Sept. 27, 2015

Scholarship Named in Honor of Slain SUNO Student

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Southern University at New Orleans honored one of its prominent students who was tragically killed over the Katrina anniversary weekend by starting a scholarship in his name.

With the SUNO family still mourning and in disbelief after learning of the popular student’s tragic death, the university announced the establishment of the Davon Lee Leggett Scholarship Fund after the 22-year-old was shot and killed early Saturday morning, Aug. 29, at a Terrytown apartment complex.

“Since this happened, I’ve cried a lot,” Leggett’s uncle, Timmie Leggett, told FOX 8 News last week. “I’m still baffled by this senseless shooting — and what for? I could speculate a billion things.”

Davon’s friends, classmates, professors, mentors and family recently gathered on SUNO’s Lakefront campus for a vigil reflecting on the young man’s life ripped away while he was striving to carve out a better life for himself.

Several hundred people attended the vigil, with about a dozen people reflecting how their lives were impacted by the slain student, who many called upbeat and positive-minded.

SUNO SGA vice president Dominique Carter, for example, told those gathered that the fourth-year education major told her before she was recently elected vice president, “You will be something big.”

“By the time you met Davon and you were in just one class session, you knew who Davon was,” said classmate Jarred Jupiter. “It was a great thing because he was always inspire SUNO Education Professor Dr. Louise Kaltenbaugh told FOX 8. “He was visiting friends. He walked his cousin to his car because his cousin was going home. He turned around to come back to the apartment complex and he was ambushed.”

Kaltenbaugh took Davon in so he could save money on living expenses. Davon grew up with an impoverished background and lost his father to gun violence before he was even born.

“His mother had to deal with that, and we wouldn’t have dreamed something like that would have happened in this world,” Timmie Leggett told FOX 8. “So there’s a lot to say about the violence here in the city.”

“He didn’t just want to be a teacher — he was a teacher,” Celina Carson, an assistant professor of Health, Nutrition and Physical Education at SUNO, said. She said Davon taught small children who attended her summer program.

Leggett was an original member of the Honoré Center for Undergraduate Study Achievement, a program named in honor of retired Lt. General Russel Honoré that nurtures young Black males and prepares them for careers in education.

“A young man trying to defy the odds, trying by doing everything you’re supposed to do. Young Black man in college, finished three years and entering his fourth year and he’s still gone too,” Director of the Honoré Center for Undergraduate Student Achievement Warren Bell said.

Jefferson Parish detectives have  made an arrest in Davon’s murder. Cardell Mack, 25, from Gentilly, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder Saturday morning, Sept. 26. Robbery was the apparent motive in the shooting.

Sept. 25, 2015

Let's Narrow the Racial Wealth Gap By Using an Alternative Scoring Model
By Michael Grant

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Wealth offers security and privilege that can last for generations. For minority households striving to achieve the American Dream, homeownership is often the surest path. Yet, in today's environment and more than 50 years since the passing of the Civil Rights Act, the United States continues to experience a widening racial gap in home ownership.

Current policies are making homeownership for millions of creditworthy people of color unnecessarily difficult. More than ever, the U.S. needs a more modern approach to determining creditworthiness. It's a relatively simple solution to a destructive divide among our nation's households.

Homeownership and small business development were becoming the new norm in communities of color. That halted in 2008 when the Great Recession, created by an avoidable subprime crisis, hit the urban communities. Since the Great Recession, the racial wealth gap only widened during the economic recovery: non-minority households were better positioned to recover their losses through stocks and other assets, leaving people of color, who often hold much of their wealth in home equity, to face a slow and painful recovery.

We've seen this notably in communities like Prince George's County in Maryland, once seen as a symbol of the African-American middle class. Today, it is experiencing some of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. Cities with high African-American and Hispanic populations, like Hartford, CT and Newark, NJ, reported in 2014 the highest number of homeowners stuck in loans far more than their homes are worth. Lending to African Americans and Latinos in 2012 was down by more than 50 and 45 percent, respectively, relative to where it stood prior to the subprime crisis.

While housing inequity has been problematic for decades, many policy makers are largely unaware of the direct link that credit scores have on housing opportunities. The nation's government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, rely on outdated credit scoring models from FICO in making mortgage lending decisions. These FICO models, which are now generations old, monopolize the market and lenders are left without a choice of scoring models when originating loans to be sold to the GSEs. With credit scores being a determining factor in obtaining a mortgage, this action by the GSEs needlessly locks out of the housing market millions of creditworthy consumers, especially low income families and people of color.

We need a challenge to the outdated credit scoring models locked-in by the GSEs. My suggestion is a clarion call for alternative credit scoring models that will bring between some 30-35 million Americans into the discussions of who should and should not be worthy to receive mortgage loans in this country. By using larger swaths of data to build models and by taking into consideration alternative payments such rent, utilities, cell phones and cable, newer, more inclusive credit scoring models, like the Vantage Score model, can more accurately report credit behavior for larger numbers of consumers.

