Welcome to the Laverne Cox Show, a production of Shondaland audio in partnership with IHeart Radio.

As the homes became more overcrowded, people needed to conduct their social life in the streets

because every available space was being used for a bedroom for multiple families living in space that

should have been for a single family.

Governments stopped collecting garbage frequently in those neighborhoods.

They became African-American, and they became slums.

And whites looked at those slums, and they decide, well, African-Americans are slum dwellers,

not understanding that the slum conditions were created by government policy.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Laverne Cox Show. I'm Laverne Cox.

In America, owning a home is presented as like part of the American dream.

And I've always wanted to own my own home. I bought my first home about almost three years ago now.

And it was a huge thing for me, especially as someone who used to live in government subsidized housing. And when I think about being black, being African American, and being a

homeowner, I can't help but think about the history of how that has been a fraught enterprise

for a lot of black people in this country.

And I can't help to think about the relationship between home ownership and wealth and then home ownership and structural racism.

And I knew when I had this podcast that I would want to have a conversation about

residential segregation, home ownership, and structural racism.

And I discovered this book called The Color of Law

through the For Harriet YouTube page.

Shout out to Kimberly Foster.

And I knew I wanted to have Richard Rothstein,

who wrote the book on the podcast,

...