RESTITUTION RIVER...

Talk of Reparations for Slavery Moves to State Capitols Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, a Democrat, announced plans last month to introduce sweeping legislation that would award reparations to African American state residents.

As the nation debates the merits of reparations, lawmakers in California, New York, Texas and Vermont have introduced legislation exploring compensation to the descendants of slaves.

Courtesy of Democratic Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb updated to clarify Rep. Chris Rabb's position on REPARATION.

Four centuries after the first African slaves landed on Virginia shores, state lawmakers across the country are taking up the debate over how to atone for what’s been called “AMERICA'S ORIGINAL SIN.” DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS IN CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK AND VERMONT — STATES THAT EITHER OUTLAWED SLAVERY BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR OR NEVER ALLOWED IT — HAVE INTRODUCED LEGISLATION THAT WOULD APOLOGIZE FOR THEIR STATES ROLE IN THE ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES SLAVERY RENDERED AND; RECOGNIZE THE LASTING, NEGATIVE IMPACT OF SLAVERY ON CURRENT GENERATIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN'S; AND EXPLORE MONETARY REPARATIONS.

In April, Democratic lawmakers in Texas introduced a bill urging the passage of a federal reparations bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, also a Democrat, that same month.

(Sponsors did not return Stateline calls for comment.)
And in September, Florida lawmakers introduced a $10 million reparations bill for the descendants of victims of a specific, 1920 racial atrocity, the Ocoee massacre.

PENNSYLVANIA STATE REP. CHRIS RABB announced plans to introduce a reparations bill this legislative session that would entitle African Americans in the Keystone State to remuneration. But first, the Democrat said, HE'S ORGANIZED A TEAM OF RESEARCHERS TO IDENTIFY EVERY STATE LAW SINCE 1776 THAT'S HAD A “RACIST IMPACT” ON THE STATE'S AFRICAN AMERICAN POPULATION.

He proposes a statewide reparations plan for Pennsylvania that would involve multiple tiers of compensation, with the greatest awards going to residents who can prove they descended from generations of black Pennsylvanians.

To qualify for reparations, residents would have to prove they’ve lived as African Americans through government records such as census records or birth certificates.  “WHEN WE WONDER WHY THESE RACIAL DISPARITIES CONTINUED TO ENDURE, WE HAVE TO LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THE ORIGIN,” IT'S POLICY. THERE'S NO CULTURAL DEFICIT. IT'S CRYSTAL CLEAR, SYSTEMIC RACISM” To be sure, except for one California resolution that passed with bipartisan support, none of the state bills has yet made it past committee.

All were introduced by Democrats. But as the United States wrestles with rising incidents of hate crimes and policymakers become increasingly conscious of slavery’s long-term effects on issues ranging from criminal justice policy to educational achievement gaps, this year’s legislative activity marks the first time that states have explored reparations in a significant way.

“I’m surprised to see the action going on at the state level,” said Thomas Craemer, associate professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut, who became interested in reparations because of the history of the Holocaust and the postwar reparations program in his native Germany.

SUDDENLY REPARATIONS HAS HIT THE MAINSTREAM,” said Craemer, who is part of a national team of academics organized by Duke University professor William Darity crafting a proposal that OUTLINES THE ARGUMENT FOR REPARATIONS and how they would be implemented. Critics of state reparations, meanwhile, argue the issue should be handled at the federal level, and they wonder how the proposals would be paid for and who would qualify to receive the money.

“It’s a weird sense of accountability,” said Walter Williams, an economics professor at George Mason University in Virginia who opposes all reparations.

“What people are suggesting is that we help a black person of today by punishing a white person of today for what a white person of yesterday did to a black of yesterday,” said Williams, who is black.

“That’s a perverse sense of justice in my opinion.” ‘Hotbed of Slavery’ The state bills seem designed to ignite conversation about systemic racial injustices at a time when the nation is sharply divided over issues of race.

Like the federal bill currently being considered in the U.S. House, the state measures would create commissions to study reparations and propose solutions.

For example, New York Democrats in January introduced bills in both the General Assembly and the state Senate that would create a commission to study reparations and racial and economic discrimination against African Americans.

The bills also would acknowledge “the FUNDAMENTAL INJUSTICE, CRUELTY, BRUTALITY, AND INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY in the city of New York and the state of New York.” New York state Sen. James Sanders Jr., the lead sponsor of the Senate bill, declined Stateline’s request for comment; state Assemblyman Charles Barron, who introduced that chamber’s bill, did not respond. California Democrats introduced two measures this year.

One, which both the state Assembly and Senate approved overwhelmingly, was a resolution acknowledging California’s role in chattel slavery and recognizing “the need to pursue avenues to implement proposed reparations for the descendants of African slaves in the United States.”

