beaten by police during the anti-war protests of 1970, crossed out the offensive verbiage on the spot.
Still, in almost 25 years, the value of their home has quadrupled. I can’t help but wonder who else in Marin has benefitted from this generational advantage, and who has not. With privilege comes responsibility, and we all have a duty to embody the Hebrew notion of tikkun olam — to bring about a more just world.
Updating one’s deed is an important step, but it alone does not atone for the many racial wrongs perpetrated in our own backyard. We must contribute financially, raise our voices, engage in civic participation. Because the housing crisis that plagues Marin is also a racial one too.
A deed’s racially restrictive covenants point to lingering economic inequalities between Black and white Americans.