Where Did the Water Come In?

Reverend Jesse Jackson was in New Delhi to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the martyrdom of Mahatma Gandhi but the subprime crisis back home was also on his mind. He phoned and said, "If you look at the analysis on TV, everybody is discussing macroeconomics. CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, none of them go deep in their analysis as to what really happened. The lack of enforcement of civil rights laws, of fair lending laws, drives this economic tsunami. This is not an economic miscalculation – this is the price we pay for not enforcing the law."

Jackson points to the targeting and steering of African-Americans and Latinos who were qualified for prime loans into risky subprime mortgages (defined as 3 percentage points higher than the prevailing rate for long-term Treasury bonds). "Redlining was to not loan to certain areas," he said. "This is what amounts to reverse-redlining – steering black and brown borrowers into subprime who were eligible for prime. That's out and out breaking discrimination laws."

In 2005 and 2006, over 50% of all loans made to African-Americans, and over 40% to Latinos, were subprime – compared to only 19% of white borrowers. Martin Gruenberg, vice chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), said at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition's Wall Street Economic Summit in January, "Only one-sixth of this differential could be accounted for by the ability of the borrower." Analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data shows that African-Americans and Latinos in New York City, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia and other cities were two to three times more likely to have subprime, high-cost loans than white borrowers with similar incomes and loan amounts.

The New York Times has reported on two neighborhoods in the Detroit area – one 97 percent white with a median income of $51,000, another 97 percent African-American with a median income of $49,000. In 2006, 17 percent of the loans made in the white neighborhood were subprime, compared to 70 percent of the loans in the predominately African-American neighborhood. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan recently pointed out on National Public Radio, "…An African-American earning more than $100,000 was more likely than a white person who earned less than $35,000 to be put in a high-cost, [subprime] loan…. Clearly there is discrimination going on." The Times also reported that "… around 90 percent of subprime loans originated between 2004 and 2006 carried exploding adjustable rates. Some 70 percent of subprime loans have prepayment penalties, versus 2 percent of prime loans…. " Those pre-payment penalties made refinancing impossible for hundreds of thousands of people. "Yield-spread premiums" also paid kick-backs to brokers for steering borrowers into high-priced loans.

Officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) point out that there is no uniformity in how loan documents spell out the terms of loans, and some are woefully inadequate. The Times also reported that "many lenders peddled the most abusive and costly loans to unsophisticated, first-time home buyers. Known as ‘affordability products,' the mortgages generated big commissions up front and were designed to require refinancing later on – which included yet another round of luscious fees for lenders. With refinancing no longer an option, it is becoming obvious that these loans were designed to fail." Madigan told NPR, "I have had hundreds of people come to our office once they realized that they were in one of these high-cost subprime loans… telling us that they did, in fact, ask ‘Is this a fixed-rate loan?' They were told yes, only to find out two or three years later it was an adjustable rate loan. I've had people tell us, you know, ‘we told them that our income was only $2,000 a month…' [But] we find when we look at the documents it was written down [by the lender] as $7,000, $9,000 a month. So people were being put into loans in spite of the fact that they were… giving the correct information. And it is all because of the fact that the brokers and the lenders were receiving incentives, in large part because there was just this demand on Wall Street for these mortgage-backed securities."

"Nobody seemed to care because of who was profiting, on the one hand, and who was being exploited on the other," Jackson said. "But now the water is – like the Titanic – the water is up around the deck where the big people hang out. But where did the water come in? The water came in at the bottom of the ship. The poor always pay more for less – for cars, goods and services, insurance, food, banking money. This time, however, it's affecting the whole economy, that's what is different about this. Again, if the government had not allowed the rich to get richer at the expense of the vulnerable you wouldn't have this crisis."

It is now estimated that 2.2 million subprime home loans have already failed or will end in foreclosure – the highest foreclosure rate since the Depression – with a total equity loss of $164 billion. Moreover, neighboring homes to foreclosed properties will see a decline in value of $200 billion. A US Conference of Mayors Report estimates that the foreclosure crisis will reduce home values by an additional $519 billion in 2008, bringing the total forecast of lost equity for the nation's homeowners to $1.2 trillion.