A second resolution, introduced in June, would formally apologize for California’s “past complicity in slavery” and encourage Congress to enact the federal reparations bill.

That resolution is currently in committee. California state Assemblyman James Gallagher, a Republican who voted against the pending resolution, said, “Certainly slavery is a grievous injustice in our country’s history that we absolutely as a country need to recognize and apologize for.”

But reparations is the wrong approach, he said. “It’s a typical Democratic solution: Let’s figure out how to allocate more taxpayer dollars and throw more money at something, but it doesn’t necessarily get at the root issues.”

State lawmakers' efforts recognize the complexity of slavery’s history and repercussions, said Cornell Brooks, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and former president of the NAACP.

Brooks and a team of researchers at the Kennedy School have been asked by a New Jersey advocacy organization to craft a reparations bill for that state.

If successful, the team hopes to replicate those efforts in other states, Brooks said.

“We need a morally ambitious strategy, but on a state and local-sized platform,” Brooks said.

“To just relegate the responsibility to Congress ignores the role of state capitols and city halls in slavery.”

STATELINE STORY March 29, 2019 ‘A Pileup of Inequities’: Why People of Color Are Hit Hardest by Homelessness It makes sense for states, in addition to the federal government, to address reparations because even non-slave-states benefitted from the institution, said Vermont state Rep. Brian Cina, a member of the Progressive Party who sponsored the Vermont bill.

“It’s easy for people to say we didn’t have slaves in Vermont, but were you buying cotton from the South?
Tobacco?” said Cina, who identifies as multiracial THE BLACK POPULATION STILL STRUGGLES UNDER THE ODIOUS LEGACY OF SLAVERY TODAY!

IT'S IMPERATIVE THAT WE ADOPT A PROPOSAL FOR REPARATIONS. HALF-HEARTED TALK OF REPARATIONS HAS CROPPED UP AGAIN AND AGAIN SINCE THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

AS THE CIVIL WAR WAS NEARING AN END, UNION LEADER GEN. WILLIAM SHERMAN WROTE AN ORDER SETTING ASIDE LAND CONFISCATED ALONG THE SOUTHEASTERN COAST FOR THE FORMERLY ENSLAVED!  THE “40 ACRES AND A MULE” DECLARATION, ONLY TO HAVE IT SCANDALOUSLY REVERSED BY CONFEDERATE PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON, THE SOLE MOTIVATION FOR PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION, LINCOLN FLAT-OUT REFUSED TO RESEND GEN. SHERMAN'S 40 ACRES AND A MULE DECLARATION. 

STATELINE STORY AUGUST 15, 2018 WHERE BLACK HOMEOWNERSHIP IS THE NORM THOSE WHO SUPPORT REPARATIONS DON'T AGREE ON WHAT THAT SHOULD LOOK LIKE, AND WHAT ROLE, IF ANY, THE FED, STATES AND CORPORATIONS SHOULD PLAY. STATE RESOLUTIONS SHOULD ENDORSE AND CONCEIVE A NATIONAL AGENDA, “THE CULPABLE PARTY IS THE CONFEDERATE INFLUENCED UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT,” AND BIG BUSINESS “CONFEDERATES CREATED THE LEGAL SYSTEMIC RACISM AUTHORITY STRUCTURE TO ALLOW FOR THESE ATROCITIES, NEFARIOUSLY DESIGNED WITH PEOPLE OF COLOR IN MIND.”

Darity and other supporters of reparations argue it’s not just THE INSTITUTION OF CONFEDERATE SPONSORED SLAVERY FOR WHICH THE NATION SHOULD BE ATONING FOR, ALSO STATE-SANCTIONED DISCRIMINATION IN THE FORM OF POST-SLAVERY JIM CROW LAWS, REAL ESTATE REDLINING, HAMPERING BLACK WEALTH BUILDING. AND WITH IT, MASS INCARCERATION, SERVED TO HANDICAPPED BLACK AMERICA!

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States talk about reparations...