Revising the GSE guidelines can give lenders the flexibility to choose between validated models that best fit their businesses and customers. If these newer models were adopted, it could open the door for people of color seeking responsible and sustainable mortgage credit without loosening standards.According to some estimates, more inclusive credit scoring models could also expand annual purchase mortgage lending to people of color by 32 percent over 2013 levels. The additional revenue from new home purchases could spur the housing ecosystem, the broader economy and foster healthy competition and innovation among credit scoring models.

The imperative to improve access to mortgage credit safely and soundly in order to fix the widening wealth and homeownership gap cannot be overstated. Just as Congress, overtime, saw the competitive value inherent in having two competing mortgage GSEs, so too, it seems clear that competition in permissible credit scores that can be used to underwrite mortgages to be sold to the GSEs cannot harm and can only benefit lenders, borrowers, investors and the American economy as a whole.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt has urged the GSEs to consider this effort this year but that's only the beginning. It's an issue that should be squarely placed in front of President Obama, HUD Secretary Julian Castro, key legislators and industry influencers in Washington D.C. if it is to be taken seriously. To be sure, waiting until the next Administration is not an option. The time to act is now.

Michael Grant is President of the National Bankers Association, the most recognized trade association for the nation's 177 minority and women-owned banks (MWOBs). Grant can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sept. 27, 2015

Blackonomics

Economics – The Proper Response
By James Clingman

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - When Donald Trump first spoke about his intentions to run for President and called out Mexicans and Hispanics in general, here’s what happened.  Yes, there were protests in the streets by Latinos who felt they had been insulted by Trump, but further action was taken, not by Latinos but by corporations.

According to an article by Sarah Berger, with the International Business Times, “[Macy’s] said they would no longer carry Trump’s menswear collection, which featured shirts, ties and watches.”   Further, “Macy’s is not alone: NBCUniversal, Univision, mattress maker Serta and other companies have also cut ties with Trump…The broken deals point to the growing influence of Hispanic consumers in the United States. As the Latino demographic in the U.S. rapidly increases, so does their buying power, and businesses are starting to realize that value.”

Economics raises its head again, doesn’t it?  Macy’s was not boycotted; it was not targeted by Latinos in any way.  Why did they feel obliged to cut ties with Trump when he dissed Hispanics?  A better question is:  “Why haven’t we seen companies take any corresponding action on behalf of Black people?  Remember the Indianapolis incident earlier this year, when corporations threatened to move their companies out of that city if the law that “discriminated” against gay people was not changed?  It took about 24 hours for it to be changed.

John Crawford was killed in a Walmart for holding a BB gun, 12 year-old Tamir Rice was killed in two seconds for holding a toy gun, Eric Garner was choked to death on national and TV for saying “Why do you keep bothering me?” and Sandra Bland was arrested and died three days later because she was smoking in her own car.  Did any corporations make threats against anyone on their behalf?

Macy’s and the others punished Trump without being asked to do so, because they respect the $1.5 billion buying power of Hispanics.  That’s it, plain and simple.  “But Black buying power is $1.2 trillion, Jim; why are we ignored?”

Major corps with whom we spend much of that $1.2 trillion each year have, a “depraved indifference” to our plight, as Bob Law says.  They do not respond to our issues in the same way because there is no price to pay for not doing so.  We get slapped upside the head by politicians and our big bad NAACP tells us to take a 1,000-mile walk.  One of our children gets shot down or beat down and NAN says “Let’s ‘maach’ on Washington.”

A young Black man is killed in a Walmart and our “leaders” rally in front of that store—for a day.  Our unemployment is at an all-time high, despite the “great economy” they say we are in, and the Urban League writes a report telling us how bad things are for Black America.  Our voting rights are being discarded, our HBCU’s are losing millions due to Parent-Plus Loan legislation, we are ignored and taken for granted by both political parties, and Black politicians like John Lewis tell us to vote our way out of our problems.

It’s no wonder we don’t get the same respect and support as other groups.  The ways we respond to negative issues allow the mistreatment we get from others.  Take the “Black Lives Matter” mantra.  Of course our lives matter and it makes no difference if others have a problem with our saying it.  But we have some Black folks who are trying to gain acceptance from others and trying to make others feel comfortable with us by adding to the phrase, “All lives matter,” which is obvious to most people anyway.  Saying and acting upon the fact that Black lives matter “less” than all other lives is important, but we must act appropriately upon what we say.

Carlos Santiago, president and chief strategist of Santiago Solutions Group said, “Latino customers represent an opportunity for Macy’s to grow its business model…Macy’s Hispanic base of buyers is significant and growing while the ‘non-Hispanic’ is declining slowly.  They (Macy’s) have to protect their growing loyal base just as their competitors like Nordstrom, JC Penney’s, Target and Walmart are. In this race to capture the new growth, a change in public image is worth millions of dollars in goodwill and loyalty.”

The appropriate response to those who transgress against us must be grounded in economics.  We spend money at Macy’s, as well as many other corporations.  Why have they not spoken and acted on our behalf?  As I have written many times, until we are serious about gaining the support of those with whom we do business, they will ignore our plight and take our dollars for granted.

Our economic response must be “Black Dollars Matter!”  And we must teach our dollars how to make more sense.