Students found no easy answers Tuesday on the issue of loan and housing discrimination when Alpha Beta Sigma Sorority and the Minority Management Society presented a discussion entitled "Color Coding a Nation" in the Student Union.
Redlining - the practice of denying home loans to people in certain urban neighborhoods - and racial prejudice in corporate America were discussed by a lively group of mostly minority students.
Khadijah Tillman, Alpha Beta Sigma's vice president, detailed how redlining resulted from a program designed to make securing a mortgage and home ownership easier during the Great Depression.
The federal government under President Franklin D. Roosevelt formed the Federal Housing Administration in 1934 to help guarantee mortgages. The Home Owner's Loan Corporation was then put in charge of drawing the nation up into maps which indicated to banks which areas held the least risk.
Areas that were considered a financial risk were colored on the map in red, giving birth to the term redlining. Signs of decay and decline and the presence of minorities characterized these areas. Their residents were almost always denied the access to loans.
"A lot of minorities couldn't get loans or houses because of this (redlining). It was top secret though - the government couldn't admit that there was this map," said Tillman.
A video clip depicted what seemed to be a highly qualified loan candidate possessing a steady job and $100,000 worth of assets being turned down simply because he wanted to purchase a house in an area which the bank deemed high-risk.
"(Discussing) redlining also assists in bringing a clearer understanding of one reason why some low-income neighborhoods appear to be in a state of constant degradation," stated Tillman in an e-mail.
Students at the forum felt this redlining-induced degradation fed into stereotypes of minorities as lazy or on welfare when they are actually helpless.
Redlining pulls money out of a declining neighborhood and increases the downward spiral, according to the group's analysis.
Tillman said redlining is slowly subsiding, though she attributed this mostly to legal challenges.
Racial discrimination, another issue addressed at the meeting, is something that still affects minority students. There was dispute among the participants as to whether discrimination could be combated with education or if that solution would be ineffective because discrimination is deeply ingrained in society.
Tillman said discrimination takes two forms, overt and covert. Overt discrimination -- such as the use of racial slurs - is clearly stated. More common today is covert discrimination, described as policies that are used to only promote or hire the desired individuals.
Many emphasized the need of a professional and confident appearance to make a good impression and avoid giving employers the opportunity to discriminate.
If this method fails, Esther Annan, president of Alpha Beta Sigma, stressed the importance of confronting employers to inquire whether race played an issue in hiring decisions.
"You have to learn when to bring the issue of color into the equation," said Shavonne Wyche, an English graduate student who serves as chapter advisor to the sorority.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
