| Description |
In the 1930s, as part of The New Deal, the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC)-and through them the practice of redlining-was born. This HOLC practice explicitly racialized cities through the mapping of the safety of issuing home loans. In 1954, almost sixty years after Plessy v. Ferguson and Separate but Equal doctrine, Brown v Board of Education of Topeka put an end to legal school segregation. Fourteen years later, in 1968, thirty years after the HOLC and their maps, the Fair Housing Act made the practice of redlining officially illegal. Unfortunately, as history shows, the passing of a law does not undo years of dug-in racist practices, and schools have, in fact, been steadily resegregating since the eighties. Utah included. Using "race neutral" tactics such as redrawing school district lines and school district secession, and dog whistle reasons such as class sizes, attendance zones, and taxpayer money stewardship, the deep imprint of Jim Crow and redlining grows deeper. The impact of these "race neutral" practices in Utah have demonstrable negative impacts on schools within the Salt Lake Valley that primarily serve students of color. Additionally, these practices are further segregating Utah schools. Tacit intentionality, under the umbrella of critical race theory, allowed me to examine these purportedly race neutral education policies and practices to see the extent to which education in Utah is still being influenced by the 1930s practice of redlining. Though illegal, this practice did not disappear. Instead, as is the case in the Salt Lake Valley, it simply got better at hiding in plain sight. |
