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The National Housing Act of 1934, part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ following the Great Depression, was aimed at making home ownership affordable for lower-income Americans. However, the maps that were drawn up by the government-sponsored Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), which was intended to prevent new homeowners from defaulting on their loans, in fact targeted minorities by making race and country of birth important zoning categories. The practice of relegating homebuyers considered ‘hazardous’ to creditors to certain sections of the city became known as ‘redlining’ due to the districts’ red colour on HOLC maps. Although the Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited discriminatory housing practices, it is rarely enforced, and the devastating effects of redlining are still strikingly obvious today in almost every US city. This video essay explains how redlining continues to touch almost every facet of daily life, including health, education, wealth and policing, for urban minorities in the US.
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Computing and artificial intelligence
A scientist’s poor eyesight helped fuel a revolution in computer ‘vision’
9 minutes
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Future of technology
Is this the future of space travel? Take a luxury ‘cruise’ across the solar system
6 minutes
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Fairness and equality
A tragicomic account of how the Los Angeles Police Department blew up a city block
19 minutes
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Stories and literature
A French Creole folktale nearly lost to time is given new, gorgeously animated life
6 minutes
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Deep time
When algae met fungi – the hidden story of life’s most successful partnership
4 minutes
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Personality
Why cleaning up crime scenes requires a rare mix of grit and empathy
9 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
From helicopter flybys to trail cameras, there’s no one way to count a wolf
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Art
Why a forcefully phallic portrait of Henry VIII is a masterful work of propaganda
6 minutes
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Sports and games
A unique project frames college football as an intricately choreographed mass ritual
7 minutes