White Like Me

Read further to see how the government excluded blacks from different acts unintentionally.

In class we watched a documentary called White Like Me featuring Tim Wise. In this documentary, Wise tells his personal story of how he saw racism even though he was white. He refers to some things that caused tension within the nations. Such things include David Duke (a known KKK member and Nazi) running for Senator, the Tea Party to return to what the Founding Fathers intend for the country, and how since the 1960's blacks has often represented what being poor was. But the one thing I want to focus on from this documentary was the acts created by the federal government that did not benefit the African American population that are still in affect today.

In 1935, President Franklin D Roosevelt signed the Society Security Act (SSA) into affect. This act helped to support those who were either elderly, disability, or unemployed Americans by giving financial assists to those who qualitied or health insurance.

In addition to the SSA, blacks were unable to receive Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans. The FHA started in 1934 and were giving loans from the administration that insured mortgages on people's houses. Blacks were at a disadvantage of these loans. 98 percent of the recipients of these loans were white, mostly due to the fact that blacks were unable to afford nice houses and if they could then they could not afford these loans.

In 1944, the President signed GI Bills into affect. The GI Bills gives benefits and various options to soldiers and their families. Such benefits include a stipend to go to further their education through college or giving unemployment benefit to those searching for jobs. Black soldiers often did not receive GI Bills mostly due to not being able to achieve the requirements of these Bills.

For more information about Wise or the different acts I discussed, please look at these links:

http://www.timwise.org/about/

https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/social-security-act

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/fha-stand-mean-9718.html

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/gi-bill