Editorial: Slavery isnt the only evil we need to talk about in reparations debate – San Francisco Chronicle

On Wednesday, after more than three decades of trying, the House Judiciary Committee advanced HR40, a bill to explore paying reparations to Black Americans for centuries of racism and oppression dating to the beginning of American slavery in 1619. The vote was along party lines, with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, accusing the Democrats who passed the measure of trying to take money from people who were never involved in the evil of slavery and give it to people who were never subject to the evil of slavery.

Jordans is a common refrain among Republican members of Congress any time reparations come up. And much of the American public agrees with him. Only one in five Americans supports reparations, according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll last summer.

But Jordans argument isnt just morally dubious; its misleading. Slavery is far from the only evil America needs to account for in the reparations debate.

One less known wrong is the federal governments role in enforcing and furthering housing segregation. As late as the 1950s, the Federal Housing Administration refused to insure mortgages in Black neighborhoods while facilitating the construction of affordable suburbs for white families.

Examples of this federally supported discrimination abound in the Bay Area. Consider Daly City, where, as historian Richard Rothstein has documented, the FHA financed the development of the Westlake neighborhood on the condition that the area be restricted to whites. Once established, that color wall remained largely in force until the passage of the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Similarly segregated housing developments were built across the country with the guidance and direct participation of the federal government. The impacts, both social and financial, linger to this day.

Home values are a major component of the racial wealth gap between Black and white families in the United States. And historians have traced this gap directly to discriminatory housing policies, including those of the federal government. The average home price in Westlake is currently over $1.2 million, according to Redfin estimates a boon to those who inherited them and an overwhelming barrier to the vast majority of potential buyers.

Slavery was arguably the greatest evil perpetrated in the history of the American republic. But it was far from the only evil directed at Black Americans with the complicity of the federal government. Either through ignorance, willful obfuscation or some combination of the two, Republican legislators are ignoring that history in the debate surrounding reparations. And theyve been successful in influencing public opinion on the matter.

One of HR40s primary goals is to correct the record and educate Americans about racism throughout our history including but not limited to slavery. That lesson is clearly needed. The reparations debate might not be so contentious if it werent so uninformed.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.

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Editorial: Slavery isnt the only evil we need to talk about in reparations debate - San Francisco Chronicle