HUD Discovers Racism Exists Where Rich People Live
HUD’s recent 'discovery' of racial discrimination in Boston’s housing policies—as reported by the NY Times—is truly groundbreaking, if you consider the 1960s 'ancient history.' This bureaucratic 'revelation' arrives mere decades after Boston’s own history of redlining, urban renewal, and forced displacement that created its segregated landscape in the first place. You know, policies like the
1950s-era Central Artery construction that systematically bisected and destroyed Black and immigrant communities to 'revitalize' downtown. One might wonder if HUD just got around to reading historical maps or if there was simply a quota for 'official condemnations' this year. Why the sudden urgency for a city whose racial disparities have been as visible as the Freedom Trail for generations?
Perhaps it’s merely a reminder that the federal government moves with the speed of molasses when it comes to uncomfortable truths about domestic racism, often preferring to spotlight foreign atrocities while their own cities burn silently.