Talk of Reparations for Slavery Moves to State Capitols Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, a Democrat, announced plans last month to introduce sweeping legislation that would award reparations to African American state residents. As the nation debates the merits of reparations, lawmakers in California, New York, Texas and Vermont have introduced legislation exploring compensation to the descendants of slaves. Courtesy of Democratic Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb updated to clarify Rep. Chris Rabb's position on REPARATION. Four centuries after the first African slaves landed on Virginia shores, state lawmakers across the country are taking up the debate over how to atone for what’s been called “AMERICA'S ORIGINAL SIN.” DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS IN CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK AND VERMONT — STATES THAT EITHER OUTLAWED SLAVERY BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR OR NEVER ALLOWED IT — HAVE INTRODUCED LEGISLATION THAT WOULD APOLOGIZE FOR THEIR STATES ROLE IN THE ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES SLAVERY RENDERED AND; RECOGNIZE THE LASTING, NEGATIVE IMPACT OF SLAVERY ON CURRENT GENERATIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN'S; AND EXPLORE MONETARY REPARATIONS. In April, Democratic lawmakers in Texas introduced a bill urging the passage of a federal reparations bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, also a Democrat, that same month. (Sponsors did not return Stateline calls for comment.) And in September, Florida lawmakers introduced a $10 million reparations bill for the descendants of victims of a specific, 1920 racial atrocity, the Ocoee massacre. PENNSYLVANIA STATE REP. CHRIS RABB announced plans to introduce a reparations bill this legislative session that would entitle African Americans in the Keystone State to remuneration. But first, the Democrat said, HE'S ORGANIZED A TEAM OF RESEARCHERS TO IDENTIFY EVERY STATE LAW SINCE 1776 THAT'S HAD A “RACIST IMPACT” ON THE STATE'S AFRICAN AMERICAN POPULATION. He proposes a statewide reparations plan for Pennsylvania that would involve multiple tiers of compensation, with the greatest awards going to residents who can prove they descended from generations of black Pennsylvanians. To qualify for reparations, residents would have to prove they’ve lived as African Americans through government records such as census records or birth certificates.  “WHEN WE WONDER WHY THESE RACIAL DISPARITIES CONTINUED TO ENDURE, WE HAVE TO LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THE ORIGIN,” IT'S POLICY. THERE'S NO CULTURAL DEFICIT. IT'S CRYSTAL CLEAR, SYSTEMIC RACISM” To be sure, except for one California resolution that passed with bipartisan support, none of the state bills has yet made it past committee. All were introduced by Democrats. But as the United States wrestles with rising incidents of hate crimes and policymakers become increasingly conscious of slavery’s long-term effects on issues ranging from criminal justice policy to educational achievement gaps, this year’s legislative activity marks the first time that states have explored reparations in a significant way. “I’m surprised to see the action going on at the state level,” said Thomas Craemer, associate professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut, who became interested in reparations because of the history of the Holocaust and the postwar reparations program in his native Germany. SUDDENLY REPARATIONS HAS HIT THE MAINSTREAM,” said Craemer, who is part of a national team of academics organized by Duke University professor William Darity crafting a proposal that WHITE CHOCOLATE CITY REINVENTED MO'S ALLEY OUTLINES THE ARGUMENT FOR REPARATIONS and how they would be implemented. Critics of state reparations, meanwhile, argue the issue should be handled at the federal level, and they wonder how the proposals would be paid for and who would qualify to receive the money. “It’s a weird sense of accountability,” said Walter Williams, an economics professor at George Mason University in Virginia who opposes all reparations. “What people are suggesting is that we help a black person of today by punishing a white person of today for what a white person of yesterday did to a black of yesterday,” said Williams, who is black. “That’s a perverse sense of justice in my opinion.” ‘Hotbed of Slavery’ The state bills seem designed to ignite conversation about systemic racial injustices at a time when the nation is sharply divided over issues of race. Like the federal bill currently being considered in the U.S. House, the state measures would create commissions to study reparations and propose solutions. For example, New York Democrats in January introduced bills in both the General Assembly and the state Senate that would create a commission to study reparations and racial and economic discrimination against African Americans. The bills also would acknowledge “the FUNDAMENTAL INJUSTICE, CRUELTY, BRUTALITY, AND INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY in the city of New York and the state of New York.” New York state Sen. James Sanders Jr., the lead sponsor of the Senate bill, declined Stateline’s request for comment; state Assemblyman Charles Barron, who introduced that chamber’s bill, did not respond. California Democrats introduced two measures this year. One, which both the state Assembly and Senate approved overwhelmingly, was a resolution acknowledging California’s role in chattel slavery and recognizing “the need to pursue avenues to implement proposed reparations for the descendants of African slaves in the United States.” A second resolution, introduced in June, would formally apologize for California’s “past complicity in slavery” and encourage Congress to enact the federal reparations bill. That resolution is currently in committee. California state Assemblyman James Gallagher, a Republican who voted against the pending resolution, said, “Certainly slavery is a grievous injustice in our country’s history that we absolutely as a country need to recognize and apologize for.” But reparations is the wrong approach, he said. “It’s a typical Democratic solution: Let’s figure out how to allocate more taxpayer dollars and throw more money at something, but it doesn’t necessarily get at the root issues.” State lawmakers' efforts recognize the complexity of slavery’s history and repercussions, said Cornell Brooks, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and former president of the NAACP. Brooks and a team of researchers at the Kennedy School have been asked by a New Jersey advocacy organization to craft a reparations bill for that state. If successful, the team hopes to replicate those efforts in other states, Brooks said. “We need a morally ambitious strategy, but on a state and local-sized platform,” Brooks said. “To just relegate the responsibility to Congress ignores the role of state capitols and city halls in slavery.” STATELINE STORY March 29, 2019 ‘A Pileup of Inequities’: Why People of Color Are Hit Hardest by Homelessness It makes sense for states, in addition to the federal government, to address reparations because even non-slave-states benefitted from the institution, said Vermont state Rep. Brian Cina, a member of the Progressive Party who sponsored the Vermont bill. “It’s easy for people to say we didn’t have slaves in Vermont, but were you buying cotton from the South? Tobacco?” said Cina, who identifies as multiracial THE BLACK POPULATION STILL STRUGGLES UNDER THE ODIOUS LEGACY OF SLAVERY TODAY! IT'S IMPERATIVE THAT WE ADOPT A PROPOSAL FOR REPARATIONS. HALF-HEARTED TALK OF REPARATIONS HAS CROPPED UP AGAIN AND AGAIN SINCE THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. AS THE CIVIL WAR WAS NEARING AN END, UNION LEADER GEN. WILLIAM SHERMAN WROTE AN ORDER SETTING ASIDE LAND CONFISCATED ALONG THE SOUTHEASTERN COAST FOR THE FORMERLY ENSLAVED!  THE “40 ACRES AND A MULE” DECLARATION, ONLY TO HAVE IT SCANDALOUSLY REVERSED BY CONFEDERATE PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON, THE SOLE MOTIVATION FOR PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION, LINCOLN FLAT-OUT REFUSED TO RESEND GEN. SHERMAN'S 40 ACRES AND A MULE DECLARATION.  STATELINE STORY AUGUST 15, 2018 WHERE BLACK HOMEOWNERSHIP IS THE NORM THOSE WHO SUPPORT REPARATIONS DON'T AGREE ON WHAT THAT SHOULD LOOK LIKE, AND WHAT ROLE, IF ANY, THE FED, STATES AND COOPERATIONS SHOULD PLAY. STATE RESOLUTIONS SHOULD ENDORSE AND CONCEIVE A NATIONAL AGENDA, “THE CULPABLE PARTY IS THE CONFEDERATE INFLUENCED UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT,” AND BIG BUSINESS “CONFEDERATES CREATED THE LEGAL SYSTEMIC RACISM AUTHORITY STRUCTURE TO ALLOW FOR THESE ATROCITIES, NEFARIOUSLY DESIGNED WITH PEOPLE OF COLOR IN MIND.” Darity and other supporters of reparations argue it’s not just THE INSTITUTION OF CONFEDERATE SPONSORED SLAVERY FOR WHICH THE NATION SHOULD BE ATONING FOR, STATE-SANCTIONED DISCRIMINATION IN THE FORM OF POST-SLAVERY JIM CROW LAWS, REAL ESTATE REDLINING HAMPERING BLACK WEALTH BUILDING. AND WITH IT, MASS INCARCERATION, SERVED TO HANDICAPPED BLACK AMERICA

