Vol. 48 No. 46
March 8, 2018 - March 14, 2018
This publication is a Certified DBE/ SBE / MBE in the State of California CUCP #43264 Metro File #7074 & State of Texas File #802505971 “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you -President Lyndon B. Johnson
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OPINION: THE STUDENT LOAN DEBT CRISIS IS A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE
Editor in Chief’s Corner Email: sbamericannews@gmail.com Clifton Harris Publisher of The San Bernardino AMERICAN News
Sacramento becomes latest city to allege mortgage discrimination by Wells Fargo By JAMES RUFUS KOREN
By Wade Henderson (Founding Board Member, Center for Responsible Lending)
Wade Henderson says that, for Black students, the increased risk of defaulting on student loans is the direct result of inequities in financial resources, as well as discrimination in hiring and salaries. From attacks on voting rights to police killings of unarmed civilians and growing inequities in earnings and wealth, the civil rights gains of the past six decades are facing threat after threat. But one front in the fight for full equality—meaningful access to higher education—is particularly urgent. With 65 percent of jobs soon requiring more than a high school diploma, the need is greater than ever, especially for African Americans and other communities of color. More than 50 years ago, Congress passed the Higher Education Act (HEA), intending to open the doors to higher education by
providing students with financial assistance and low-interest loans. Conventional wisdom has traditionally held two things: 1) Higher education is the great equalizer; 2) It is okay to take out debt for the tickets to upward mobility: a college education and a home mortgage. These life decisions— and the struggles and sacrifices that made them possible—helped to build and grow the Black middle class. Now, aspirations for advancement are colliding with the discriminatory legacy of the financial crisis. Our country’s student loan bill has skyrocketed. Student debt is now the second-largest
source of household debt after housing. Forty-four million Americans have $1.4 trillion in student loan debt. One reason: Since the 1990s, the average tuition and fees at our universities have jumped an average of 157– 237 percent depending on the type of institution. As with the Great Recession, people of color, poor people, and predatory institutions are at the center of this socioeconomic catastrophe. They must also be at the center of the solutions. We must face up to the fact that students of color are more likely to borrow for their education and, unfortunately, to default on these
loans. Even Black college graduates default on their loans at almost four times the rate of their White counterparts and are more likely to default than even White dropouts. This increased risk of defaulting on student loans is the direct result of inequities in financial resources, as well as discrimination in hiring, salaries and, all too often, social capital. In 2013, the median White family had 13 times more wealth than the median black family and 10 times more wealth than the median Latino family. African American students tend to take out more debt than their White counterparts, and both Blacks and Latinos are more likely to default than Whites. Since Blacks with bachelor’s degrees earn only 79 percent and Latinos only 83 percent of what their White counterparts earn, African American and Hispanic students have a harder time repaying their loans. Further contributing to the crisis, Blacks and Latinos comprise 41 percent of the students at the high-cost, low-quality, for-profit colleges. These institutions frequently fail to prepare students for high-salary jobs, instead saddling them with exorbitant debts that they can’t repay. (continued on page 8 )
Trump Targets Food Stamp Recipients with Cuts President proposes cuts and giving the needy boxes of food on their doorsteps By Jasmine Hardy, Howard University News ServiceOn February 28, 2018 WASHINGTON -- Angela Ford, Andre Hunter, La’Keshia TaylorTehrani, and Dwayne Gill. These four people are complete strangers, but they all have one thing in common: they depend on food stamps to feed their families, and Donald Trump wants to cut how much food they can receive.