A Democratic Congress hasn't turned a blind eye to these accounts of predatory lending and the lack of regulation that invited it. In the House, both the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Credit and the Domestic Policy Subcommittee (chaired by Congressman Dennis Kucinich) have held hearings on predatory lending in the past year. Both Sandra Braunstein, Director of Consumer and Community Affairs at the Federal Reserve, and Chairman Sheila Bair of the FDIC, said on the record that their institutions have used HMDA data to discover patterns of discrimination and passed it along to the Department of Justice for prosecution.

But when Congressman Al Green of Texas asked how many cases had been prosecuted by the Justice Department in the last five years, no one knew the answer. A call to the Justice Department brought this e-mail response, "The Department has used its authority to enforce the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to bring cases against lenders that targeted certain protected classes of borrowers with predatory or abusive loans: United States v. Delta Funding (2000); United States v. Long Beach Mortgage (1996); Hargraves v. Capital City Mortgage Corp. (2000).

You read that correctly – three cases, the most recent eight years ago. (In contrast, HUD reports that it investigates approximately 480 lending discrimination complaints each year and obtains settlements in nearly 30% of them.) Jackson pointed out, "One of the things that happens when people are against civil rights law, Dr. King would often say, is they either resist it and not pass it… or if they cannot stop it, they pass it but don't enforce it…. When we called Attorney General Mukasey to discuss this matter he said, ‘Well, if you get us some information.' The information is out there! You know, I mean he knows what's happening there."

Mayors, State Attorney Generals, and the US Attorney General should sue lenders for predatory practices and to recover lost revenues stemming from a real estate market undermined by subprime mortgages designed to fail. Baltimore is suing, Cleveland and Illinois – led by Illinois Attorney General Madigan – are all pursuing these kinds of lawsuits. (The FBI has also begun investigating the subprime market – but thus far, no mention of any focus on predatory lending.) Jackson believes it is time for a Marshall-like Plan on Mortgages. He pointed to the need for federal intervention and significant restructuring in the Great Depression with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; and in the 1990's with the Reconstruction Trust Corporation rescuing failing savings and loans. "This crisis is bigger than those," Jackson said. "It's much bigger." He called the recent stimulus package "almost like medical malpractice. If you go into the doctor's office with your right arm broken and you need it reset, but they do surgery on the left arm– you'd call that malpractice!" he laughed. "You ignore the crisis! This stimulus package does not address the impact of these multibillion dollar losses of tax revenues in American cities and suburbs. It completely ignores the source of the crisis. Because if they focus on that area they've got to deal with what happened."

This metastasizing crisis, Jackson argues, needs to be seen as part of the continuing struggle for racial equality. But both journalists and economists have been slow to admit that lack of civil rights enforcement plays a major role in this financial collapse. "That's the whole problem with the popular idea that we're going to ‘transcend race," he said. "You can't transcend race, you've got to remedy the race…. Transcendentalism does not lend itself to racial remedy. We all want to get beyond a sore, but you must take the glass out and the inflammation out, and let it heal. Then you get beyond it. The Great Society sought not to transcend it, but to address it, through a plan to lift up the bottom. After slavery, it was Reconstruction. We seek to heal this, not to transcend it."

A few times Jackson mentioned the first chapter of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s book published a year before his death: Where Do We Go From Here – Chaos or Community? It addresses the unfinished business of the civil rights movement, closing the gaps created by structural inequalities – leveling the playingfield. "The first phase… had been a struggle to treat the Negro with a degree of decency, not of equality," King writes. "White America was ready to demand that the Negro should be spared the lash of brutality and coarse degradation, but it had never been truly committed to helping him out of poverty, exploitation or all forms of discrimination…. As the nation passes from opposing extremist behavior to the deeper and more pervasive elements of equality, white America reaffirms its bonds to the status quo…. The practical cost of change for the nation up to this point has been cheap…. The real cost lies ahead."

Jackson sees these same dynamics at play in the subprime crisis. "We do not have the dogs – that symbolism as a war state – but we do have what we call structural inequality. We're free but unequal, free and unequally protected by law. If freedom is the absence of barbarianism, and the absence of indecency, then equality is the presence of justice."

