Anderson@Large

Wells Fargo, Fraudsters and Tainted Money

For preachers and some civil rights organizations, including the NAACP and the National Urban League, no money is tainted. For them, the only thing wrong with tainted money is there t'aint enough.

But enough is enough.

Today, the Justice Department announced a $25 billion agreement with the five largest mortgage servicers: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial (formerly GMAC). Attorney General Eric Holder said:

This agreement – the largest joint federal-state settlement ever obtained – is the result of unprecedented coordination among enforcement agencies throughout the government. It holds mortgage servicers accountable for abusive practices and requires them to commit more than $20 billion towards financial relief for consumers. As a result, struggling homeowners throughout the country will benefit from reduced principals and refinancing of their loans. The agreement also requires substantial changes in how servicers do business, which will help to ensure the abuses of the past are not repeated.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller added:

This monitored agreement holds the banks accountable, it provides badly needed relief to homeowners, and it transforms the mortgage servicing industry so now homeowners will be protected and treated fairly.

In his remarks on the landmark housing settlement, President Obama said:

By now, it’s well known that millions of Americans who did the right thing and the responsible thing – shopped for a house, secured a mortgage that they could afford, made their payments on time – were, nevertheless, hurt badly by the irresponsible actions of others: by lenders who sold loans to people who couldn’t afford them; by buyers who knew they couldn’t afford them; by speculators who were looking to make a quick buck; by banks that took risky mortgages, packaged them up, and traded them off for large profits.

The NAACP and the National Urban League trade their credibility, such as it is, for sponsorship by banks that engaged in discriminatory and fraudulent lending practices. Pariah corporations have long sponsored civil rights organizations to buy their silence.

It's up to the rest of us to make some noise. Hey, Ben Jealous, how's your “partnership” with Wells Fargo working out?

One Year Out: Electoral Storms Brewing

The 2012 presidential election will be held one year from today.

While the battle for the Republican nomination rages on, the surging front-runner, Herman Cain, is feeling the heat over allegations of sexual harassment.

Although some progressives on New York’s Upper West Side are grumbling about a primary challenger, it’s just a bunch of hot air. That said, President Obama must fight to reenergize and mobilize his supporters. The Los Angeles Times reports:

Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008 by riding two of America's biggest waves of population change — greater racial diversity and a rise in college graduates. With the 2012 election a year away, his reelection chances depend on those trends overpowering the sour impact of a bad economy.

[…]

To win in places like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico — all key targets — Obama needs the Latino vote to keep expanding and to go heavily to him. In North Carolina, another closely fought state the last time around, his chances depend in part on a very large and loyal black turnout.

Yet minorities have been hit disproportionately hard by the recession — unemployment rates are higher among blacks and Latinos than among whites, and poverty is deeper.

The grim economic numbers almost certainly will discourage some from voting. The economy could even encourage some Latinos to consider the Republicans — although the hard line the GOP candidates are taking against illegal immigrants may lessen that prospect.

They call it “Stormy Monday” but Tuesday – Election Day 2012 – may be just as bad.

Philly’s Shame

By a vote of 15-1, the Philadelphia City Council passed a stricter curfew bill that will sweep minors from the streets during curfew hours. Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell cast the lone vote against the bill.

The bill’s sponsor, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, admitted there is no data to show curfews are effective in stemming youth violence. Still, the 99 percent will be penalized for the random acts of a few knuckleheads.

The vote was greeted with chants of “Shame! Shame!” by Occupy Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Anti-Curfew Action Committee.

It was an ironic end to this chapter in the criminalization of black youth. Evelyn “Champagne” King was 17 when she recorded the disco hit “Shame” in Philly, her adopted hometown.

The curfew will deny today’s 17-year-olds, as one witness testified, opportunities to “flourish in this city.” And that’s a low down dirty shame.

Still No Love for Black Youth in Philly

Last Thursday, Philadelphia’s City Council was expected to pass an enhanced curfew law. However, no vote was taken due to a “procedural glitch.” The bill’s sponsor, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, said she has the votes.

If Council passes the bill, it will not be the end of the story; rather, it will open up a new chapter in the fight against the criminalization of black youth.

In the meantime, I want to share my post about the curfew bill published by Race-Talk, a project of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity:

I live in Philadelphia in Center City, ground zero for a series of attacks dubbed “flash mobs” by the media. Since 2009, small groups of black teens and young adults have committed 11 such attacks at random times and on random days of the week.

