Such baseless, blame-the-victim allegations are nothing less than scapegoating of Jim Crow proportions.
Blaming inner-city dwelling "high-risk borrowers", ACORN, CRA and others for America's housing crisis is akin to charging rape victims for the rape kit. It's simply unconscionable.
Did the working class own predatory lending outfits?
Did the working class dream up the Adjustable Rate Mortgage?
Did the working class own the media conglomerates and other institutions who since the end of World War II have pounded into every American's skull that home ownership is part and parcel of the increasingly elusive American Dream?
Did the working class run the real estate industry? The insurance industry? Wall Street? Madison Avenue? K Street? 1600 The White House/Capitol Hill? Hollywood? Or Silicon Valley?
Oh, one last thing:
Did the working class buy all those now-foreclosed McMansions in suburbia?
The following Lending Tree commercial from a few years back was a (now not-so-humorous) augur of America's precarious house of cards that rested on good old-fashion industry- and government-fostered consumerism and addiction to credit.
See for yourself . . .
Loved your session at ConvergeSouth.
Below is more info on the event we are doing to help convert the attention generated on Politics to issues that are underaddressed like the pursuit of our future generations careers into engineering and skilled trades.
http://thegreatheadsofstatesvilleexitpoll.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Joel Leonard | Monday, October 20, 2008 at 11:36 PM
Our nation's best and brightest are recruited to Wall Street. Our best and brightest found a scam to take advantage of the average Joe and skirt the regulators.
By shrinking government, there was no one to mind the store.
It wasn't the poor people of color who rewarded the mortgage brokers for failing to check or worse manufacture paperwork.
The simple act of employment verification is a quick underwriting procedure...if you actually do it.
No one knows who even owns these mortgages because they have been bought and sold so many times.
Too many people who weren't trying to buy too much house or become mini-real estate moguls, got screwed and are in danger of losing their homes.
For the victims to be blamed in beyond outrageous.
Posted by: Sally Hemings | Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 03:12 PM
Much obliged for this post! It just amazes me how this fiasco is because of Black and Brown folks. And have you caught how McCain is now talking about "your property value" going down? Reminds me of when the first black family moved into any white neighborhood! Wonder, where they'll move when Barack becomes President!
Posted by: SjP | Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 02:09 PM