Right-wing media outlets are attacking a new rule from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) designed to increase diversity in American neighborhoods, calling it an attempt by President Obama to dictate where people live. But the program merely provides grant money to encourage communities to provide affordable housing and greater access to community resources.
HUD Announces Plan To Encourage Diversity In American Neighborhoods
The Hill: Obama Administration Moves "Forward With Regulations Designed To Help Diversify" American Neighborhoods. According to a June 11 article in The Hill, HUD will issue the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule later this month, "aimed at ending decades of deep-rooted segregation around the country":
The regulations would use grant money as an incentive for communities to build affordable housing in more affluent areas while also taking steps to upgrade poorer areas with better schools, parks, libraries, grocery stores and transportation routes as part of a gentrification of those communities. [The Hill, 6/11/15]
Right-Wing Media Attack HUD's Housing Program As "Obama's Orwellian Suburbs"
Fox's Megyn Kelly: Obama Will Strong-Arm Communities That Are "Too White [And] Too Privileged." On the June 11 edition of Fox News' The Kelly File, host Megyn Kelly warned that the Obama administration plans to force "too white [and] too privileged" communities to embrace diversity "whether the communities want it or not." Fox contributor Marc Thiessen agreed, saying Obama's "insidious" plan will "bribe or blackmail" local leaders into diversifying neighborhoods:
THIESSEN: He wants to organize your community from Washington, D.C. I mean, this is an insidious idea. What they're trying to do is engage in social engineering of local communities from Washington, D.C. They're going to take data -- collect data on the racial makeup, social makeup, economic makeup of communities -- and then either bribe or blackmail them into changing their zoning policies. I mean, this is a fundamental assault on freedom, on local government, on the principles that this country was built on.
KELLY: They don't want, quote, 'unequal neighborhoods.' Unequal neighborhoods. They think too many communities are too white, too privileged, with too many big Mcmansions. And they want to diversify the communities whether the communities want it or not. [Fox News, The Kelly File, 6/11/15]
Fox's Stossel: "Now This Will Be More [Money] For Bribes" To Desegregate. On The June 11 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, Fox Business host John Stossel called the HUD rule "bribes" to end segregation. [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 06/11/15]
Fox News' Special Report Used A Graphic Labeled "There Goes The Neighborhood" In Reference To The Program. While Special Report anchor Bret Baier introduced the HUD story on his June 11 broadcast, a graphic in the segment on the screen said "There Goes The Neighborhood":this is ginning up the fear monster of discrimination putting the actual act of bigotry and prejudice on the already rooted residents having them do the dirty work of not having those people in their neighborhood because of all the misleading info through the years about people of color in their neighborhoods oblivious to the fact that the majority of those situations were created by the same people now trying to scare them into opposition. they get to slap Pres., deny a better life for other Americans and keeping those other other people safe in the knowledge that there will be no diversity here. and the beat goes on.
is Fox making Kelly into a scapegoat, she gets the stories that are more radical and can be redialy rebuked just asking
