How redlining has affected the quality of health in BIPOC communities of West Oakland.
A deep dive into the racial inequities of policymaking.
Dave Campbell, a veteran of the United States Air Force who served for several years, was denied basic rights to create a stable future for his family due to long stemming impacts of institutional racism through extremely restricted lending opportunities and redlining practices. To this day, these policies have ingrained themselves into the soils of redlined neighborhoods, particularly in West Oakland, California, and have led to disproportionate effects on BIPOC communities’ quality of life, seen through health inaccessibility, especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and food insecurity. As a result, those residing in affluent neighborhoods, typically white wealthy families, have much greater access to resources that provide better quality of life.
For Dave and his family, maps such as the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation of Oakland (HOLC) which was created in 1937 dictated where homes were buyable and not buyable. Essentially, these maps were color coded to depict which areas were classified as “lending risks”. However, they typically ensured that BIPOC, lower income, and Indigenous communities stayed economically disadvantaged through denying them opportunities to purchase houses and thereby eventually lead better lives. High lending risk areas were labeled with the letter ”D”, simply due to the demographics of people living in those locations. The institutional effects of these maps can be seen through stories like Dave’s and many other families who sought to build prosperity and good futures for themselves.
"It is easier to stay drunk than it is to eat"— West Oakland resident, Gregory Higgins
The classification of risky communities has been seen to affect the quality of and access to food, due largely to supermarket giants such as Whole Foods and Safeways declining to open in redlined neighborhoods. These supermarkets also resorted to shutting down stores that “wouldn’t perform well”, thereafter relocating to more affluent suburbs (Source). Consequently, residents living in poorer neighborhoods cite that it is “easier to stay drunk than it is to eat”, due to the greater prevalence of liquor stores and lack of real supermarkets. In fact, taking a look at the numbers, in lower income communities located in the flatlands, there is only one supermarket for every 90,000 residents (Source). On the opposite spectrum in the Oakland Hills, the same source revealed that there is one supermarket for approximately 14,000 residents. Evidently, access to healthy and sustainable food is much more difficult to come by for flatlands residents. To exacerbate this statistic, it can be seen that liquor stores are more common in the flatlands, adding up to 32 total in the zip code location of 94621, which only has one supermarket. (Source). Contrastingly, the 94611, housing affluent households of Leona Heights neighborhoods only features 10 liquor stores, with 2 supermarkets. In the low income regions, it is also easier to open a liquor store and get a loan to do so, compared to a supermarket. These observations are no coincidence, and demonstrate the effects that wealth segregation holds on resource distribution. As middle class White families moved into the hills and outskirts from the 1950s to 1970s, they brought the accessibility of healthy food with them, leaving lower income Black residents with below average means to lead a healthier lifestyle, and ultimately restricting their ability to accumulate wealth.
In attempts to improve this situation, community organizations such as local farmers markets have made efforts to make obtaining produce and food accessible to the general public. However, even the emergence of community markets does not meet the core benefit that a large supermarket chain would provide. Especially in lower income communities, where public transit and bus usage is common, these markets only provide a select amount of options, leaving little range in options. Thus, a common pain point that people face is having to commute to multiple markets to complete their groceries. Moreover, even if all stock is met by a single store, prices are inevitably high at these smaller markets.
Taking a step back, let’s take a look at the policies that led up to this situation. First, the New Deal exemplified a key opportunity for policymakers to improve socioeconomic conditions among minority communities. While initiatives such as the Wall Street reform, Social Security, and the right to collective bargaining came into fruition in attempts to improve such conditions, they were also only possible after intense rallying and protests that brought President Roosevelt into a position to do so. At the same time, these programs discriminated against certain populations. Notably, the Social Security Act left out agricultural workers and thereby disproportionately impacted Black individuals, which affected generations to come. Another example of a missed opportunity was during the Great Recession, where government officials failed to meet the needs ot Black families. In fact, current studies found that the incomes of White households would be 31% lower by 2031 if the Recession never happened, whereas Black household wealth would be 40% lower, or approximately $100,000. These numbers show the inability and failure of policymakers to combat the difficulties contributing to the Great Recession.
The alarming health implications created by institutional racial inequities are not only highlighted but also exacerbated by the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Along with food insecurity concerns, the pandemic brought upon higher infection rates among Black and Latinx regions. This is not surprising, as disparities have been known to be prevalent in Black communities for many years. However, it is important to learn from our past mistakes and ensure an equitable plan to respond to the pandemic’s effects.
