Bad example.
Ignore sweater dog people.
A tote bag full of kale.
You're killing me, lady!
Okay, maybe... this neighborhood
is mostly to... completely to...
insufferably white,
but that, that's just
the way things are here.
It doesn't mean we're racist.
   I'm sure you're not, Ron.
   But the fact that so many
   suburbs are mostly white
is no accident.
  It's the result of decades
   of racist federal policy
  that affect us to this day.
 Look!
Hooray! Games!
What the heck kinda game
is this?
 It's Settlers of the Suburbs,
  redlining edition.
 Cool!
Little Donovan,
 you be green.
   Ron, you're red.
 All right, red,
 just like the name.
 Looks like
 I've got the advantage.
No. You don't.
  See, in the 1930s,
   as part of the New Deal,
   FDR created loan programs
   to help Americans
 finance their homes.
But, to decide
 who got those loans,
the government created
   color-coded maps
   in which
 green neighborhoods were good
 and red neighborhoods
   were bad.
 This practice
  became known as redlining.
  Because of these policies,
 if you lived
  in the green neighborhoods,
   it was super easy
  to get a home loan.
All right,
I can buy property!
 But the folks
   in the red areas?
   No loans were available.
I can barely afford rent
with this.
   It's no fair.
  The red areas are screwed.
   Yeah, they were.
And do you know why some areas
were designated as red?
No, but I can guess.
 Those were the neighborhoods
where African Americans
  and other minorities lived,
 and redlining
 systematically prevented them
   from getting home loans.
  Well, I know what I'll do.
 Just take my little guy
  and put him
  in the green neighborhood.
Sorry!
   That's against the rules.
Early suburb developers
like William Levitt instituted
  explicitly racist policies.
  And the federal government
 itself encouraged developers
   to discriminate.
  The result
   of these policies
is that from 1934 through 1968,
 a whopping 98% of home loans
 were given to white families.
Yes...!
   O-okay, this,
   this is not fair.
   I did not get to pick
   what color I was
 when I started.
 Yeah.
 No one does.
  And this advantage
 compounded over time.
  The families in the green--
   or white-- neighborhoods
  were able to purchase homes
  and accrue wealth.
The market went up!
I can sell my house
and buy a bigger one!
  Whereas the people
   in the red neighborhoods
got none of those opportunities.
I can't afford property.
I'm behind
on my electric bill.
  In the green neighborhoods,
   the influx of new wealth
   attracted new businesses.
Whoa...
we got an organic grocery!
 Which caused property values
   to go up.
  Which meant white families
could sell their homes
  and send their kids
  to college.
They grow up so fast.
 Passing down
  their wealth and advantages
to future generations.
(female group)
   ♪ Money, money ♪♪
Meanwhile, the red neighborhoods
 had far less ability
to build wealth
   and many
 remained trapped in poverty.
This game is rigged!
 Yeah, it was.
That's why laws
were eventually passed
that made most of these
  discriminatory practices...
   illegal.
  Ah! Ha, great! Ha!
Finally, I can move,
and...
  I don't have enough money.
Exactly.
Without wealth, families
in the red neighborhoods
couldn't afford to move up,
keeping these communities
separated by race.
Today, 70 years
 after Levittown was created,
 it's still less than
  one percent black.
Ha-ha!
I may be dead,
but the effect of my racism
lives on.
And if the neighborhoods
are segregated,
that means
the schools are too.
 What? It...
 No, no, that, that,
 that can't be true.
 We ended school segregation
 back in the '60s.
  Sorry, Ron, but I'm afraid
  that's not true.
Ron, this is
Nikole Hannah-Jones.
She's a New York Times
investigative reporter
who covers
civil rights issues,
including school
and housing segregation.
Nikole,
would you mind telling Ron
what most people get wrong
about segregation?
People tend to think
of segregation
   as an archaic term
   for Jim Crow policies
  that led to
  the civil rights movement.
 But the truth is
 that black children
 are more segregated
 in schools now
than at any time
since the 1970s.
And in the U.S.,
schools are largely funded
by property taxes.
Since property values
in the white neighborhoods
are so much higher,
their schools get way more money
to spend on things
like facilities,
teachers and supplies.
  On the other hand,
 predominantly black
 and Latino schools
  are massively underfunded.
  They're less likely to have
  A.P. science and math courses,
and they're the least likely
 to have experienced
 and qualified teachers.
The truth is,
little Donovan doesn't just go
to the best school.
He goes
to a segregated school.
Oh, no, no, no.
 This is a direct result
   of decades
   of redlining policies
   enacted by our own government
   to build the suburbs.
Highways that were built
   to make access to the suburbs
   easier for white Americans
were often run right through
  black middle-class
  neighborhoods,
   destroying them.
  People in the past
were the worst.
 It's not just the past.
Banks still regularly charge
black home buyers
  higher rates on loans than
  they do white home buyers,
 even when they have
 the same credit.
 Worst of all, black
 and Latino home seekers
  still experience
  four million incidents
  of illegal housing
  discrimination every year.
 But... I mean, I didn't
 do any of that stuff.
   I, I'm not racist
   and I worked hard
  to get this house.
Of course.
But without realizing it,
you've also gotten a leg up
from America's history
of racist housing policies.
The suburb you live in
was built on a foundation
of segregation,
and we can't close our eyes
to that.
  You know what?
