A View With An Edge

My home is in one of the most attractive neighborhoods, probably, that exist in America. Situated on a bucolic New England mountainside, my property is one of 66 uniquely designed contemporary houses, each sitting on at least one and a third acres. The neighborhood is predominantly Jewish but yet diverse enough for blacks and non-Jews to feel welcomed. The area is solidly middleclass, very well maintained, (mostly by professional landscaping services), and has a community board that restricts homeowners from making changes on their property that in any way alters the “look and feel” of the developers intent.

Instead of one of the sculptured landscaped properties we chose to live in a home surrounded by natural woods, large natural rock formations and trees. Lots and lots of trees. In the winter my children have been excited by red fox chasing rabbits across our back yard. Prides of dear wander pass our dining window. Once, just once, a bobcat strolling across my thirty-yard long drive startled me. The quiet that surrounds us is only broken by the caw of crows in the morning, the steady beat of woodpeckers, frogs croaking of coming rain and dawn songbirds. Out back is a hiking trail that leads to a state forest and a four-mile wide lake.

Inside we’ve decorated this wooded, garden spot with a collection of fine African and African-American art acquired over the last twenty years. I’m comfortable seeing black faces looking back at me from jazzy acrylic mosaics; soft little colored girl watercolors and carved wooden sculptures. I grew up appreciating this esthetic in my parent’s home. Because it was so important helping my siblings and me build a positive black self-esteem I’m sure this esthetic will help my children appreciate more the faces they see in the mirror as well.

Yes, my home is beautiful and recently I put it on the market to sale. However, on two separate occasions, black friends visiting suggested that if I really wanted to sale my house in New England that I had to remove all of my African and “ethnic” art from my walls and any pictures from view that hinted the home is owned by blacks.

What? Who were they talking to?

Two black couples told me that in order to sell their homes in predominantly white neighborhoods to white buyers that is exactly what they did. Otherwise, their houses would have languished on the market requiring them to lower their asking price, or possibly even take a loss to sell the house. One couple actually went so far as to replace their framed family photos with the smiling generic white peopled placeholders that come with new picture frames.

Now, I’m from Detroit. Grew up in a town in a time when the black mayor, Coleman Young (God rest his soul), upon winning his first election told whites who could not live with his victory over the white police chief to “hit 8 Mile Road," the city’s border (now made famous by rapper Eminem). And they did in alarming numbers, abandoning a once beautiful city with the most impressive stock of fine single family homes in the country.

Congress passed the Fair Housing Bill forcing property owners not to discriminate against African-Americans while selling and renting. They can force New York City cab drivers not to pass us on the street. But we can’t force whites to buy homes from us.

Live long enough and we’ll all experience the ugliness of racism: “psychological, emotional and economic terrorism” the artist Gary Logan calls it. Whites don’t want to live around us, work with us, for the most part worship with us, attend school with us, and historically, be dead around us (most African-Americans who have died in America since the country’s founding have been buried in segregated cemeteries).

But, as I told my perplexed friends, defiantly, I be damned if I take the portrait of my beautiful and black children off my wall in order to sell my house to whites. It’s a nice house in a lovely area that anyone would be proud to own. I’ll keep it first. I don’t know if I’m more surprised by white racist home buying patterns as I am that middle-class educated blacks have accepted this as business as usual.

I’m told this experience is pervasive. That it is common among blacks who sell their homes to literally whitewash their walls and environment to get a better deal. I don’t understand this. Racism baffles me, accepting it is worse. We're not asking these people to bathe with us. We actually leave when they move in. I was told whites don’t perceive blacks as people who take care of their homes as much as they do. Bull, and they trust other whites? Remember the Love Canal, anyone? That’s why home inspectors exist.

Now, honestly, I have sold property in New York City to whites who cared less about the race of the sellers. They saw a good real-estate investment and took it. Nonetheless, I’m not surprised about the racist home buying habits in New England.

After all, Boston is its capital.

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