Harvard and Yale-trained property law scholar Bernadette Atuahene understands the unique challenges and systemic barriers that Black people face when purchasing a home and maintaining homeownership.
It’s something Atuahene writes about in her new book, “PLUNDERED: How Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America.” In the book, Atuahene investigates Detroit’s tax foreclosure crisis and examines how “predatory governance” systemically impacted Black Detroit homeowners.
The book follows the homebuying stories of two grandfathers, one white and one Black, who arrived in Detroit at the turn of the 20th century to work for Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge factory. The book explains how the white grandfather was able to pass down generational wealth, while the Black grandfather wasn’t able to do so because of written and unwritten “racist policies.” Some of the policies include racially restrictive covenants, redlining, urban renewal, blockbusting, predatory lending and inequitable property taxation.
