Hello Meltingpot Readers,
If you’re a regular listener of the My American Meltingpot podcast, then you may have heard that I’m launching a new segment called, “Laugh or You’ll Cry.”
In this segment, I will be sharing examples of peak racist white supremacist nonsense that passes as normal in our convoluted excuse of a just society. Examples that are so absurd they make you want to laugh, or else you’d have to cry.
For the first installment of, “Laugh or You’ll Cry” I will be talking about the dangers of selling your house while Black. True confession, I’m in the process of moving right now, so this topic came to me because I am living it in real-time. And it’s so absurd I have to laugh … or I’ll cry.
Let me explain.
The “Black tax” in Real Estate
If you are a Black person in America and you want to sell your house, you have to go through the un-Black process before your house can be shown to prospective buyers. What that means is that you have to remove any and all visual evidence that Black people inhabit your property. That picture of Grandma on the mantel? Take it down. Your daughter’s Black Cabbage Patch kid on her bed? Hide it! Your African masks from that trip to the Motherland (or TJ Maxx, no judgement here), let your cousin hold ’em at her house until the sale goes through. That giant poster of Angela Davis hanging over your desk in your office? Definitely has to go. Your treasured collection of Toni Morrison novels? Stash those bad boys under the bed. Not only should you remove the Blackness, you should probably run out to Ikea and buy some pre-populated with pretty white people picture frames and display those in every room.
And why do you have to do this? Because statistics show that people perceive homes owned by Black people as less valuable than those owned by white people. Even if the Black home owners live in a stable, well-to-do neighborhood, the Black tax still gets extracted from the value of the home. Seriously, this isn’t something I’ve just invented or that happens only to a small sampling of individuals. It’s actually a “thing,” from coast-to-coast in the U.S.of A. It’s demeaning and demoralizing and straight up unfair. But this is America and white supremacy extends its ugly tentacles to all parts of society.
White Supremacy Ruins Everything
So, what do we do about this? How do we make it so Black people can sell their homes without having to hide their whole selves from the process and still get a fair valuation of their home? Here’s an idea, dismantle white supremacy! While that may seem too lofty, it truly is the only way. We have to fight white supremacy, as prescribed in the new book of the same name by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin. We have to continuously check our internal biases and assumptions to challenge these rules of engagement that are based on lies. White supremacy is a lie. The idea that Black homes are less valuable than white homes is a lie. The idea that we can’t do anything about this abhorrent practice is a lie. Speak up. Speak out. Tell the truth. Pay full price for a house that is owned by Black people. Real estate professionals work harder at educating your clients and buyers. Don’t accept the status quo when it is so obviously based on a false narrative of racial hierarchies. We can do something and we must. The Black tax needs to die.
Okay. I’m going to step off my soap box, but I’m going to ask, what can you do to end the Black tax? Share your ideas in the comments section. I’m totally listening.
Peace!
(Photos by rawpixel.com from Pexels)
