The MLK Forces Healing the Fabrics of America’s Communities
Yemi Akinwumi and Michael Akinwumi
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK 1), thank you for acting against de jure discrimination and intimidation that segregated Black Americans into low-medium-income areas with insufficient and poor-quality housing. Thank you for co-leading the movement that sought to end discrimination not only in housing but also in employment and education in Chicago. Moving with your family to a Chicago slum to call attention of the authority to housing conditions of Black people inspire us as a family to live our passion to be part of a cause that promises to ensure equitable access to economic opportunities for all, including those oppressed by unjust laws and policies.
Your life of sacrifice in the tumultuous decade of the 1960s won important victories including the decision of the Chicago Housing Authority to build public housing in predominantly white neighborhoods, the promise to end race-based lending policies by the Mortgage Bankers Association, and paying the ultimate price so that we can have the Fair Housing Act (FHA) that promises to end discrimination and segregation in America.
Unfortunately, the many promises of the FHA, “… the policy of the United States to provide, within constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States” (Section 3601 of the Fair Housing Act, 1968), are yet to be fulfilled. The promise of an integrated society is yet to be fulfilled. Racial segregation is still alive. In metropolitan areas with large Black populations there is significant segregation of non-Hispanic White people from Black Americans suggesting that the FHA’s promise of integrated living patterns is yet to be achieved. Developing areas where low-income minorities cannot afford to even make a bid contradicts the FHA’s promise of an integrated society.
Walls, highways, municipal boundaries, and rail tracks are some of the infrastructures that still cluster poor, middle-class and affluent households into segregated neighborhoods. Residents’ incomes, housing quality and public amenities are factors that still segregate metropolitan neighborhoods 55 years after the passing of the Fair Housing Act. This economic segregation interlocks racial segregation to reinforce each other.
Given these unfulfilled promises of the Fair Housing Act, does the Fair Housing Movement need another MLK to permanently reverse the trends of housing discrimination and economic segregation in America? Or can we develop a system that is based on the knowledge and methods handed to us by Dr. King during his lifetime? The answer to the two questions is yes. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) can lead to a machine learning knowledge (MLK 2) base that can perpetuate justice in data-driven and algorithm-powered systems that decide housing and economic outcomes in our society.
The context of housing and financial services markets discrimination is significantly different from what it was decades ago. The markets are now driven by big data and invisible hands in the form of sophisticated algorithms. Hence, enforcement actions and compliance strategies under the FHA must evolve with time, they must adopt the modern solutions promised by MLK 2. There are new forces of discrimination and segregation that are subtle and more hidden under the disguise of complex data and sophisticated algorithms, and they can be stopped not by opposing the use of these data-driven technologies but by embracing these technologies and using them for good.
Happy MLK Day celebration. Let’s get busy using the principles of Dr. Martin Luther King (MLK 1) to develop a machine learning knowledge (MLK 2) base that continues the legacy of Dr. King and that delivers in full the benefits of the Fair Housing Act.
