If memory serves, Adam Ruins Everything thinks suburbia is about racism with a dash of classism. HOAs just seem to ratchet that up another notch.
There's nothing wrong with being skeptical or critical. There is everything wrong with selectively being critical and misrepresenting the situation.
"Critics of HOAs have attacked them as a “tool for exclusion” that can encourage racial segregation. There’s no available data on the race of the owners of each particular house, so Clarke and Freedman couldn’t test this accusation directly. But they did compare the racial demographics of neighborhoods with or without HOAs, and found that neighborhoods with HOAs tended to be richer and less racially diverse."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-04/do-homeow...
As an ally, you should be on the lookout for rules that are being selectively enforced. These are a core tool of institutionalized discrimination.
Unnamed critics state things "can" do things, while the following sentence shows there is no evidence. Then there is a follow up statement that the racial demographics show that HOAs tend to be richer (A major point of HOAs is to improve and maintain neighborhood values), and less diverse. The second part on its face might seem upsetting but, you'll find largely suburban communities ARE overall less diverse. It would maybe be relevant if they found and stated "HOAs in the same zip codes as non-HOA neighbrhoods of equal value are less diverse", that might show some racial differences, but then not even necessarily bias.
In short, bloomberg is a rag and should be used to pickup your favorite pets droppings with.
edit: forgot a word
Argue devil's advocate all you like, but there are many HOAs with "No Jews, Asiatics, Blacks, or Mulattos allowed" still on the charter and "Whites only" written directly into the deed.
Wasn't that long ago, and many of the people who wrote those bylaws are still alive...
The last paragraph in that history section made me laugh, because now HOA's are mainly for developers to ensure they can sell their homes and then after the fact when they're no longer relevant you're left trying to satisfy an HOA and they always say its to keep property values up and what have you.
Restrictive covenants have been a dead letter for decades, and they predate modern HOAs by definition.