In a fiery speech before Mount Carmel Baptist Church, Mayor Michael Nutter acknowledged that “less than one percent” of black youth were engaged in the attacks:

I want to apologize to all the good, hardworking, caring people here in this city, and especially our good, young people here in Philadelphia. But I have to tell you this morning that I am forced by the stupid, ignorant, dumb actions of a few -- and we will announce tomorrow actions that we will take that unfortunately will affect many here in our city.

Indeed, the 99 percent are presumed guilty. Nutter dusted off a decades-old law and imposed a “temporary curfew” that sweeps minors from Center City and University City after 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

The curfew was scheduled to end after Labor Day but under the Mayor’s emergency powers, it has been extended indefinitely. The demonization of black youth stands in stark contrast to how the police handle random acts of violence and property damage committed by white youth in Center City when, for instance, the Phillies won the World Series.

Study after study shows that curfews are ineffective at stemming youth violence. But they are effective in keeping black youth out of sight. The October 2011 newsletter of the South Street Headhouse District, where some of the “flash mobs” took place, includes this call to action:

The South Street Mini-Station has enforced the citywide curfew to great success. If you have noticed an improvement in the District due to this curfew please email your positive feedback and request for continuance of the curfew to Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison.

I mentioned this “great success” to Harvard Law professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr. when he was in town for a book signing and discussion at the African American Museum. The author of “The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America,” Prof. Ogletree told me: “America always looks better when we are swept from the streets.”

Read more: Black Youth are Presumed Guilty

(Pre-)Occupied in Philly

Sarah Palin famously said she could see Russia from her window. I can’t see Occupy Philadelphia from my apartment, but I sometimes hear the protesters.

I have not blogged much the last few days because I’ve been preoccupied with a project. I’ll get back to my regular schedule next week.

With folks in an uproar from the Big Apple to the Big Easy, a Facebook friend left this comment on my wall:

Buckle up! The pot is starting to stir. 2012 is starting to look like it’s going to be a real doozy of a year with a spectacular conclusion, considering the economy and the election, and people in the streets, and the Mayan Calendar thing and all.

While it “ain’t exactly clear” what’s going down, it’s going down all around us.

Poll Says Obama is One and Done

A Washington Post/ABC News poll found most Americans expect President Obama to lose in 2012.

Things went from bad to worse when Obama handed Republicans a gaffe gift that will keep on giving in attack ads. In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Obama said the American people are “not better off”:

Well, I don’t think they’re better off than they were four years ago. They’re not better off than they were before Lehman’s collapse, before the financial crisis, before this extraordinary recession that we’re going through. I think that what we’ve seen is that we’ve been able to make steady progress to stabilize the economy, but the unemployment rate is still way too high. And that’s why it’s so critical for us to make sure that we are taking every action we can take to put people back to work.

Sure, some of Obama’s ideas have had bipartisan support in the past. But the only thing voters will hear a year from now is Obama saying Americans are “not better off.”

Where the Jobs Aren’t

In his weekly address, President Obama called on Congress “to get its act together” and pass the American Jobs Act:

It’s been almost three weeks since I sent the American Jobs Act to Congress – three weeks since I sent them a bill that would put people back to work and put money in people’s pockets. And now I want it back. It is time for Congress to get its act together and pass this jobs bill so I can sign it into law.

A study by the Transportation Equity Network suggests that getting “construction workers back to work rebuilding our roads and bridges” will not help African Americans.

The report, “The Road to Good Jobs: Making Training Work,” will not be released until Tuesday, but the media advisory says all you need to know:

Most states are failing to boost job access to those hit hardest by the recession—minorities and women—in the multi-billion-dollar federal highway construction field.

The Road to Good Jobs: Making Training Work presents the first-ever compilation of data from all 50 states on their use of on-the-job-training and apprenticeship programs to boost job access for minorities and women in the federal highway construction field from 2008-10.

The study finds that most states are doing a poor job of using proven training programs to boost highway construction job access for minorities and women, though unemployment rates for minorities are nearly double those of whites, and female unemployment is ticking up while male unemployment is dropping.

For more info, contact Stephen Boykewich.

UPDATE: TEN has released the report, “The Road to Good Jobs: Making Training Work.”