By Nate Nkumbu
Housing discrimination is an issue that is being faced by many cities across the United States.
In South Florida, housing discrimination is nothing new.
In a place where real estate is such an important part of the local economy, tales of housing discrimination are prevalent within minority communities.
Morgan Williams is the Director of Enforcement & Investigations for the National Fair Housing Alliance in Washington D.C. Williams explained in an email the history that housing discrimination has had the U.S.
According to Williams, in the 1930’s, a phenomenon known as redlining became a common practice in areas where minority people lived.
Redlining was a federal housing policy that explicit denying housing services to residents of certain areas based on the racial or ethnic makeups of those areas.
Williams said that the practice is still in effect today with banks often at the front.
“Today, some lenders structure their loan products, restrict broker services, site branch locations, and/or target their marketing on the bases of race, national origin, sex, familial status, disability, or other protected class,” Williams told RISE NEWS.
“In restricting lending services in a discriminatory manner—whether limits services in communities of color or that isolated prospective female borrowers on parental leave—the more subtle contemporary redlining practices have the same practical effect of limited credit access on a geographic basis.”
One such case that Williams talked about is Providence v. Santander Bank.
According to the Providence Journal, the city’s lawsuit alleged that Santander Bank had reduced lending in minority neighborhoods over a multiyear period while expanding its business dealings in “predominantly white neighborhoods.”
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Santander Bank bought Sovereign Bank in 2009 and as a result occupied a large share of the overall mortgage market in the city, meaning that people had few options outside of Santander.
This case saw the city of Providence settle with Santander Bank for $1.3 million in grants for lower income houses in return for dropping the housing discrimination case.
In South Florida, there are organizations that fight housing discrimination.
Each one has different experience with the issue.
Housing Opportunities Project for Excellence or HOPE is an organization that operates in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Daniel Howe, an expert for HOPE said that that the most common cases that HOPE deals with are REO house.
REO houses are bank owned houses that are maintained and kept during foreclosure or unsuccessful sales.
Howe said that the REOs in richer, more white communities are maintained and well kept better that their Latin American or African American community, leaving areas of Miami looking dilapidated in stark contrast to the richer areas only a few blocks or miles away.
Photo Credit: Occupy Miami Photos/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Another organization up in Palm Beach County has a different take on the housing discrimination in South Florida.
Vince Larkins is the CEO of Fair Housing Center of the Greater Palm Beaches.
His organization recently took the city of Boca Raton to court accusing the city of discrimination towards families with children.
During an interview, Larkins said that housing discrimination cases are prevalent in the Haitian Community.
“The level of discrimination towards Haitians is disproportionate to the number of cases we get at the the office,” Larkins said in an interview with RISE NEWS.
This assessment is followed by Marleine Bastien, executive director of Fanm Ayisyen nan Miyami, a organization based in Miami that helps Haitian families.
Bastien said in an email that the Haitian community often gets short shrift when it comes to housing.
“Most affordable housing seems to go to more politically connected and empowered immigrant groups like Cuban-Americans,” Bastien said.
“Those Haitian families that finally gotten through after long waiting periods often find themselves uprooted from their neighborhoods to Homestead, Florida City ….far away from their milieu ambient, extended families and friends.”
Just recently, Bastien’s organization fought to officially define the border for Little Haiti, an area that is the center of Haitian-American cultural and economic life in the city of Miami.
Last week, the city of Miami commission voted to make official the borders of Little Haiti.
Bastien said that there are plans for improvements across the area.
“Now we’re on a plan to revitalize the area and [create] a community land trust, to recoup spaces and land in the district/area and redevelop them for affordable housing,” Bastien said. “The second part of the plan is beautification and a CRA to bring resources to Little Haiti that strengthen businesses and spur growth.”
Florida is home to nearly two thirds of the Haitian American population. According to the 2009 census, Haitians Americans numbered at 830,000 people.
