Dear Editor,
Those of us who oppose racism, must also support more housing in Culver City.
Did you know that housing inequality is one of the major reasons there is a large wealth gap between Black or Hispanic households and white households in the U.S? And did you know a typical white family has ten times the wealth of a typical Black or Hispanic family? In other words, on average, for every one hundred dollars a white household has, a Black or Hispanic household will have ten dollars. And, here’s the important point for this discussion, most of this wealth (or lack of wealth) is concentrated in housing (or the lack of housing).
Of course, all this is built on four centuries of white supremacy – the near extermination of this country’s native people, the most viscous slave system the world has every known, and the continuation of institutional and systematic racism ever since. Housing is one of the starkest expressions of all this today. The gap between Black and white family homeownership is larger than it was when it was legal to refuse to sell a home due to the color of a buyer’s skin. The current housing crisis, and it is a crisis, has hit nonwhite communities much harder than white families. It is a nationwide crisis that is especially concentrated in California, and right here in Culver City.
There are many reasons we desperately need much more housing in our city, but one of the most critical is to help overcome our racist legacy as a sundown town. Founded for whites only, this city did everything in its power for decades to prevent nonwhite families from owning or renting homes or even from driving through town, especially after sunset. Providing more housing, of all kinds and in every neighborhood, with much of it affordable to the average person or family, is a crucial way for us to provide one form of reparations for all the harm our city has inflicted on its nonwhite neighbors, visitors and citizens. How can we be a welcoming city if we can’t even provide housing for many of the people who work here? Where will our children’s teachers live, where will the firefighters we rely on live, where will the restaurant and studio and tech employees live, if we don’t create much more housing, much of it affordable?
If you oppose racism, you must support more housing.
John Kent
Things Progressive say everyone must support or they’re racist:
Upzoning, bike lanes, CRT, accepting that you suck and nothing will ever change that, opening Jackson Gate, detracking English, asking a Black or Latino or Asian person how to be a better White person, not complain about the homeless situation, doing a “self crit”, removal of parking spaces, not having to do summer reading, reading “How to Be an Anti-Racist”, knowing at least three things about Juneteenth
Not only is that a false equivalence – zero guarantee that any additional housing would go to a specific group, for starters – but a cheap attempt at tamping down potential opposition to your zero sum proclamation, and ginning up animosity towards anyone who speaks up.
Calling someone racist is a serious accusation, not something you blithely toss around like Oprah giving away cars.
How did you provide a balanced discussion without contacting anyone with opposing views tio be at the “discussion?”