I was listening to a recent This American Life episode called "House Rules." This episode was primarily about The Fair Housing Act of 1968 and housing discrimination.
One of the first things talked about was the way in which the quality life and of one's education is often effected by income, and where one lives. It's an interesting issue to discuss from a human right perspective. How does a government go about ensuring equal quality of education for its citizens?
Similarly, how does a government go about combating housing discrimination? Act one of the show follows a New York organization that tests for violations of The Fair Housing Act of 1968 by sending people of different races in inquire about renting apartments. This kind of research is often done by non-governmental organizations rather than state governments.
The show also goes into the history of the Fair Housing Act and housing discrimination. Act one also discusses the way in which the government for a long time facilitated housing discrimination through loan giving practices. For example, by only giving loans to white people who wanted to buy houses in all-white neighborhoods. In this way the Federal government was able to facilitate housing segregation very efficiently.
The show is a lot more detailed and interesting (it's an hour long), but I would highly recommend taking a listen! It has a lot to do with the human rights issues we've been discussing in class lately.
Going off of the idea of housing discrimination, this talk also brings up the idea of right to education. I think it was really interesting to hear about how this personally affects adults, as well as children all across America. It is ridiculous how much of a difference schools have depending on whether or not they are located in an inner city (this connects back to the post that Molly put up about schools in Philadelphia). Though the two Ohio schools were located only miles apart, just by the excitement in the Jada’s voice, it was obvious that the school in the suburb was a much better learning environment. Is it up to the government to regulate the effectiveness of certain schools, or are all inner city schools simply doomed to remain less effective than schools in richer areas? What do you think is the best path of action for the educational system in the US to follow? The school reform initiative (http://www.schoolreforminitiative.org/) is attempting to fight for educational equality but will these organizations ever be able to alter entire nation’s preconceived views on inner city schools?
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