This community while growing in clout, is also at the heart of housing discrimination fights around the country.
Larkin pointed towards one case in particular with a Haitian family trying to buy a condominium. The family was flat out rejected by the condo’s owners, saying that they had a policy of “not allowing any colored people inside the community.”
“In the end, we were able to get the family into the house and won a settlement, but that family reached out to us first and were able to get their case heard,” Larkin said.
For Bastien, the work in Miami is not completely over.
She said that affordable housing isn’t much of reality anymore because the prices prohibited large sections of the population.
“It has been very difficult for folks to have access due to very limited resources,” Bastien said.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: John S. and James L. Knight Foundation/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Liberals Can Be As Dangerous As Trump When It Comes To “Islamophobia”
For a large portion of the 21st century, liberals have taken on the role of the protective big sibling persona for any minority or controversial community in the U.S.
Time and time again, liberals speak for those who have been othered. But this type of help has enforced a new, problematic discourse that hinders ones ability to have an opinion and generate productive discussions about any kind of issue directed at a specific group of people.
The liberal protectiveness that is most destructive in today’s current state of controversy is Islamophobia.
This is a word created to criticize those who reject Muslim culture by calling them irrationally fearful of a religion.
But this is an unfair categorization for the disapproval of aspects of Islamic culture.
In 2015, Bill Maher had a round table discussion about Islam and whether or not it is predisposed to violence.
In that round table, Dinesh D’Souza explained, “What’s going on here is there is a civil war in the mind of the liberal”. He explains that liberals advocate for individual freedom for everyone and for multiculturalism all at the same time.
The latter half protects Muslim culture from any kind of criticism or intervention.
Bill Maher stated, “Christopher Hitchens said Islamophobic is a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons”.
So let’s break down this very clever statement.
The Fascists, in this case, are liberals that dictate how a population can be viewed, understood, and spoken of within a political or social setting.
Cowards are those that fear political incorrectness and controversy.
And morons are the public who agree with this strategy, thus eliminating any discussion that represents Muslims in a poor fashion.
Photo Credit: Faith Goble/Flickr (2.0 by CC)
Can we really chalk up every fear of an oppressive culture to being a phobia? To be fearful of an extreme religion that has enabled people to murder and stone one another does not seem irrational; in fact, that is a very rational thing to be afraid of.
Those that feel strongly against the oppressive nature of the Islamic faith are not being phobic, they are afraid of the violence that has ensued and continues to kill innocent people due to ancient ways of thinking.
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In 2013, a story was released that Arifa Bibi was stoned to death by her uncle and cousins for having a mobile phone in Pakistan.
Stoning is a violent torture method most frequently used to punish women for asserting too much freedom or for their sexuality.
Many Muslim supporters of the campaign against stoning argue that while stoning women is not written in the Koran, “it is legitimized by the Hadith – the acts and sayings of the Prophet Mohamed.”
The story also mentions another case in 2008 in which a 13-year-old girl, Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, was buried from her neck down and stoned to death by 50 men. The reason? She had been raped by three men and was instead accused of adultery.
Our fear has not been the manifestation of a phobia of Islam; it comes from these real life tragedies.
Yet, this is not to be mistaken for a generalization that all Muslims are violent. The issue here is a misrepresentation that the religion itself invokes peace and that instead, a few extremists have reformed its ideologies and have become violent.
There is something innately violent within the religion, but that does not mean that all who follow the teachings of the Koran are violent.
This misconception comes from a lack of education and discussion on the topic. Words like Islamophobia allow this misrepresentation to exist because of the absence of communication about the violent qualities of the religion.
Both protecting and blaming an entire race is not constrictive, and it destroys any kind of productive conversation with regards to a controversial ideology.
But, disapproval of these characteristics still do not warrant the kind of blind, racist bigotry demonstrated by Donald Trump and his supporters.