As more and more studies, statistics, shattered lives and shuttered communities are visible, an unavoidable question arises: where is justice?

This article was co-authored by Greg Kaufmann, a freelance writer residing in his disenfranchised hometown of Washington, DC.

Comments (37)

1. Wow...Jesse Jackson thinks something is "racially motivated".

   I'm shocked.

   (Please let an Obama Presidency finally end guys like him and Sharpton as the "leadership" of African-Americans...or anybody!)

   Posted by Mask at 02/20/2008 @ 09:49am

2. Really KVR, what IS your facination with the opinions of that parasite?

   Can you not see that the day we stop being paranoid and obsessed about race will signal the end of what's left of Jacksons relevance? And do not believe for a moment that Jackson doesn't realize this. He thrives on racism as surely as George Wallace did.

   Posted by CHIP THORNTON at 02/20/2008 @ 10:27am

3. CHIP -- We'll stop caring about race when race stops being a tremendous factor in how people's lives play out. Try to see beyond your bilious sterotypes and read the article. There's lots of facts in there that well document what a major role race plays in lending practices in America. Do your homeowrk and then come back and let us know why these numbers are wrong and then we'll take your carping seriously. I think George Wallace thrived on people like you.

   MASK -- Your sarcasm is duly noted.

   Posted by Peter Rothberg at 02/20/2008 @ 10:33am

4. Not all of them, Larry-

   "While some polls show that Jackson is still popular among many blacks, he's not the Jackson of a decade ago or even four years ago. That Jackson could instantly heat up a crowd with a timely slogan, catchy rhyme, or well-timed phrase and he had the instant ear of presidents and heads of state.

   However, the taint of sexual scandal and his fade from the headlines has wiped much of the luster off of his racial star.

   Jackson belongs to the older civil rights generation, and he's found it tough-sledding trying to sell his civil rights pitch to upwardly mobile, younger blacks that have little inkling of past civil rights struggles. Jackson hinted at that in his brief speech endorsing Obama, when he said that it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of black politicians. That was self-serving and disingenuous.

   Jackson has no intention of passing any torch on now. He will continue to do everything he can to micromanage a role for himself on the national political scene. In the next breath he boasted that he'd work with whichever Democrat ultimately emerges on top and that he is talking to the other Democratic contenders about his agenda." (my bolds)

   ---Earle Ofari Hutchinson---April 6, 2007---"The Nation"

   Posted by Mask at 02/20/2008 @ 10:35am

5. MASK -- Your sarcasm is duly noted.

   Posted by PETER ROTHBERG 02/20/2008 @ 10:33am

   Note the above, PETER, from your colleage Mr Hutchinson nearly 2 years ago.

   Posted by Mask at 02/20/2008 @ 10:36am

6. Correction---nearly 2 years ago.---Posted by MASK 02/20/2008 @ 10:36am

   "nearly A year ago"

   Posted by Mask at 02/20/2008 @ 10:37am

7. Last night, I finished the first chapter of Sowell's "Black Rednecks White Liberals" and it's eerie how acurate a label "Black Rednecks" apply to idiots like Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton.....True "Crackers"!!

   Y'awl should be proud of me.....catching up on Sociology as an old geezer....LOL!

   Posted by Happy at 02/20/2008 @ 11:25am

8. Stupid (folks that don't take the time to understand what signing on dotted lines mean), Gambling (Live for Today...worry about tomorrow, never!) or Greedy (for making appreciation gains) people go for SubPrime Mortgages...it's that simple.

   Brokers are a problem....but no more so than any Salesman that tries to sell you the product with the highest commission to themselves.

   Posted by Happy at 02/20/2008 @ 11:28am

9. PETER, quote your subjective articles with their cherry picked facts all you want, man. but he's part of the problem. So's Sharpton and Bond. They are "the new racists".Homework? Take a closer look at the world around you and stop relying on agenda driven numbers's. I reiterate, he's a black Wallace.

