Hidden in plain sight or What would Jim Barnes say?

This is part of journaling done in connection with my class in The Sociology of Housing.

Hidden in Plain Sight or What would Jim Barnes say?

During this class, my husband read Rothstein’s “The Color of Law” which I am now reading.  Also this class included a podcast based on the book. 

My husband described the book as ‘delaminating’ for him.

The book points out that HUD through FHA and other programs purposely and explicitly segregated America’s neighborhoods, particularly new suburban neighborhoods into white and black areas.

His late father, my father in law, James Barnes was an urban planner, spending the last 15 years of his working life (1967-1982) as Executive Director of the Sacramento Regional Area Planning Commission (now Sacramento Area Council of Governments).  I know that he did a lot of work with HUD, sometimes acting as a consultant for them.  He always prided himself on a high level of integrity and fairness.

But the segregationist racist policies of public housing and FHA insured home loans were hidden in plain sight.  HUD explicitly labeled public housing projects as “white” or “colored.”  And clearly FHA guaranteed loans, a huge program, were meant for white applicants only.  Apparently, in the industry, all knew that black applicants need not apply.

The segregation by race what was generally classified as ‘de facto’ or 'de jure' segregation:

De facto segregation definition, racial, ethnic, or other segregation resulting from societal differences between groups, as socioeconomic or political disparity, without institutionalized legislation intended to segregate.

De Jure segregation – definition segregation that was caused by law

According to Wikipedia:

de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution by Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954.

These processes with the public racially segregated public housing and FHA home loans discrimination was based on de jure rather than de facto.

I just recently realized that the schools that I attended in Sacramento (San Juan Unified School District, 1957-1970) were segregated, I thought, by de facto segregation.  But that’s not even true.  It wasn’t by happenstance or preference that no black families lived anywhere around me, it was actually de jure segregation.  

If I had asked my fiercely assimilationist parents, they would have said there was no segregation at all (they were great deniers) and, if there was, it was de facto, it was just how it was.

My neighborhood in Lake Forest Park, is much more diverse with more than 25% of Shorecrest High School (where my children attended.)

My husband has said that he wished he could have a discussion about this with his late father.  He thinks his father would have said, that it was people’s preferences that caused the segregation.  De facto all the way.  Jim must have known about the policies.  Maybe he thought that was just how the government was run and he didn’t have any say about it.  HUD had its rules that he had to follow.  He would not have an understanding of ‘privilege’ and its effect on him and the other white male administrators he worked with.