redline
RED-line
/ˈred.laɪn/
To refuse mortgages, insurance, or loans to someone because they live in an area deemed financially risky, historically targeted at minority neighborhoods.
Specifically refers to systematic, geographical discrimination in banking and real estate based on demographic composition.
The story behind the word. In the 1930s, the U.S. Home Owners' Loan Corporation drew literal red ink lines on city maps around non-white neighborhoods to signify high investment risk, codifying financial disinvestment.
Word relationships
- blackball: Blackballing targets specific individuals social or professionally, while redlining targets entire geographic areas.
- exclude: Exclusion is a general term, whereas redlining specifically involves geographical financial services discrimination.
- invest: Investing provides capital to an area, whereas redlining deliberately starves an area of capital.
Commonly confused with
- ghettoize: Redlining is the financial process of withholding investment; ghettoizing is the resulting isolation and decay of the restricted area.
Word family
- redlining (noun): The practice of denying credit or services to specific geographic areas.
Collocations
- redline neighborhoods
- systemic practice to redline
- digitally redline
Example sentences
- "Federal housing agencies used color-coded maps to redline neighborhoods with significant minority populations, denying them government-backed mortgages." Historical housing policy
- "Civil rights advocates warned that automated loan approval algorithms might inadvertently redline lower-income ZIP codes." Modern algorithmic banking
Memory hook
Picture drawing a bright red line on a map around a neighborhood to block banks from giving loans there. Red line on the map means no money in the bank.
When not to use
Do not use for general refusal or personal rejection that lacks a spatial or systemic financial boundary.
Fun facts
- The original redlining maps created in the 1930s still correlate strongly with modern tree canopy coverage and urban heat island effects in American cities.
Related words
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