Sacramento has joined Oakland, Philadelphia and other cities in suing Wells Fargo & Co. over allegations that the bank engaged in discriminatory mortgage lending practices, leading to a wave of foreclosures in minority neighborhoods. The city filed a suit in federal court, saying the San Francisco bank violated the federal Fair Housing Act by saddling minority borrowers with pricier loans and failing to notice or end the practice. The Feb. 23 lawsuit makes prominent mention of a recent Federal Reserve enforcement action against the bank, which found “widespread consumer abuses and other compliance breakdowns.” The Fed went after Wells Fargo for a raft of wrongdoing that has come to light over the past year and a half, from the creation of fake accounts to forcing auto loan customers to pay for unneeded insurance to charging extra fees on some mortgage borrowers. “It’s not just bank accounts and
suit. “We don’t believe those [allegations] reflect how we do business in the communities we serve,” he said. “We’ve been serving Sacramento for more than 160 years. We’re going to defend our history of responsible lending.” Sacramento, like the other cities, argues that Wells Fargo’s practices led to foreclosures, which hurt its budget by pushing down property values and resulting in lower property tax revenue. Similar cases have been filed by Oakland, Philadelphia, Miami and the nearby suburb of Miami Gardens. The Miami and Miami Gardens cases target several big banks, while Oakland, Philadelphia and Sacramento name only Wells Fargo. Those cases got a boost last year when the Supreme Court ruled that the Miami case could proceed. Sacramento is not the first city to mention Wells Fargo’s accounts scandal and subsequent admissions in its legal arguments
for the past few months. He receives $90 a month in food stamps, which he says is helpful since his social security is not a lot. He recalled how SNAP households would receive boxes of food when he was growing up, but is skeptical about how that
After promoting a $1 trillion tax cut that disproportionately aided the top 1 percent of income earners in America, President Trump has proposed cutting the budget that aids needy families who need food by nearly one quarter. Courtesy photo by Wikipedia
La'Keshia Taylor-Tehrani, 30, and her husband, Culen TaylorTehrani, have already experienced a decrease in money for their food stamps from $300 to $185, even beforeTrump's proposed cuts. Photo Courtesy In his most recent budget proposal, President Trump proposes cutting billions of dollars from several social welfare programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP. This program, most commonly referred to as food stamps, provides an average of $125 per month to 42.2 million Americans, about eight percent of the population, to buy groceries. Under his plan, the food stamp program would be cut by $17.2 billion dollars, 22 percent of the
Wells Fargo & Co., already the target of mortgage discrimination lawsuits filed by the cities of Philadelphia, Oakland and Miami, is facing a similar lawsuit filed this week by Sacramento. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press)
program’s total cost last year, by 2019, and over $213.5 billion over the next decade, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The proposal also includes a complete redesign of the program; instead of receiving their full benefits for the month, SNAP recipients would only receive a portion of those benefits in addition to being sent a box of U.S grown commodities from the Department of Agriculture, a provision that would save the government money by obtaining common foods at a lower cost. Craig Undersen, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois, who has been studying food stamp programs for the past 20 years, said the program is fine the way it is. The redesign “would be a di-
saster, he said. “These new proposals would only create harm to the program and to the individuals who depend on the program now and in the future,” he said. “The way it works is we give [food stamp recipients] the dignity and autonomy to make their own decisions. This would give them a basket of food every month. People might not want it and it’s stigmatizing. We’re telling them what they can and can’t consume. “A lot of people would leave the program because the food they would get through the program would not be as useful as the food they would get on their own, which would lead to increases in food insecurity.” Andre Hunter, 54, of Southeast Washington D.C., is on disability and has been using food stamps
Could Wells Fargo’s scandal boost mortgage discrimination lawsuits? L.A., other cities hope so
Culen Taylor-Tehrani and his 5year-old son suffer from Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease characterized by inflammation of the digestive tract. Trump's idea of delivering boxes of food to food stamp recipients' door would be an extreme hardship for him and others with food allergies because it would not accomodate their health restrictions. Photo Courtesy La'Keshia Taylor-Tehrani. would work today. "Growing up it was crazy,” Hunter said. “How would this work this day and age with all these allergies, which concerns me for other people, not just me. Not to mention obesity, it’s like opening Pandora’s box.” (continued on page 7)
credit cards. It’s all one set of conduct,” said Joel Liberson, a Los Angeles attorney who has worked with cities suing Wells Fargo and other banks over alleged mortgage discrimination. Wells Fargo spokesman Tom Goyda said the bank will fight the
against the bank. A similar suit brought by the city of Los Angeles was thrown out last year after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, agreeing with a lower court, said the city did not show evidence to back up its claims.
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