   Chip

   Posted by CHIP THORNTON at 02/20/2008 @ 11:29am

10. ms. VANDEN HEUVEL:

    it's time to enter the 21st century:

    GENERATION OF WASTE ON BOARD A CRUISE SHIP

    It is calculated that a cruise ship with a capacity of some 2,000-3,000 passengers can generate some 1,000 tonnes of waste per day (1)

    which can be broken down as follows:

    550,000-800,000 litres of greywater

    100,000-115,000 litres of blackwater

    13,500-26,000 litres of oily bilge water

    7,000-10,500 kilos of garbage and solid waste

    60-130 kilos of toxic waste

    ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND AIR POLLUTION

    The fuel consumption of a cruise ship is equivalent to 12,000 vehicles, exacerbated by the fact that the type of fuel used by the majority of these vessels is 50 times more toxic than regular fuel. Big merchant vessels and cruise ships tend to use lower quality fuel to keep costs down, but this is also the most contaminating fuel. This low-quality product is made up of the heavier hydrocarbon residues that are left over following the crude oil refining process to produce higher quality fuels such as petrol or light oils.

    This fuel is not only used to actually move the ship along but also to maintain all the electrical systems of this veritable floating city in operation: lights, refrigeration, air conditioning, nightclubs, shops, vending machines, televisions and a plethora of electrical appliances.

    Air pollution is also caused by waste treatment. Part of the waste is incinerated on board, so cruise ships also generate ash and smoke emissions containing toxic substances. As a result of this waste treatment, substances as toxic as polychlorate biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins and furans have been detected in smoke from fuel-burning.

    CONTAMINATION BY CRUISE SHIPS

    Cruise ship spillage can contain toxic substances, hydrocarbons, organic residue and pathogen agents, the potential impact on sensitive areas of which is considerable. A study carried out in Alaska corroborated that 68 of the 70 samples taken from the effluent of cruise ships using standard treatment systems exceeded the levels of coliforms in faecal water and/or suspended solids (7). Prior to this, another study carried out in the same American state confirmed that concentrations of pathogens in this spillage may exceed federal limits by between 10,000 and 100,000 times (8). High levels of coliforms were also detected in greywater, as well as heavy metals and dissolved plastics (9), something that is particularly worrying given that this kind of waste is not regulated.

    a more appropriate question is, "where did the water go out?"

    yours respectfully,

    fz

    Posted by frosty zoom at 02/20/2008 @ 12:39pm

11. you guys talk about mr. jackson, ha ha ha.

    these banks went for their mega-fees,

    knowing full well they would sell the mortgages on wall street where they would be sold once again,

    and that the lapdog fed would just print up more "money" to pick up the slack............

    another legacy of the clinton administration........

    the money-marting of housing.

    the schlitzmaltlickering of the american dream.

    and you fools, "jackson, ha ha ha",

    while ignoring the plight of your fellow humans......

    btw he's right.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 02/20/2008 @ 12:52pm

12. "...many lenders peddled the most abusive and costly loans to 'unsophisticated, first-time home buyers' ".

    This Times statement says it all...throwing money at the poor and the witless is not going to make this problem go away on its own. How can one expect the DOJ to enforce the law if the buyer doesn't know if they're being taken advantage of? If Rainbow Push really wanted to help the poor and the unknowing, they should establish a program that would help the poor avoid the pitfalls of preditory lenders. In short help them to become "sophistocated" homeowners by teaching them the in/outs of mortgage lending. It's a helluva lot cheaper than $150B stimulus package.

    And yes, MASK, I do disagree with the President and Congress on this issue.... ;-)

    Posted by ACook at 02/20/2008 @ 1:13pm

13. Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 02/20/2008 @ 12:39pm

    They need that milk and those apples, FROSTY, don't think Ms vanden Heuvel and Pinkeye and Squealer go on that cruise for selfish reasons!

    Posted by Mask at 02/20/2008 @ 1:27pm

14. And yes, MASK, I do disagree with the President and Congress on this issue.... ;-)----Posted by ACOOK 02/20/2008 @ 1:13pm

    So do I. But "Reverand Bacon" (as Tom Wolfe might call him) is not the spokesperson you need or WANT on this issue.

