1/ The Trump family business was built on housing discrimination
2/ I trace the troubled history of Trump, real estate, and race here: publicbooks.org/the-big-pictur…
3/ The story begins with Fred Trump, one-time supporter of the KKK and a developer who made it big by constructing housing in New York's outer boroughs for whites only.
4/ The bard Woody Guthrie penned this song about old man Trump: sang of old man Trump:
"I suppose
Old Man Trump knows
Just how much
Racial Hate
he stirred up
In the bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed
That color line
Here at his
Eighteen hundred family project."
"I suppose
Old Man Trump knows
Just how much
Racial Hate
he stirred up
In the bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed
That color line
Here at his
Eighteen hundred family project."
5/ In 1973, the US Department of Justice sued the Trump Organization, now under the leadership of Young Donald, charging it with racial discrimination in its housing developments.
6/ One of Trump’s doormen told investigators that “if a black person came to 2650 Ocean Parkway and inquired about an apartment for rent … I should tell him that the rent was twice as much as it really was, in order that he could not afford the apartment.”
7/ In 1975, the DOJ and Trump Management signed a consent decree. Trump promised not to discriminate. Here is the record: clearinghouse.net/chDocs/public/…
8/ That consent decree followed Trump (represented by McCarthyite Roy Cohn) filing a countersuit against the federal government, claiming that it's investigation was "Gestapo-like." The countersuit was dismissed. It was a stalling tactic. typical of Trump. nytimes.com/2016/08/28/us/…
9/ The problem is Trump never complied with the consent decree. In 1978, DOJ wrote: “We believe that an underlying pattern of discrimination continues to exist in the Trump Management organization...”
10/ This time, evidence emerged that Trump engaged in steering--that is showing certain properties to minorities, others to whites--to maintain racial segregation. This was and still is a common tactic.
11/ Steering, by the way, is still a common practice. In a major investigation of real estate on Long Island, Newsday found evidence of extensive steering and other discriminatory real estate practices. Trump was a precursor. projects.newsday.com/long-island/re…
12/ Trump practiced and defended this new version of Jim Crow--largely invisible--that made racial separation seem inevitable, the result of the natural workings of the market, or, as ordinary Americans often put it, “Birds of a feather flock together.” Segregation seems natural.
13/ When Trump tells white suburbanites that their way of life is threatened by AFFH (affirmatively furthering fair housing), he is not just making a "dog whistle." He is howling.
14/ AFFH--a principle that has seldom been implemented throughly over the last 50 years--has a simple goal: Provide equal housing and undermine segregated housing markets.
15/ More than a half century after the passage of Fair Housing legislation, American metropolitan areas, especially in the North and West (including Trump's former home base--New York) are still highly segregated by race. psc.isr.umich.edu/dis/census/seg…
16/ AFFH--and fair housing--is fundamentally a solution to the largest socioeconomic disparity in the US: the fact that African Americans and Latinos, largely because of real estate, have a huge wealth gap. Here is a good overview inequality.org/facts/racial-i…
17/ The racial wealth gap confers many advantages on whites: access to conventional loans and mortgages, resources to pay for college and for health care, inheritances, and more. For a personal account, read this: washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/janfe…
18/ By undermining AFFH, Trump stokes racial fears. But more than that, his policies will worsen racial inequality in the US. Housing inequality is fundamentally entwined with economic disparities, educational gaps, and unjust policing. #BLM #GeorgeFloyd
19/ Until we address persistent discrimination in real estate and ongoing segregation, we will live in a country that remains separate and unequal.
20/ Trump's whole career--from real estate developer to POTUS--is *affirmatively furthering racial injustice.* It is time to finish the unfinished work of the civil rights movement. That won't happen as long as Trump is in the White House. Fin
