It is an unfortunate fact of our history that the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. brought about passage of the Fair Housing Act. The video provides a captivating overview of that one week in April 1968. It was created 5 years ago for the 45th anniversary. I challenge you to watch it and not notice the similarities between then and now.
Without the Fair Housing portion, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 might have passed much sooner. At the time of its consideration, public sentiment was roughly 150-1 against the inclusion of Fair Housing legislation. The chairman of the House Rules Committee would not allow it to be voted on. Many believe the bill was passed only as an attempt to quell the rioting that followed the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Approximately, one hour after Martin Luther King, Jr. was buried the law was finally voted out of committee.
The video begins with a voice over "Few in our time believed that Fair Housing would, in our time, become the unchallenged law of this land". However, as many know, it has not gone unchallenged. To this day, many resist allowing everyone to make their own choice of where to live. Enforcement of the act was marginal in the first 20 years after its passage. Some say HUD did not make full use of the enforcement provisions provided and others say the Act did not give HUD enough to work with. Finally, in 1988, the Fair Housing Act Amendments provided for testing and enforcement with stiffer penalties. 1988 also brought about the addition of Families with Children and Persons with Disabilities to the 'protected classes'.
Coming soon: Accommodations for persons with disabilities; what is a disability; how testing works; the effect of criminal background checks on discrimination.
Follow up to my first post on this subject: Earlier this week, I was in a meeting a local Fair Housing event. The organizing group wanted the Realtor Association to provide them with a speaker for their panel. The group specifically asked that the speaker be "from a protected class". (Insert work appropriate eye roll here). I had to speak up and remind everyone that we are all members of a protected class and what they should be looking for is a diverse panel. One that represents as many different 'classes' as possible. My co-worker, the liaison to the group, offered to go back and ask if they could tell us how we could contribute to the diversity of the panel.
To be clear, I agree that there is such a thing as white privilege and that many of us, me included, have it easier because of the color of our skin and other protections. However, as a society, we have to move away from the us vs them mentality. There are a lot of imbalances and we need to work hard to correct them. Acknowledging our privilege is a start. But rather than stepping out of the way we should be using our voices to lead the way.
Keep smiling keep moving
-Paula
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