Dismantling Systemic Racism in Real Estate Classes

Keywords: racism, real estate, housing, discrimination, implicit bias

Abstract: Housing segregation is one of the most pernicious legacies of systemic racism in the United States. Each year, thousands of college students learn about these housing markets in real estate classes. Business schools teach students about nearly every aspect of these markets, from appraisal to brokerage to mortgage lending to investment analysis. Yet, strikingly, they rarely mention the significant, persistent role that racism has played in all of these activities throughout history. Even more concerning, most business schools spend little, if any time, raising awareness about the implicit biases that affect all market participants or explaining the institutions and processes that perpetuate these injustices to this day. As a result, students often enter the industry oblivious to the past and present existence of systemic racism in real estate—and therefore, unprepared to recognize, understand, and confront it in their careers and their lives as consumers and investors. In this roundtable discussion, we will discuss the new methods that some real estate classes are using to fill this gap in students’ knowledge and to develop the critical, empathetic thinking needed to become agents of positive change.