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Reviews
| Colored Property: State Policy and White Racial Politics in Suburban America, by David M.P. Freund. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007. 514 pages. $34.00, cloth.
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| David M.P. Freund's perspective on racial discourse and the role it played in suburban development contributes much to the field of race and political history. Taking issue with historians who address the racist policies of suburban America in the decades after World War II, Freund emphasizes that the foundations for these policies lie rather in post-World War I America. The development, implementation, and effects of the connection between race and property form the basis of his study. Freund bookends his subject with two instances of white violence against black homeowners: one in 1925 and the other in 1963. Using metropolitan and suburban Detroit as his geographic parameters allows Freund to discuss thoroughly the transformation of language and politics for broader suburban America. Various exclusionary practices couched in the language of private property allowed whites to believe that the "exclusion of minorities was not about race per se but about the principles of real estate economics and homeowners' right to control their communities" (p. 37). |
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One of the dominant themes of this work is the detailed conversation about the changes in racist language and policies. Freund is adamant that whites buried their racism in the safety of economic discourse and the protection of private property. By the 1950s, whites could openly claim to exclude minorities not on the basis of race, but on the expedience of protection and as a means of ensuring the value of their homes. Although exclusion was still the issue, using economic incentives and the safeguarding of suburban retreats lent validity and deceptively alternative reasons for prohibiting minorities in all-white neighborhoods. This perspective challenges older historical trends that viewed the rise of white suburban America as an economic phenomenon not at all motivated by race. Freund effectively disproves such an argument by reviewing the literature of various home owning associations who adamantly opposed housing projects, renters, and other "undesirable" residents. While there are some issues of class involved, it is no coincidence that minorities, particularly blacks, comprised the majority of renters and tenants of housing projects. |
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Freund also spends a great deal of time addressing the ways in which whites conceived of race and conceptualized racial dynamics to suit their particular social needs. This malleability and its various adaptations allowed whites to constantly revise their position on race and property ownership, always ensuring that the two buttressed the white privilege of suburban America. In this respect, Freund owes a debt to various historians who have taken up the subject of whiteness and what it has meant historically to be white. David Roediger's influence is felt when Freund insists that whites consciously conceived of race in regard to others, but failed to acknowledge the implied privilege of whiteness. To be white entailed certain unquestionable rights and among those was the claim to private property and single family homes in the suburbs away from the squalor and influence of metropolitan, poor blacks. |
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An important aspect of this work is its discussion of the relationship that developed between white home owners and local and national politicians. The support of political figures helped in creating a network of exclusionary practices that included selective mortgaging and the establishment of Home Owner's Association. Such groups of whites directly supported political figures who worked to ensure the continued whiteness of communities, belying the public front and propaganda that government did not interfere with the natural process of economics and housing. According to Freund, "federal selective credit programs ensured blacks' exclusion from the suburban mortgage market, restrictive zoning excluded most renters and low-income families, and residents joined realtors in steering or scaring away minorities who had the means and will to settle" in white neighborhoods (p. 234). |
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Colored Property is a well-researched and thoroughly documented work. Freund relies upon a wealth of archival sources from federal, local, and private interest groups. He supplements these traditional sources with newspaper articles, pamphlets, and magazines that underscore the pervasiveness of race in addressing housing changes. It is perhaps in this massive documentation that the book loses its appeal. The sheer depth of research and sources makes the book at times a difficult read. The complexities of race and politics, both at the federal and local level, and the application of these to the housing sector make for a thoroughly scholarly work that demands more than a passing familiarity with modern U.S. history. The challenge would be to incorporate this work into anything below a graduate course. However, for graduate students and established scholars, Freund offers a fascinating and well developed thesis that offers a new perspective on the dynamics of race in modern America. |
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| University of Kentucky, Lexington |
Sandra Slater |
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