The Effects Of Racial Segregation

Urban decay and “ghettoization” are the clear result of deliberate and discriminatory housing policies of every level of governments.

The federal government has historically created various policies to maintain racial segregation. Since its creation, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has perpetuated discrimination as the protector of all White neighborhoods. The FHA employed a practice called “redlining.” It was a discriminatory practice that diverted mortgage funds away from both urban and suburban, African-American neighborhoods, and toward borrowers in White, middle-class neighborhoods. From 1930 to 1965, three-fifths of all homes purchased in the United States were backed by the FHA, yet less than two percent of the FHA loans were

Negative images of this group and stereotypical biases directed at its members may automatically lead to them being stopped and arrested. Due to such biases, law enforcement officials assume that every African American male is a threat to them, and to society.

Racial profiling due to stereotypical biases also has a direct correlation to the high incarceration rate of African-American males, especially those between the ages of twenty and thirty nine. Moreover targeting minorities for traffic stops, especially African-American and Hispanic males, may enhance their sentence for other crimes, if the traffic violation is considered in determining their penalty. Unfortunately, the killing of African-American males by law enforcement officials may have a direct correlation to the percentage of African Americans being

Soto, a superior court judge in Gloucester County, New Jersey, granted the defendant 's motion to suppress evidence seized after being stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike. The court held that the seventeen defendants who were African Americans, the majority of whom were males, established a case of selective enforcement based on race. In Soto, the defense conducted a study to determine if law enforcement officers were engaged in racial profiling. The study revealed that an adult African American male was present in 88% of the cases where the gender of all occupants could be determined and that where gender and age could be determined, an African American male 30 or younger was present in 63 of the cases.

Other examples of racial profiling include an incident involving the Maryland State Police, which settled a lawsuit following the discovery of an internal memo that encouraged state troopers to target African-American males driving east on I-68. The profile of the Maryland State Police suggested that being African American plus male and driving on I-68 equalled criminal