ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Housing segregation in the United States

Hi there! So, housing segregation means that certain groups of people get to live in certain neighborhoods, and other groups of people get pushed to live in different neighborhoods.

A long time ago, African Americans were forced to live in certain areas because of something called "redlining." That means that banks and lenders would refuse to give African Americans loans to buy houses in nice neighborhoods because of the color of their skin. They called it "redlining" because they would literally draw red lines around areas where Black people could not get loans.

This led to something called "blockbusting," which means that real estate agents would scare white people into selling their houses by telling them that Black people were moving into their neighborhood and it would bring down the property value. Then those same agents would turn around and sell the houses to Black families for more money than they were worth.

And even today, many neighborhoods are still segregated because of things like income and education levels. For example, rich people tend to live in certain areas, and poor people tend to live in other areas. This can sometimes make it hard for people from different backgrounds to get to know each other and for everyone to have access to the same opportunities.

Overall, housing segregation is a really complicated issue that has a long history in the United States, and it's important to keep learning about it so we can work to make things more fair for everyone.