    Posted by Mask at 02/20/2008 @ 1:27pm

15. Posted by JOMAMMA 02/20/2008 @ 12:52pm

    then we'll have to call YOU

    the "exxon valdez"

    Posted by frosty zoom at 02/20/2008 @ 2:19pm

16. Posted by MASK 02/20/2008 @ 1:27pm

    no, seriously.

    i hope thenation staff can come up with a better way to unite progressives

    and leave the past behind.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 02/20/2008 @ 3:07pm

17. Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 02/20/2008 @ 3:07pm

    Maybe somebody else said this, but I will or be the first...

    The LAST people to realize what a USELESS huckster Jesse Jackson is...will not be African-Americans, but white liberals like Ms vanden Heuvel.

    My theory has always been that since Jackson CLAIMED the mantle of "THE black leader" from Dr. King...and "white guilt" didn't want to argue the point (or wanted to hope that he deserved it), it's been pure inertia for the last 10, if not 20 years that has kept this guy as "the official spokesman" or "the leading activist" for the black community....with the white Left and the MSM.

    Maybe an Obama Presidency will finally push Jackson out to pasture.

    Posted by Mask at 02/20/2008 @ 3:35pm

18. thank god obama has politely, respectfully, distanced himself from jesse jackson.

    lets see...whites (regardless of cause) tend to be better off economically than blacks or hispanics...sub prime loans logically extended to those of lesser means...blacks and hispanics proportionally suffer more than whites...

    racism? the man has a hard time it seems, understanding the nature of cause and effect, much less how his hyper-vigilant paranoia and subtle racism have indeed alienated many poor whites who, villainised by the left, narurally gravitated toward self destructively voting for the right, often justifying such by jumping on the fake-o, hypocritical moral values bandwagon to justify to themselves such...

    jesse is a moron.

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 02/20/2008 @ 4:10pm

19. [Jesse] Jackson, like [George] Wallace and the others, presented himself as an embodiment of collectively held values rather than as the representative of an instrumental issue agenda; his claim to authenticity derived from his assertion of a direct relation to a mass constituency--a relation that was presumed to exist outside of and prior to formal political linkages. His campaign to that extent sought to use electoral mechanisms, which are essentially formal and procedural, to validate a leadership relation that is essentially antiformal and antiprocedural.

    An irony of this political style, and the leadership model in which it is embedded, is that--while ostensibly popular and immediately representative--it is fundamentally antidemocratic. Antiformalism leaves acclamation as the sole principle of popular validation. However, only at rare moments of widespread popular mobilization, during active, self-regenerative social movements, is this acclamation accessible to public verification. Only in such instances does the mass constituency constitute a discursive community that can steer and discipline leadership. Otherwise, without palpable mechanisms of ratification, no evidentiary base exists from which to determine veracity of leadership claims; nor is there any way for an amorphous, posited constituency to affirm or reject claimants' actions.

    In the Afro-American context the antidemocratic character of the organic leadership style has been obscured by the primacy of external linkages to white elites. Protest leadership is beset by the contradiction that certification of its authenticity normally is attained outside the black community. Nevertheless, that leadership status rests on a premise of unmediated representation of a uniform racial totality, and this premise has fostered a model of political authority that is antidiscursive and deemphasizes popular accountability. As this model descends from the realm of interelite negotiation to popular politics, it discloses a hortatory and charismatic aspect which--in the absence of restraints imposed by electoral formalism or a self-propelling, goal-oriented political movement--tends naturally toward authoritarianism.

    The organic relation, in the course of eliminating instrumental distinctions between leadership and constituents, also eliminates accountability and--by extension--the principle of representation. Commitment to this organic view, by assuming complete identity of racial interests, inhibits the constituency from participating in the rational articulation of political goals. Thus, the fortunes and preferences of constituents simply are collapsed into those of leadership. No arena exists for debate of the subjectively defined objectives of leadership. Loyalty, then, becomes less a function of adherence to a popular issue agenda than an expression of obedience to leadership's arbitrary definitions of the requirements of the posited racial totality. Because the objectives of leadership and the interests of the constituents are presumed identical, dissent is tantamount to treason.

