Housing Discrimination and Homicide Rates

Here’s a screen capture from today’s Microsoft news feed:

To an educated person, the link between these two stories is obvious: Blacks are responsible for most homicides in the US, landlords are (at some level) aware of this and act accordingly. Hispanics also have higher crime rates, but not as high as blacks. From the Salon article:

Using a software bot, the economists sent inquiries from fake renters to 8,476 property managers in the 50 largest US metropolitan housing markets. The bot assigned names to fictitious renters that would indicate whether the race of the inquirer was white, Black, or Hispanic.

The bot found that names perceived to be white got a response 5.6 percentage points more than Black-sounding names, and 2.8 percentage points more than Hispanic-sounding names.

If the landlords were interrogated, we can rest assured that they wouldn’t say, “The reason we’re less keen on renting to blacks than Hispanics is that their skin is darker.” No, instead, they’d say, “Blacks are more dangerous than Hispanics” or something to that effect.

The article goes on to say:

The researchers find that for Black would-be renters, the most discriminatory region is the Midwest and the most discriminatory individual cities are Chicago, Los Angeles, and Louisville. For Hispanic would-be renters, the most discriminatory region is the Northeast and the most discriminatory individual cities are Louisville, Houston, and Providence.

I’m not going to claim that there’s always a direct correlation between black crime rates, in specific cities, and the rates of discrimination – but it is noteworthy that the three most discriminatory cities are Chicago (constantly in the news for black shootings), Los Angeles (constantly in the news for black “smash and grab” robberies) and Louisville (also with extremely high crime rates, and high concentrations of blacks in certain areas). All of these cities are Diverse, with neither Chicago nor Los Angeles being known for their large white redneck populations.

The ABC article lists the worst US cities for homicides, with Chicago at the top of the list:

Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, leads the nation with 739 homicides as of the end of November, up 3% from 2020, according to Chicago Police Department crime data.

Regarding the Vox article, I couldn’t help but notice that there is no mention of the race of prospective landlords/property managers. The focus is entirely on renters. This omission exists in the original research paper as well.

Obviously, the authors were looking for racism, and a reasonable person would ask if the “racist landlords” are, indeed, of a different race than the victims. Is it possible that the authors simply overlooked this factor? Perhaps they believe that non-whites discriminate against other non-whites as a form of “internalized racism.” If so, then they should have stated as much. Either way, such an omission is inexcusable; it makes me suspect that we’re not dealing with honest people.

The American public is bombarded with articles showing the existence of anti-black/anti-Hispanic housing discrimination – and not one of them delves into the actual REASONS for such discrimination; it’s assumed that it’s white landlords discriminating against black/Hispanic renters for nothing more than the color of their skin.

We need to challenge these studies. We need to demand a more holistic approach, and a willingness to ask the more difficult questions. Quantity cannot serve as a substitute for quality if the goal is a more harmonious society.

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3 Responses to Housing Discrimination and Homicide Rates

  1. Lon Spector says:

    This is the message from the Western Power Eliete: “Just let yourselves be
    slaughtered because you have white skin. But we-your masters-need never
    have to face the consequences of the pleg we unleash on you.
    Defund the police-while we live in gated communities and have ample private
    security.
    Take the posionous jab, while whoever we want (Including ourselves) are exempt.
    Offer up your children as human sacrifices (Except the cream of the crop which we
    can steal, abuse and sacrifice to Satan.)
    You are OUR cattle. You are expendible. You belong to us. Our Master Satan tells
    us so. Franfurt School. Rules For Radicals. Covert/Piven all the way!”

  2. Shadeburst says:

    Landlords aren’t really interested in what renters do between rent days. They are interested in the rent being paid timeously and in full. If certain demographics are more prone to absconding, damaging the rental premises and offenses against other tenants, the landlord would have to be a bloody fool not to check out applicants more thoroughly.

    As long as you pay your rent and keep the premises in good order, you are free to chop up bodies, purvey narcotics and all those other good things. The landlord isn’t really interested.

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