How Ruthless Banks Gutted the Black Middle Class and Got Away With It

[Brewman_Jax]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/148068/how_ruthless_banks_gutted_the_black_middle_class_and_got_away_with_it/

From the article: The American middle class has been hammered over the last several decades. The black middle class has suffered to an even greater degree. But the single most crippling blow has been the real estate and foreclosure crisis. It has stripped black families of more wealth than any single event in U.S. history. Due entirely to subprime loans, black borrowers are expected to lose between $71 billion and $92 billion.

To fully understand why the foreclosure crisis has so disproportionately affected working- and middle-class blacks, it is important to provide a little background. Many of these American families watched on the sidelines as everyone and their dog seemed to jump into the real estate game. The communities they lived in were changing, gentrifying, and many blacks unable to purchase homes were forced out as new homeowners moved in. They were fed daily on the benefits of home ownership. Their communities, churches and social networks were inundated by smooth-talking but shady fly-by-night brokers. With a home, they believed, came stability, wealth and good schools for their children. Home ownership, which accounts for upwards of 80 percent of the average American family’s wealth, was the basis of permanent membership into the American middle class. They were primed to fall for the American Dream con job.

Black and Latino minorities have been disproportionately targeted and affected by subprime loans. In California, one-eighth of all residences, or 702,000 homes, are in foreclosure. Black and Latino families make up more than half that number. Latino and African-American borrowers in California, according to figures from the Center for Responsible Lending, have foreclosure rates 2.3 and 1.9 times that of non-Hispanic white families.


Yes, it did happen, and it was no accident.

[Blue_Tires]

1. that was the plan from the start n/t

[Number23]

2. Damn.

[Brewman_Jax]

3. The logical progression of this was...

to extend those predatory practices into mostly-white spaces. Thus, the stage was set for the mortgage crisis that tanked the economy.

Activists had called for action in the latter half of the 1990's, but there was no government push for oversight or regulation. As usual, as long as the problem was "over there", i.e. as long as black and brown people were being adversely affected, no one cared.

Tim Wise's analysis of the targeting of non-white people for predatory mortgage practices, the follow-on economic downward spiral, along with the lack of social programs and spending in spite of this major crisis is here at: http://www.timwise.org/2010/07/of-collateral-damage-and-roosting-chickens-reflections-on-racism-the-economy-and-the-high-cost-of-white-ambivalence/

[bliss_eternal]

6. not sure if you noticed or not...

...but soon after the media got wind of the predatory lending practices of wells fargo (for example), there was a big deluge of ads featuring minorities flooding the airwaves. really sickened me.

[Fire1]

4. All by design, my friend. All by design. n/t

[Fire1]

5. Neo-conservatism = NO government = DE-regulation =

Privitization = BLACK FOLKS GOING BACK TO PICKING COTTON!!!!! It's JUST THAT SIMPLE!!! THIS IS THE MANTRA OF NEO-CONSERVATISM AND IT'S ALL BY DESIGN!!!