    -"The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon" by Adolph Reed, Jr. (another contributor of The Nation)

    Posted by Preston-P at 02/20/2008 @ 4:53pm

20. Speaking of "HOPE"......

    It'll be entertaining to watch the baby-boomer "Black-rednecks" (I love that term!) scramble to explain why they are still needed even though the country has elected an African-American president.

    The boomer generation's grasp on Washington is beginning to slip away....... good riddance you selfish mfrs....

    Posted by bleedingheart at 02/20/2008 @ 9:09pm

21. Maybe an Obama Presidency will finally push Jackson out to pasture.

    Posted by MASK 02/20/2008 @ 3:35pm

    whatever,

    he's still right about the mentholing of these mortgages.....

    Posted by frosty zoom at 02/20/2008 @ 9:58pm

22. It's the message here that's important. Talking about Jackson and Sharpton as personalities is an evasion. What about the thousands of people who have been cheated? What about its effect on the country as a whole?

    Posted by enzo1990 at 02/21/2008 @ 01:55am

23. ".....many lenders peddled the most abusive and costly loans to unsophisticated, first-time home buyers." This explains it a hell of a lot better than racism. Brokers were making a lot of easy money. If the studies went deeper I bet many,if not most, of the lending brokers were blacks selling to blacks.

    Racism still provides a living for Jesse Jackson and others but it's interesting that Obama doesn't care to peddle it.

    Posted by xhjsx at 02/21/2008 @ 08:13am

24. Although Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton may deserve their share of criticism, I don't know that they had anything to do with the sharp disparity in loan types mentioned in the article. Not mentioned were the efforts by all 50 states attorney generals to reign in the subprime lending practices that gave them so much concern. As Eliot Spitzer pointed out last week in his Washington Post OpEd, those efforts were scuttled by the Bush Administration. " Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye." For the entire piece, see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR200802 1302783.html?nav=hcmodule It is funny how unsympathetic many conservatives are to the plight of the poor when it comes to issues such as economic literacy and other areas where being uninformed can have such terrible consequences. Perhaps there will be more sympathy as the mortgage crisis spreads to the presumably better informed.

    Posted by waters at 02/21/2008 @ 10:23am

25. Posted by ENZO1990 02/21/2008 @ 01:55am

    Posted by WATERS 02/21/2008 @ 10:23am

    Point is...you want a spokesman out there for the fight against global warming...you don't call Jim Bakker or Jimmy Swaggert.

    Posted by Mask at 02/21/2008 @ 10:41am

26. "It is funny how unsympathetic many conservatives are to the plight of the poor when it comes to issues such as economic literacy and other areas where being uninformed can have such terrible consequences. Perhaps there will be more sympathy as the mortgage crisis spreads to the presumably better informed."

    Posted by WATERS 02/21/2008 @ 10:23am

    WATERS, let's put a few things perspective shall we? First off, this crap is nothing new. It's been going on since the 70s, so put the blame right were it belongs...on the preditory lenders and their abusive tactics. Secondly, it's up to the citizens (John Q Public) to report those lenders who are in violation of state and federal housing laws. One way they can avoid getting ripped off is to go to a housing advocacy group that specializes in fair housing for low income and working class poor families. The group can examine any mortgage documents and expose wrongdoings before the potential borrower(s) signs on the dotted line. And, by reporting those findings to both the state and the DOJ, it will eliminate future meltdowns in this industry. Thirdly, many conservatives are not unsympathetic to the poor. There are just as many of us trying to help them navigate this crazy world as you liberals.

    Posted by ACook at 02/21/2008 @ 10:59am

27. Posted by MASK 02/21/2008 @ 10:41am

    No, I disagree. Bitching about the messenger doesn't increase understanding of the message. Okay, I get it. You and others don't like Sharpton and Jackson. Fine. What's not fine is that people were swindled and if you were a poor white or a minority, you were a target for these horrendous loans. When I bought my first house, the only thing I knew was that I wanted a fixed-rate mortgage. If I specify that with the lenders and they still manipulate paperwork(after-the-fact), then is it still my fault? It's not about bleeding hearts or using race as leverage. The fact is institutionalized discrimination is alive and well. While it's great that none of you or your friends of color have never been affected by this kind of discrimination but millions of others are. WATERS is right. When people who are supposedly better informed become affected, then maybe the bitching about the messenger will stop and solutions for the problem will occur.

