Challenging Race as Risk

By Jillian Olinger, Kelly Capatosto, and Mary Ana McKay.

Kirwan Institute

 

In this report the authors explore how implicit bias affects housing and credit markets. As the authors point out:

While the research regarding structural impediments and disparities in housing and lending is well-documented, the research connecting implicit biases to housing and lending outcomes is less well-understood…As this report argues, these implicit biases are manifest in the housing and lending economy in part due to a deeply rooted association between race and risk in the physical and social landscape of our communities. This association helps drive neighborhood segregation, and thus widens opportunity segregation.

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