ADVOCATES’ FORUM Josselyn Andrea Garcia Quijano takes an approach merging the TOWARDS A WHITER WOODLAWN abstract and concrete approaches of the previous authors. “Workplace Discrimination and Undocumented First-Generation Latinx Immigrants” RACISM AND THE UNIVERSITY OF discusses the policy and mental health implications of discrimination CHICAGO’S EMPLOYER-ASSISTED specifically targeted at undocumented Latinx immigrants. Quijano discusses the impact of discrimination, policies and law, and positionality HOUSING PROGRAM of power in relation to the mental health and coping mechanisms for this often hidden group. “On the Ethics of Mindfulness-Based Interventions,” by Howard Laurel Chen Ruan, examines the broad appeal of mindfulness in secular stress reduction and how this secular mindfulness resembles and differs from the traditional Buddhist practice. While some have criticized secular mindfulness as cultural appropriation, Ruan puts forth a model of Abstract coexistence in a discussion of needed redefinitions. This article investigates the racism inherent in the purportedly race-neutral University The last paper takes a more personal approach in ruminating on of Chicago’s Employer-Assisted Housing Program (EAHP) and its drive to encourage an epidemic completely unlike the current pandemic: gun violence employee homeownership in the Woodlawn neighborhood. The paper demonstrates in America. Kira Monin, in “Framing and Agenda Setting Following that the program’s eligibility requirements means it is most accessible to White people. the Mass Shooting Attack in Christchurch, New Zealand,” starts with It further shows that the EAHP marketing works to sell Woodlawn in specific ways in personal experience before following New Zealand Prime Minister order to attract White homeowners despite the current racial makeup of a neighborhood that is majority-Black. Finally, in light of the University’s longstanding efforts to expand Jacinda Ardern’s public responses in the week following the shooting. its physical sphere of influence through the creation of Whiter, wealthier spaces in This close tracking allows a deep examination of the contrasting neighboring communities, it outlines how staff, students, faculty, and broader community American and New Zealander responses to a mass shooting and members might organize around the issue and put pressure on top administrators to contemplation of effective framing. alter such programs. We hope that you find these papers as interesting as engaging as we did and that you recognize the many lessons and insights that can be applied elsewhere. As situations are changing rapidly everywhere, social workers will play a key role in advocating for just conditions. These are the types of ideas and methods of thinking that will get us there. our houses at the northern edge of Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood, a block from the University of Chicago and several Fblocks from the site of the proposed Obama Presidential Center (OPC), Jamie Koenig recently sold for upwards of $700,000, a record for the area. The homes are Yanwen Wang two-story, black and white framed homes with floor-to-ceiling windows. Their upscale design and high market price set them apart from the rest of the neighborhood (Rodkin, 2019). Woodlawn is adjacent to Jackson Park, which in 2016 was named the site of the OPC. Median home values rose 16% in 2017-2018 (Cleaver, 2018) and the neighborhood has experienced rising rents (Smith, Lane & Butler, 2018; Whitely, 2017). The median household income in Woodlawn, however, is only $25,000 and 77% of residents are now renters and 84% are Black (Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, 2018). In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Woodlawn saw many housing foreclosures (Gamino, 2015), part of what Keeanga-Yahmatta Taylor © 2020 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 1 TOWARDS A WHITER WOODLAWN ADVOCATES’ FORUM (2018) called the “culmination of a long period of predatory inclusion of “THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO AGREEMENT TO GET African Americans in the housing market” through subprime lending (p. RID OF NEGROES” 23). Given the economic conditions in the neighborhood now, who can Until the 1890s, Woodlawn was a small community of Dutch farmers. afford the rising prices in Woodlawn? A University of Chicago employee The 1893 World’s Fair in Jackson Park brought 20,000 new residents with an incentive to move to Woodlawn is one possibility. to Woodlawn. While Black people made up a mere two percent of Woodlawn’s population in 1915 (Moore and Williams, 2011), by 1920, the Great Migration swelled Chicago’s Black population to 110,000. