29 June 2020
To redline something is to mark it for special attention or treatment or to reject or exclude it. The term comes from a literal or figurative marking of something with red ink. But in the 1960s the term acquired a racist sense, meaning to delineate neighborhoods populated primarily by Blacks so that they would not get loans or insurance without paying exorbitant penalties. In essence, redlining became a late twentieth century term for the creation of ghettos, neighborhoods where “undesirable” people are allowed to live.
The general sense of redlining meaning marking for special attention dates to at least the 1930s, although it is likely older. (Searching digital archives for redline turns up enormous numbers of false hits. Not only are there the usual OCR errors, like mistaking reclining for redlining, but Redline is a surname as well the name used on many transportation systems, not to mention red-lined clothing.)
The earliest use of the term in a relevant sense that I’ve found is in a September 1932 Ph.D. dissertation from the University of Southern California, where redlined is used quite literally to refer to cells in a table that have been highlighted in red ink:
The red lines surrounding three of the cells in Table VII enclose the number of students who made normal progress during the second semester irrespective of progress made during the first semester. [...] Numbers falling above the redlined cells indicate students who made at least one-half a semester greater than normal progress during the second semester. [...] The numbers falling below the red-lined cells indicate students who made less than normal progress during the second semester.
It is also used four years later in exactly the same sense in an 18 December 1936 report on the Irish census:
On every occasion where a group classification is used, the heading should indicate that the figures are "approximate figures based on a classification used by those making the return." I think it would have been desirable to have marked all these tables with some red line indicating caution—"danger."
But the term really gets traction during World War II, when it becomes part of U.S. Army jargon meaning to mark a soldier on the payroll who should not be paid that month. The 23 September 1942 issue of Yank uses the term:
Who is it the yardbird [i.e., recruit] sees when he gets red-lined on the payroll for signing his name wrong?
And an 18 June 1943 piece in the Boston Globe gives its meaning:
“Red-lined” means a man’s name has been crossed off the payroll. The list is prepared on the 20th of the month, but if he is away from camp, for instance, on the 30th his name is “red-lined” and he gets his pay later.
Redlining can also be used to mark a piece of equipment as non-serviceable and destined for the scrapyard. Here is a wartime, civilian use from the 12 March 1944 issue of the Michigan Battle Creek Enquirer and News:
Ricca devised a method of splicing radiator sections salvaged from equipment “redlined” for the junk pile into the damaged radiator on the vehicle brought in for repair.
The racist use in banking and insurance is recorded some twenty years after war, a period where the veterans would be moving into senior positions in civilian companies. The practice was called out and named in U. S. Senate hearings in 1967, as noted by the Wall Street Journal of 14 June 1967:
An interesting practice was uncovered in the Boston hearings: “Redlining.” Banks and insurance companies, the commission was told, literally or figuratively draw red lines on a city map around slum areas, and within those lines mortgage money and insurance for rehabilitation are made available only at extra-high rates.
So, redline is a textbook example of a literally and ethically neutral term that has become tainted by its use as a racist practice.
Sources:
“Custer Reduces Time on Radiator Repairs.” Battle Creek Enquirer and News (MI), 12 March 1944, 24. ProQuest.
Eason, J. C. M. “First Impressions from the Census of Distribution, 1933.” Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, 15, 18 December 1936, 22. ProQuest.
“Mail Call.” Yank, 23 September 1942, 14. Newspaper Archive.
Otten, Alan, L. “Politics and People.” Wall Street Journal, 14 June 1967, 16. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2009, s.v. red-line, v., red-lining, n.
Putnam, Harold. “Victory Forum.” Daily Boston Globe, 18 June 1943, 10. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Watt, Reginald Rufus George. A Study of Student Progress Through College with Special Reference to Failure. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Southern California, September 1932, 66. ProQuest.