“Numbers Take Us Only So Far”
by Maxine Williams
I WAS ONCE EVICTED from an apartment because I was black. I had secured a lovely place on the banks of Lake Geneva through an agent and therefore hadn’t met the owner in person before signing the lease. Once my family and I moved in and the color of my skin was clear to see, the landlady asked us to leave. If she had known that I was black, I was told, she would never have rented to me.
Terrible as it felt at the time, her directness was useful to me. It meant I didn’t have to scour the facts looking for some other, nonracist rationale for her sudden rejection.
Many people have been denied housing, bank loans, jobs, promotions, and more because of their race. But they’re rarely told that’s the ...
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