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO’S EMPLOYER-ASSISTED Although approximately 85% of the Black population was concentrated HOUSING PROGRAM into an area from 22nd to 55th streets (i.e., the “Black Belt”), some The University of Chicago’s Employer-Assisted Housing Program (EAHP) middle-class African-American families moved to Woodlawn (Hirsch, provides up to $10,000 in down-payment assistance to full-time benefits- 1998; Seligman, 2005). eligible employees who buy a home in one of nine nearby communities. White property owners attempted to bar and intimidate Black According to the EAHP webpage, the program “strengthens [the homebuyers through racially restrictive covenants and racial violence University] connections to surrounding neighborhoods, retains valuable directed at Blacks as well as the real estate agents and mortgage lenders employees, and helps staff to optimize their work-life balance.” In 2014, willing to work with them. The neighborhood had become a popular Live Here the University created a tiered system, with neighborhoods eligible for place for University faculty to settle and in 1928, the Woodlawn Property Convenient access to work, public Join a growing community Join the neighborhood varied amounts of assistance, ranging from $2,500 to $10,000. It also Owners Association, with covert legal and financial support from the transportation, schools, parks, and a variety created the “Woodlawn Focus Area,” spanning west from Stony Island to University (Plotkin, 2001), organized a restrictive covenant in the of nearby attractions, including: Nearly one-third of UChicago employees live on the mid–South Side. • ARTS INCUBATOR • BLANC GALLERY Cottage Grove Avenue and south from 61st to 67th Street. Those buying a northwestern portion of Woodlawn to prevent the sale of property to Black Quick facts about the • COURT THEATRE • DUSABLE MUSEUM • Employer-Assisted home in the Woodlawn Focus Area get the most down-payment assistance: households (Kamp, 1987). A 1937 Chicago Defender editorial referred to 57TH STREET ART FAIR • FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S ROBIE HOUSE • HARPER COURT Housing Program $10,000. No other neighborhoods qualify for this amount. Homeowners the restrictive covenants as “The University of Chicago Agreement to get • Faculty and staff at the University HYDE PARK ART CENTER HYDE PARK • • of Chicago and the University of in the other neighborhoods may buy a second home with assistance in rid of Negroes” (Moore and Williams, 2011). JAZZ FESTIVAL • JACKSON PARK GOLF Chicago Medicine are eligible for COURSE • JACKSON PARK HARBOR • $2,500 to $10,000 in forgivable loans just one area—the Woodlawn Focus Area (Coward, 2015). During a panel To better understand the University’s role, one might look at the for home purchases in one of nine LAKE MICHIGAN • LITTLE BLACK neighborhoods surrounding campus. discussion on The Future of Woodlawn, Susana Vasquez of the Office of “Security Map” of Woodlawn associated with the discriminatory real estate PEARL ART AND DESIGN CENTER • • Employees of all income levels are MIDWAY PLAISANCE PARK AND eligible for the EAHP benefit for Civic Engagement said the varying amounts of down payment assistance practice of “redlining.” The map, created by the Home Owners’ Loan most neighborhoods. ICE SKATING RINK MUSEUM OF • • New employees are eligible for this are based on “demographic changes” and “where we think it’s important Corporation (HOLC) between 1935 and 1940 (fig. 1), laid out color-coded SCIENCE & INDUSTRY • program immediately upon success- ful completion of their probationary ORIENTAL INSTITUTE MUSEUM • for folks to live.” Clearly, the University thinks it is most important for areas according to credit worthiness. Those in red were seen as high risk or period of employment. OSAKA GARDEN PROMONTORY • • Up to $2,400 in rental assist- employees to live in the Woodlawn Focus Area. “Hazardous” while areas highlighted in yellow were “Zones in Transition,” POINT • RENAISSANCE ance is available to employees moving into the Woodlawn Focus Area. SOCIETY • REVA AND DAVID In this paper, I investigate the racism of the EAHP’s drive to encourage or “Definitely Declining” (Nelson, Winling, & Connolly, 2018). • Loans for home purchases are LOGAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS • completely forgiven after five SEMINARY CO-OP BOOKSTORE years of employment at the employee homeownership in the Woodlawn Focus Area, as well its University of Chicago or the University SMART MUSEUM OF ART • of Chicago Medicine as long as the implications. The ostensibly race-neutral program fits into Bobo, Smith • SOUTH SHORE CULTURAL employee maintains the home as their primary residence for this CENTER & NATURE SANCTUARY, and Jones’s (1997) concept of “laissez-faire racism,” a type of racism that period of time. GOLF COURSE, AND BEACH • Employees must contribute at least “relies on the market and informal racial bias to re-create, and in some • WASHINGTON PARK 3.5 percent of the down payment instances sharply worsen, structured racial inequality” (p. 17). More toward the home purchase price. For more information: recently, Ewing (2018), in turn, underscores that racism “lives not in Website: uchic.ag/eahp_resources individuals, but in systems” and “our society follows a pattern, churning Email: [email protected] out different outcomes for different people in ways linked to race” (p. LAKE MICHIGAN 12). When understood in the context of the eligibility requirements, the marketing of Woodlawn to homebuyers, and the University’s history in the city’s South Side, we recognize the racism embedded in the EAHP. The Figure 1.