Freedom’s Cost is Higher Than the Sticker Price: how home-ownership reinforces racism and classism
The American dream of ownership has created, for all of us, an ethical and practical nightmare.
My one and only flirtation with the American dream of homeownership began and ended with a townhouse in a neighborhood that a more tuned-in-to-the-culture American would have recognized as “aspirational” but unlikely to appreciate. In truth, I was well-enough aware of the cynical nature of the real estate market by that point to know full well that I “shouldn’t” buy that property — not if I were actually in pursuit of the version of the American Dream that would have been appropriate to someone of my gender, race, and class (female, white, middle). But my rejection of this cornerstone of American culture was already underway, even as I succumbed to it for the first time in my late 30's.
When I started to look for a house to buy, I suppose I had accepted the notion that I couldn’t really be considered an adult unless I did something adult-like. At that point, I had been in and out of graduate school since my early 20s, earning a few advanced degrees, teaching to make ends meet, and renting or subletting. Although there was no concrete reason I needed to prove to anyone that I was a “good adult,” I imagined that I needed to, and since it is impossible to…