How and Why Does Redlining Matter for Present-Day Health? Critical Perspectives on Causality, Cartography, and Capitalism.

This article critically examines the role of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) redlining maps in public health research on racial inequities, arguing that these maps are symptoms rather than direct causes of systemic disinvestment in Black communities. It emphasizes that redlining was shaped by a public–private collaboration embedded within capitalist market logics, and that racial capitalism—a framework highlighting how racialized exploitation underpins capitalist profit—offers a more comprehensive lens than structural racism alone for understanding these processes. The authors highlight the limitations of treating HOLC grades as causal and call for greater attention to other racialized housing policies and processes, such as restrictive covenants, urban renewal, and present-day lending discrimination, which collectively influence present-day health disparities. They recommend interdisciplinary approaches, refined conceptual frameworks, and expanded data sources beyond HOLC maps to better capture the complex historical and ongoing drivers of racialized health inequities.