Editing Redlining (section)

==== COVID-19 ====
Redlining intentionally excluded black Americans from accumulating intergenerational wealth. The effects of this exclusion on black Americans' health continue to play out daily, generations later, in the same communities. This is evident currently in the disproportionate effects that COVID-19 has had on the same communities which the HOLC redlined in the 1930s. Research published in September 2020 overlaid maps of the highly affected COVID-19 areas with the HOLC maps, showing that those areas marked "risky" to lenders because they contained minority residents were the same neighborhoods most affected by COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) looks at inequities in the social determinants of health like concentrated poverty and healthcare access that are interrelated and influence health outcomes with regard to COVID-19 as well as quality of life in general for minority groups. The CDC points to discrimination within health care, education, criminal justice, housing, and finance, direct results of systematically subversive tactics like redlining which led to chronic and toxic stress that shaped social and economic factors for minority groups, increasing their risk for COVID-19. Healthcare access is similarly limited by factors like a lack of public transportation, child care, and communication and language barriers which result from the spatial and economic isolation of minority communities from redlining. Educational, income, and wealth gaps that result from this isolation mean that minority groups' limited access to the job market may force them to remain in fields that have a higher risk of exposure to the virus, without options to take time off. Finally, a direct result of redlining is the overcrowding of minority groups into neighborhoods that do not boast adequate housing to sustain burgeoning populations, leading to crowded conditions that make prevention strategies for COVID-19 nearly impossible to implement.<ref>"Mapping Inequality." Digital Scholarship Lab, dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/.</ref><ref>{{cite web |first1=Jason |last1=Richardson |first2=Bruce C. |last2=Mitchell |first3=Helen C.S. |last3=Meier |first4=Emily |last4=Lynch |first5=Jad |last5=Edlebi |title=Redlining and Neighborhood Health |publisher=NCRC |url=https://ncrc.org/holc-health/ |date=10 September 2020 }}</ref><ref name="Myers, JoAnne 2020">{{cite book |last1=Myers |first1=JoAnne |title=The good citizen: the markers of privilege in America |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-351-00669-9 |oclc=1111653987 |doi=10.4324/9781351006705 |s2cid=211349002 }}{{page needed|date=March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Badger |first1=Emily |title=Can the Racial Wealth Gap Be Closed Without Speaking of Race? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/10/upshot/racial-wealth-gap-2020-candidates.html |work=The New York Times |date=10 May 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000248 |doi-access=free |title=The Promise of Prevention: The Effects of Four Preventable Risk Factors on National Life Expectancy and Life Expectancy Disparities by Race and County in the United States |date=2010 |last1=Danaei |first1=Goodarz |last2=Rimm |first2=Eric B. |last3=Oza |first3=Shefali |last4=Kulkarni |first4=Sandeep C. |last5=Murray |first5=Christopher J. L. |last6=Ezzati |first6=Majid |journal=PLOS Medicine |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=e1000248 |pmid=20351772 |pmc=2843596 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Howell |first1=Brittani |title=How Redlining, Racism Harm Black Americans' Health |url=https://www.wyso.org/2020-06-24/how-redlining-racism-harm-black-americans-health |work=WYSO |date=24 June 2020 }}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=CDC |date=2020-04-30 |title=Communities, Schools, Workplaces, & Events |url=https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/race-ethnicity.html |access-date=2020-12-09 |website=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |archive-date=August 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805071354/https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/race-ethnicity.html |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>

After years of de facto discrimination achieved through redlining, a system of structural racism blocking the achievement of health equity for all Americans has developed. As a result, a de facto health narrative that does not inspire belonging, compel political participation, nor dictate strategic change towards the social justice model for health equity has matured. In order to eliminate health inequality in America, a new de facto health narrative needs to dictate strategy. The process for achieving health equity relies on healthcare leaders articulating, acting on, and building the vision into all decisions and structures that support equity. Sufficient resources must be allocated to establishing a governance structure that can oversee health equity work. This includes taking specific action to address the social determinants of building intergenerational wealth as well as confronting institutional racism within health systems themselves. Next, health systems need to address the socioeconomic determinants of health which disadvantage minority groups. Through training, education, support groups, housing support, improved transportation, resource assistance, and community health programs, health equity organizations can begin to break down the long-lasting barriers that tactics like redlining have imposed on achieving health equity. In addition to ensuring the equal health outcomes of patients, healthcare organizations can also utilize their position as employers to develop a more diverse workforce through improved hiring practices and ensuring living wages to minority employees.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rothstein |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Rothstein |title=The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America |title-link=The Color of Law |year=2017 |place=New York |publisher=[[Boni & Liveright|Liveright Publishing Corporation]] |pages= |isbn=978-1-63149-453-6 }}{{page needed|date=September 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-03-06 |title=Health Equity: Why it Matters and How to Achieve it |url=https://www.healthcatalyst.com/health-equity-why-it-matters-how-to-achieve-it |access-date=2020-12-09 |website=Health Catalyst |archive-date=November 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127032620/https://www.healthcatalyst.com/health-equity-why-it-matters-how-to-achieve-it |url-status=dead }}</ref>