Books We Wish Were Taught in School - Part 4
What does Bruce wish was taught in school?
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
Welcome to Part 4 of our series about books we wish were taught in schools.
Here's what Bruce has to say about The Color of Law:
"I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio in the 60s and 70s, and I saw the effects of redlining first hand and as a child didn't understand it.
It wasn't until I was an adult and read how the government and banks had specific policy to move different ethnic groups into different areas,
especially African Americans,
out of white white areas
by preferential loans and preferential treatment,
and the effect that this has had down to today in generational wealth."
For example, we can look at "just the difference between who lives in, say, two different areas of the city of Shaker Heights...where banks pushed African Americans to settle, and those houses are worth 30-40% less than houses a couple of blocks away.
It's part of our history,
a history that I think we often ignore,
and Rothstein does a great job bringing it home as a visceral, real, 'this happened,' and this happened certainly during my lifetime, during my parents lifetime,
and it's only very recently that this process has been stopped.
So, I would love to see this taught in every school as a part of our history."
Check out Richard Rothstein's follow up to The Color of Law, written with Leah Rothstein,
Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law