Photo Credit: Derek Rose/Flickr (2.0 by CC)
The Koran, like the Bible or the Torah is a sacred text to those who read its teachings. Religion, for those who believe in it, should serve as a personal tool to connect with God or a higher being(s) in order to find support and lead a good life.
However that is not all that makes up religion.
Like any ideology, religion’s goal is to dictate and hide certain truths in order to obtain power over a population. It enforces certain beliefs, and rejects others.
This is a solidified quality of all religion, and it enables people to exclude others and their philosophies in order to support their own.
Ignoring oppressive aspects of Islam by calling anyone in opposition to the religion “Islamophobic” eliminates our ability to point out pieces of a culture that need changing for the greater good of humanity. You can disagree with something, you can even find it unacceptable, but that alone does not make you racist and it does not make you hateful.
Racism and hate come from an irrational blind assumption that all who are Muslim are also violent; xenophobia that encourages that kind of thinking proves ones stupidity.
Fear of reprimanding Islam cements the topic in mud and watches people drown in prejudice and oppression while everyone else ignores them to avoid controversial discussions.
The word, Islamophobia is not protecting Muslims, it is systematically harmful.
An individual should be able to be Muslim and not face stoning if they choose to sleep with someone before marriage or get an educating, or want to live their life differently than their parents had. That is their prerogative.
Liberals’ efforts to avoid political incorrectness allows this kind of practice to exist without reprimand, it is not protecting anyone.
However, let’s make one thing perfectly clear. By deliberately othering a religion and prejudicially demanding that they be kept from living in the U.S. is not an example of simply foregoing political correctness, it is just racism.
Donald Trump is not a leader in real discussion of controversial topics he is just racist.
Islamophobia and Islamic racism have been frequent and popular ideologies ever since 9/11, and it has kept the stigma of Muslim Americans alive.
It is acceptable to discuss the fundamental problems with Islam if they could be reasons for oppression and murder.
Just like it is acceptable to discuss gun regulation if a lack of background checks and restrictions could be the reason for massacre.
It’s time to stop speaking for other people and to instead, speak for the issues and find solutions.
If there is an inherent violence within a religion, we can talk about it without saying all Muslims are violent.
On the other hand, violence does not make it acceptable to completely omit a religion from this country, and it certainly does not warrant racism.
It is time to find the medium between both sides, to recognize that this religion of peace might not be so peaceful after all, but to also understand that that does not disregard all those who use its teachings to lead moral lives.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
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Greenpeace Is Invading Downtown Miami This Weekend
IF YOU GO:
Date: November 11th and 12th from 10 AM- 5 PM.
Location: Museum Park, 1075 Biscayne Blvd
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This weekend, people in South Florida will have a rare opportunity to come aboard a Greenpeace ship.
But don’t worry- you won’t have to fight off whalers during your time on ship.
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Massive 45 Story Luxury Tower Given Go Ahead Just North Of Miami Shores
Updated: (The original version of this story said that Apeiron at The Jockey Club would be only 40 stories high. In fact, it will be 45 stories high.
Apeiron at The Jockey Club, a planned 45 story luxury tower has just been given an important go ahead, paving the way for the long awaited development to be built.
According to Curbed Miami, the Biscayne Shores Community Council voted 5-0 to approve the project.
While coming in at an impressive 45 stories, it will include 120 residences, a 90-room boutique hotel, a five-acre health and wellness facility, a deep-water marina, and several upgrades to the preexisting Jockey Club site according to Curbed Miami.
The official address for the site is 11111 Biscayne Boulevard.
It is being designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rafael Moneo.
Apeiron at the Jockey Club is Moneo’s first South Florida project.
It will still need additional approvals before construction can begin.
Sales are expected to open in 2018.
According to The Real Deal Miami, the project has been bogged down in litigation over the past few years because of disagreements over whether the developers of Apeiron at the Jockey Club had the right to build on the land.
The Jockey Club currently consists of three buildings built between 1971 and 1982.
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Watch: Greenpeace has invaded Miami
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