    Posted by k330k at 02/21/2008 @ 11:08am

28. One way they can avoid getting ripped off is to go to a housing advocacy group that specializes in fair housing for low income and working class poor families. Posted by ACOOK 02/21/2008 @ 10:59am

    Who knows about these programs? I was lucky in that I received the loan that I wanted. I didn't need to use a program or an advocacy group. However, if I did need one, I would have been up the creek w/out a paddle 'cause I had never known, heard, seen advertisements for such programs and I have a degree. I have to say, easier said than done. I'm not foolish to compare my life/situation to anyone else's. So I find it hard to believe that everyone who was duped by subprime lenders were all lazy, greedy, ignorant, or stupid. But, hell, who knows. All ya'll bitching 'bout "black leaders" may be right.

    Posted by k330k at 02/21/2008 @ 11:15am

29. Posted by K330K 02/21/2008 @ 11:08am

    The main problem people of an idealistic nature have when it comes to politics is....and this quote I read years ago, it was even used by Aaron Sorkin in "The American President"..."That in politics, PERCEPTION is reality!"

    Ms vanden Heuvel still seems to think the Jesse Jackson has some STANDING to comment on this issue and that 'his voice' will be a vital element to either understanding or fixing the sub-prime problem.

    It won't. As her own colleague, Earle Hutchinson noted, with Jackson...it becomes about Jackson. He's self-serving and "continue(s) to do everything he can to micromanage a role for himself on the national political scene."

    Thus the issue gets dragged along with 15 OTHER "Jackson agenda items", gets put under the umbrella of Rainbow/PUSH, and The Reverand gets to get his face on "Hardball" and maybe even "Meet The Press".

    He turns OFF more people...thus the issue gets put on the back-burner as "Another Jesse Jackson Thing" and the majority of people think it's (and yes, this was Sharpton) no big deal or phoney like Tawana Brawley.

    Again, seriously, imagine JIM BAKKER coming out with "Inconvenient Truth" and giving the EXACT same PowerPoint as Gore did.

    Would the story be "It's the message, not the messenger we should focus on!"....

    or would it be "Was he thinking about carbon credits when he was 'ministering' to Jessica Hahn?"

    Posted by Mask at 02/21/2008 @ 12:18pm

30. Posted by K330K 02/21/2008 @ 11:15am

    K330K, I don't squawk about the black leadership, I simply ignore their rants. As for knowing what available services are out there, it's as simple as calling any of the not-for profit organizations such as the United Way, Salvation Army or your local community church. Having a college degree means nothing if you don't use good common sense. And, unfortunately, the group you mentioned didn't have any common sense to rely on.

    So, when you have a knowledge deficent(sp) in a particular area, don't use your own brain, use your local library.

    Posted by ACook at 02/21/2008 @ 12:51pm

31. It would be a great day for our country if those applying for a mortgage all had the savvy to go through the steps that ACOOK advocates. ACOOK's response only underscores my point; if people with college educations are baffled by the process, how on earth do you expect the marginalized and undereducated to know how to do this? It is one of the functions of government to look after the vulnerable, unless ACOOK proposes that government is only for the savvy. A great deal of the history of regulations and regulatory agencies has to do with the government protecting citizens from the excesses of capitalism, a practice turned on its head by Bush and his cronies. It was the attorney generals looking after their vulnerable constituents that raised a red flag on the subprime mess. It was the CONSERVATIVE Bush administration that prevented the attorney generals from defending the vulnerable, so even if the borrower went through all the hoops that ACOOK proposes, they would not have had a chance with the politicized DOJ.

