Chapter 8: Mortgage Loans

One part of chapter 8 that I found interesting was the conversation between Jack and Betty about buying a new and nicer house. Du Bois states, “The price was high. The bank to which Jack applied refused a mortgage loan.” (Du Bois 110). I found this especially interesting because of my family history and housing. First my father’s parents were denied a mortgage loan on the house they now own. Although my grandparents were turned away, they decided to save their money for the next two years and offered to pay for the house in cash, luckily it was still on sale. After two years of being for sale, naturally the price went down, but my grandparents paid for the house for more then what was asked the second time around because the man was so stubborn. When they offered to pay in cash, that day, the man acquiesced.
Historically speaking blacks were kept out of certain neighborhoods because it lowers property values and somehow becomes a more dangerous area. The house my family lives in now is in a gated community, and we happen to be one of the three black families that live there. That being said, I would like to tell Jack and Betty that the housing segregation they faced back then is still a major racial problem for today, however it is not in the main list of priorities that the African American community addresses. My mom flips houses and she is faced with the stark differences in community and the lack of diversity within the upper-class areas. We have seen all black upper-class areas that are very nice but mostly see mostly white areas. Times have changed and African American is allowed to live wherever they choose and cannot be discriminated against; however, de jure segregation has certainly influences de facto living