May 8, 2018

Trump’s ‘New Deal for Blacks’ Was Dealt from the Bottom of the Deck
By Jesse Jackson

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - African-American unemployment has reached its lowest levels ever. President Donald Trump boasts about this on the stump, naturally claiming credit for a recovery that began after his predecessor, Barack Obama, saved an economy that was in free fall. Trump says he’s delivering on his promised “new deal for blacks.”

Don’t fall for the hype. A low top line unemployment rate is a good thing. Tight labor markets force employers to compete for workers. More African Americans who are too often the last hired find jobs.

Those who have lousy jobs are more confident about looking for better ones. Even harsh employers like Wal-Mart find it necessary to lift wages to attract and keep decent workers. Wages should start going up. But we haven’t seen much of that in this economy.

That’s because while the topline rate is down, it doesn’t count millions who have given up looking for work and have dropped out of the work force. Only if the economy continues to grow and unemployment continues to decline are we likely to see wages starting to improve.

The big problem, however, is that most of the jobs are simply lousy. Virtually all of the new jobs aren’t secure — they are part-time, short-term contract jobs, with variable hours, few benefits and low wages. Not surprisingly, African Americans are more likely to be caught in these kinds of jobs than whites are.

Like most Americans, African Americans find that the costs of what they need are rising faster than their wages are. Paychecks don’t buy what their paychecks used to buy. Health care costs are exploding. College debt is now higher than credit card debt and auto debt.

Housing costs are at or near record highs, both for those who want to buy a home and those who want to rent.As bad as this is for everyone, it is worse for African-Americans. Black unemployment rates remain nearly twice as high as White unemployment rates.

Black households make less income and have dramatically less wealth than White households. This is true at all levels of education and in every region. According to a report from the Asset Funders Network, the median wealth of single African-American women is a stunning $200.

It is $300 for single African-American men. It is $15,640 for single White women and $28,900 for single White men.There is less poverty now than there was 50 years ago. African-Americans have started to close the education gap — in graduating from high school, getting acollege or advanced degree. Yet in 1968, the median black household only earned 63 percent what a median white household earned. In 2016, the gap was worse,with blacks earning only 61 percent of what a typical white household earned.

Much of this is due to discrimination. Study after study shows that job seekers with a “White sounding name” are more likely to be called back than those with a “Black sounding name.” Some of it is due to the failure of the minimum wage to keep pace with productivity or inflation. Some of it comes from the decline in labor unions, with wages stagnating across the board.Trump boasts about the unemployment rate. He promised in the campaign a “new deal for Blacks.”

He claims that cracking down on illegal immigrants has helped lift Black wages by reducing competition for low-skilled jobs.The reality is that Trump’s policies are perversely designed to make things harder for African-Americans. His administration is rolling back enforcement of civil rights laws across the government. It is cutting back on enforcement against wage theft and payday lenders.

It is reversing Obama’s order to provide millions more with overtime pay.Trump boasts that he has dismantled Obamacare. The result is millions morelosing coverage or unable to afford the prices that are rising in part as a result of Trump’s attacks.

The administration plans to reduce funds for Pell grants and college loans. Its tax cuts will go overwhelmingly to the already rich, while it calls for reducing theresulting deficits by slashing spending on Medicaid and Medicare, on foodstamps and education. Low-wage White workers will be the most numerous victims, but African-Americans and Latinos will be hit disproportionately. A good economy with full employment can help solve many problems.

But Trump’s “new deal for Blacks” is a bad deal from the bottom of the deck. We know what to do to reduce poverty and entrenched discrimination. It isn’t a mystery. It is simply a matter of will — and of power.

April 24, 2018

 

Black Male Hero Disarms Man Who Murdered Four With AR-15 Rifle
By Frederick H. Lowe

 

James Shaw Jr. is suddenly a national hero after disarming a man with an automatic rifle who had already killed four people.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

May 6, 2018

 

Racial Mortgage Disparities Persist as Federal Housing Enforcement Lags

By Charlene Crowell

 

Lisa Rice, NFHA President/CEO

 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In the classic movie film, Gone with the Wind, the owner of the Tara plantation admonished his daughter for remarking that she didn’t care about her home. In a sharp rebuke, Gerald O-Hara declared that “land was the only thing worth living for, worth fighting for…worth dying for.”

 

For the fictional O’Hara family, Tara was their home, and the source of the family’s wealth.  Fast forward to the 21^st Century, having a home remains a rock-solid route to building wealth that grows and becomes a key opportunity to share that same wealth inter-generationally.

 

Unless you are among those who have been denied your own American Dream.