    Posted by waters at 02/21/2008 @ 12:53pm

32. Posted by ACOOK 02/21/2008 @ 12:51pm

    I understand where you're coming from. I really do. I just know that there's more to just us knowing about the orgs. How do you get the information out to those who don't know? What if I don't have a church home? All I knew about the Salvation Army were the santas and used clothes. i knew even less about the United Way. through tv I know the NFL and the United way work together. Other than that I'm ass out. So now what? A big problem I see is information dissemination. Keep in mind, now, that there are underlying issues to the lack of efficient dissemination. These same issues are what Jackson(I thought it was Jackson jr. in the article) is talking about. Either case, I hope these businesses that are preying on these people(regardless of how informed the consumer is, it's still wrong) are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Honestly, I just can't believe the DOJ had absolutely no idea how bad the predicament was/is. Really? Aren't they paying people to check out certain industries/markets? Aren't there interns who could do a little leg work? I don't know. That just doesn't sound right/believable?

    Posted by k330k at 02/21/2008 @ 2:12pm

33. Why attack the messenger? Address the issue.

    Posted by mtspence05 at 02/21/2008 @ 2:49pm

34. Was there predatory lending, and was there a racial basis?

    Look at the map of Cleveland on the BBC web site:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7073131.stm

    Select each of the map options -- Sub-prime Lending, Foreclosures, Black Areas. A virtual overlay.

    From the picture credit on the map, the raw data may have come from one of these sites:

    http://neocando.case.edu/cando/index.jsp

    http://neocando.case.edu/cando/quickProfile/interface.jsp

    http://povertycenter.case.edu/

    Posted by pensioner at 02/21/2008 @ 8:40pm

35. Interesting informative article as usual, thanks Katrina. And, once again, the Reverend Jackson demonstrates statesmanship and leadership similar to Adlai Stevenson's in the late forties through the early sixties. Unfortunately, the quality of discourse is fraught with the vestiges, and too often the iceberg-like barriers of racial prejudice. We Caucasians need to continue to "educate ourselves for the coming struggles" ("Mother [Mary Harris] Jones") so as to raise awareness of the realities of "unearned privilege" which continues to allow exploitation of inequality for the benefit of the "have mores" (George Bush).

    Current efforts to espouse and promote Social Justice is the real revolutionary path. As the piece states, "transcendence" shouldn't be a/the goal. That's "a bridge too far." Integration of seeming incongruities, intra and interpersonally, is key, most especially the realization of the ethical bankruptcy at the bottom of most "hurry up," "quick fix," schemes which are paliative bandaids if not further efforts to exploit. Reconciliation with the forces of injustice, typically moneyed interests, isn't the answer.

    Appreciating the wise voices advocating calmness, initial tolerance, knowing that the goal is a "rising tide" of cooperation/harmony which comes with true justice (openness, equality, and separateness), and finally a great intake of breath and true sense security is something I hope each of you dear readers experience this Friday, February 22nd, Washington's Birthday.

    Posted by lewwelge at 02/22/2008 @ 09:00am

36. Interesting informative article as usual, thanks Katrina. And, once again, the Reverend Jackson demonstrates statesmanship and leadership similar to Adlai Stevenson's in the late forties through the early sixties.----Posted by LEWWELGE 02/22/2008 @ 09:00am

    Is there a word for someone who is "beyond kiss-ass and sychophanty" and into sheer cultishness?

    Can we call it "lewwelgian"?

    Posted by Mask at 02/22/2008 @ 10:52am

37. I've been reading The Nation for a while, usually online and every now and then I'll take some time, just for my own curiosity, to read the comments posted below some of the articles and time and time again I see the same posters. "Mask" or "jommama" or everyone's favorite "FRANKGRITS". Usually, people like Mask, who obviously read The Nation frequently, are relatively well informed or at least appear to be so and espouse intelligent, although somewhat contentious views. However, after reading Ms. Vanden Heuvel's article, your comments and responses to her writing are incredibly...terrifying. You provide no basis or logic behind your claims and spew silly and misinformed vitriol about Mr. Jackson. It was a bit surprising and rather upsetting that many of you feel that Mr. Jackson is a completely hubristic, self-serving, political animal who is a relic of the 'old American civil rights movement.' It is in fact people like YOU, who are holding us back as a nation in many ways. You claim to be part of the progressive left and yet you harbor negative and frankly down-right misinformed views in regards to Ms. Vanden Heuvel's article and the reverend.

    Posted by lmelendez at 02/25/2008 @ 8:18pm