From Nazi-Era Bias to Today’s Zoning Laws: The Fight Continues.

Fair Housing meets Actor’s Studio.

 Ian Wilder shares his journey to Fair Housing work

What does it take to dismantle centuries of housing discrimination and segregation to create a more just Long Island?

As Executive Director of Long Island Housing Services, it starts with showing up, speaking out—and refusing to accept systems that were designed to keep people apart.

👉 Watch the interview now: Long Island Changemakers: Ian Wilder, Esq.

📰 In this powerful half-hour interview, I share my personal journey from real estate attorney to civil rights advocate, revealing how my childhood, my parents’ values, and my own experiences led me to fight back against systemic injustice. You’ll hear about:

Long Island Housing Services is on the front lines—investigating violations, defending the rights of renters and buyers, and pushing for laws that make fair housing real. But we can’t do it alone.

Will you stand with us?
Your support helps us uncover the truth, protect vulnerable communities, and build a future where every person—can call Long Island home.

Donate Now! to Advance Justice

With gratitude,

 

Ian Wilder, Esq.
Executive Director
ian@LIFairHousing.org
631-567-5111 ext. 314

P.S. This video is a lot more personal than other interviews that I have done. I was unsure about sharing it. Please let me know what you think at ian@LIFairHousing.org

P.P.S. I mentioned several books that deeply inform our approach to justice. If you’re interested in learning more, here are links to the publisher or author pages for each:

📗 Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson – Where the metaphor comes from that we must take responsibility for repairing the house that we are in despite not having built it. A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, uncovers how a hidden caste system has shaped American society—and how it continues to define access to opportunity. Through narrative, history, and analysis, Caste provides an urgent framework for understanding why our systems of housing, education, and justice are still so deeply unequal, and its surprising connections discrimination in India and Nazi Germany. Made into the film Origin by Ava DuVernay.
👉 https://www.isabelwilkerson.com/

📕 Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Dr. Jennifer L. Eberhardt – A Stanford social psychologist dives into how implicit bias affects everything from criminal justice to housing access. This book offers scientific insight into how systemic racism makes it difficult for anyone — even those in a targeted group — to escape unconscious racial bias, what its real-world impact is, and how those biases can be unlearned.
👉 https://web.stanford.edu/~eberhard/index.html

📙 The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein – Though this groundbreaking exposé was not mentioned explicitly, Rothstein’s revelations of how federal, state, and local governments deliberately imposed racial segregation in housing are woven throughout this discussion. He is the Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute and a Senior Fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Rothstein’s research underscores much of the injustice we work to undo on Long Island today. If you want to understand the origins of zoning as a tool of exclusion, start here.
👉 https://www.epi.org/people/richard-rothstein/

📘 Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott – A playful mediation on writing and life. Lamott’s guide to creativity and perseverance reminds us that storytelling is essential to movement-building. It’s also a reminder that every first draft (in writing and in justice work) is a beginning—not the end.
👉 https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/97395/bird-by-bird-by-anne-lamott/

📗This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life is a commencement speech given by the author David Foster Wallace. at Kenyon College on May 21, 2005. It has been listed as one of top commencement speeches ever given. It is particularly famous for it opening metaphor which demonstrates that “the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about.”
👉 http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x4280.html

Each book helps shine light on the invisible forces that shape our housing systems—and why your support for this work is so vital.