Race: The power of an illusion (Episode Three)
The House We Live In
2003

• Race may be a biological myth, but racism is very real. Our final, The House We Live IN, focuses not on individual behaviors and attitudes, but on how our institutions shape and create race, giving different groups vastly unequal life chances.

• Who is white? In the early 20th century, the answer wasn't always clear. Often courts had to decide, and they resorted to contradictory logic to maintain the color line. After World War II, whiteness increasingly meant owning a home in the suburbs, aided by discriminating federal policies. European "ethics," once considered not quite white, blended together as they reaped the advantages of whiteness - including increased equity as property values rose dramatically - while African Americans and other nonwhites were locked out. Today the average white family has eight times the wealth of the still not level, and "colorblind" policies only perpetuate these inequalities.

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