 

New research by the Center for Responsible Lending finds that today’s racial wealth gaps were supported and sustained by the federal government’s Fair Housing Administration (FHA). From the program’s inception during the 1930s, FHA perpetuated racial discrimination by making mortgage credit broadly available to white borrowers and at the same time, excluding Blacks and other people of color.

 

More importantly, FHA has an important role to play in leveling today’s mortgage finance field and its two-tiered system.

 

“These homeownership rate disparities did not occur by chance,” argue Peter Smith and Melissa Stegman, authors of Repairing a two-tiered system: The critical but complex role of FHA. “The homeownership rate gap between Whites and people of color is in large part due to historic federal housing policy choices that created decades-long impacts.”

 

CRL, however, credits FHA mortgage lending as an important aid to the nation’s economic recovery following the Great Recession. As much of private mortgage lending retreated during the housing crisis, FHA increased its purchase market share to 42 percent in 2009. Prior to that economic crisis, FHA’s market share was only 8.8 percent of the market.

 

FHA also sustained the mortgage market and provided broad liquidity for wealthier borrowers in addition to low-to-moderate income families. FHA’s refinancing of toxic subprime loans saved many family homes from foreclosure and became a sustainable alternative.

 

Today, with much of the mortgage market recovered, unnecessarily tight and expensive credit in the conventional mortgage market often makes FHA the only option to finance homeownership for low- to moderate-income borrowers, lower-wealth borrowers, and borrowers of color. This single-option also means that borrowers broadly denied the lower-cost, most-affordable private loans available, have a slower rate of home appreciation due to fees and insurance that accompany government-backed loans.

 

CRL’s analysis of mortgage data from 2004 to 2016 found that:

 

• The FHA market share for Black and Latino borrowers now approaches half of all purchase mortgage lending to these borrowers;
• FHA is the major source of mortgage credit for higher-income Black and Latino borrows as compared to conventional lending;
• Tight and expensive credit in the conventional market has led to FHA becoming the only mortgage option for many borrowers of color, low-to-moderate income families, and lower-wealth families.

• Of the top 10 FHA home purchase lenders in 2004, five were banks and five were non-depositories; by 2016, eight of the top 10 FHA lenders were non-depositories.

 

It is important to note that the withdrawal of banks leaving the FHA insured program, comes at a time of record profits, made possible in large by taxpayer dollars that provided a financial bailout of failing financial institutions, during the housing collapse.

 

These lenders exit the program at a time when it is inadequately funded and lacks up-to-date technology that could enhance its administrative functions. Further, the exit of large banks additionally became a gateway for non-depository institutions to fill the market’s gap. Nonbanks, subject to fair lending protections, are not however included in the Community Reinvestment Act. Many of the financial abuses that led to the housing crisis began with unregulated and nonbank lenders.

 

Many lenders will argue that the retreat from FHA was caused by actions taken by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice under the False Claims Act. This federal law allows the government to hold companies accountable for making “false claims” to the government about their products or services. Beyond being assessed damages for infractions, enforcement of the law can additionally include a company or representative being banned from future federal funds or contracts.

 

State attorneys general would counter this lender claim by pointing to the $25 billion national mortgage settlement reached with five of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers as evidence that lenders engaged in egregious conduct in clear violation of the law.

 

The significance of major banks withdrawing from the mortgage market is further underscored by other findings shared in a related report by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA):

 

• Since 1988, close to $1 billion in victim compensation has resulted from lawsuits alleging redlining and discrimination by mortgage lenders;
• Housing discrimination complaints grew from 2016 to 2017’s 28,843 cases;
• Of 2017’s discriminatory housing complaints, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) processed less than five percent, or 1,311; and
• Among the 6,896 complaints processed by state and local Fair Housing Assistance Program Agencies, the Department of Justice brought only 41 cases.

 

Commenting on these findings, Lisa Rice, NFHA president/CEO said, “As the 2018 Trends Report shows, we must put an end to the many institutionalized barriers that prevent too many families in this country from fair access to housing. We cannot build a thriving society as long as our nation is plagued by discrimination, segregation, and severe economic inequality.”

 

“In the year that marks a half century of the Fair Housing Act,” noted Mike Calhoun, CRL President, “it is appropriate to acknowledge the journey traveled in five decades. But also, a look ahead to the hundreds of miles yet to travel before fair housing is a reality for all.”

 

Charlene Crowell is the Center for Responsible Lending’s Deputy Communications Director. She can be reached atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

April 24, 2018

 

Three Case Studies: Blacks Seeking Help Often Risk Their Lives
By Frederick H. Lowe

 

Brennan Walker

Jonathan Ferrell

Renisha McBride