Housing-market discrimination makes purportedly free market choices illusory

Evidence

“Free market” explanations, however, are notoriously incomplete. As others have persuasively argued, markets are social institutions shaped by various levels of state and private control. Choices and preferences made in the “market” domain are, as Cass Sunstein explains, “endogenous rather than exogenous”—a function of current information, consumption patterns, existing legal rules, social norms, and culture. For instance, the historical and present reality of race discrimination in the housing market inevitably affects individual preferences and mobility in the housing arena. Given this history and present reality, the “free” nature of market choices must be called into question. — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 317

Categorization

• XREF: The endogeneity-of-preferences move parallels the social-construction arguments run in earlier polyad sources on race and institutions. — connects to: Market-dynamics siting outcomes remain racist once housing discrimination is factored in — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 336; Free-market explanations fail because markets are social institutions shaped by state power and discrimination; Housing discrimination creates a negative feedback loop harming Black property values — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 451 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Housing discrimination creates a negative feedback loop harming Black property values #expands (0.90) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 451
• Homeownership fails as a wealth-building tool for Black Americans due to structural discrimination #expands (0.90) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1376
• Housing policy biases who can form intentional communities toward privileged groups #expands (0.85) — Yael Arbell, The Circle of Commoning, 60
• White homebuyer preferences undermine progressive homeownership proposals for black Americans #expands (0.85)
• Present-day white homebuyer behavior, not past policy alone, sustains housing market racism #expands (0.85) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 1280
• Race-conscious homeownership remedies fail when white flight depresses resale values #expands (0.85) — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 483
• The Fair Housing Act outlawed discrimination but not its lingering effects #corroborates (0.85)
• Blockbusting turned racial fear into profit for real estate speculators #expands (0.82) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 917
• Discrimination forms shift with the labor and housing structure #expands (0.80) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 682
• Anti-discrimination laws did not reset artificially created housing wealth gaps #corroborates (0.80) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1365
• Housing investment returns differ systematically by neighborhood racial composition #expands (0.80)
• Racial distinctions can be deployed as economic discrimination devices #expands (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2318