RED LINING...

Fifty years after the federal Fair Housing Act banned racial discrimination in lending, African Americans and Latinos continue to be routinely denied conventional mortgage loans OR AT RATES FAR HIGHER THAN THEIR WHITE COUNTERPARTS. THIS MODERN-DAY REDLINING PERSISTED IN 61 METRO AREAS EVEN WHEN CONTROLLING FOR APPLICANTS' INCOME, LOAN AMOUNTS AND NEIGHBORHOODS, ACCORDING TO MILLIONS OF HOME MORTGAGE DISCLOSURE ACT RECORDS ANALYZED FROM THE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING. The yearlong analysis, based on 31 million records, relied on TECHNIQUES USED BY LEADING ACADEMICS, THE FEDERAL RESERVE AND DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE TO IDENTIFY SYSTEMIC LENDING DISPARITIES. IT FOUND A PATTERN OF TROUBLING DENIALS FOR PEOPLE OF COLOR ACROSS THE COUNTRY, INCLUDING IN MAJOR METROPOLITAN AREAS SUCH AS ATLANTA, DETROIT, PHILADELPHIA, ROCKFORD, Ill., ST. LOUIS AND SAN ANTONIO. AFRICAN AMERICAN'S FACED THE MOST RESISTANCE IN SOUTHERN CITIES - MOBILE, ALABAMA; GREENVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA; AND GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - AND LATINOS IN IOWA CITY, IOWA. NO MATTER THEIR LOCATION, LOAN APPLICANTS TOLD SIMILAR STORIES, DESCRIBING AN UPHILL BATTLE WITH LOAN OFFICERS WHO THEY SAID APPEARED TO BE FISHING FOR A REASON TO SAY NO. AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE 2.7 TIMES AS LIKELY AS WHITES TO BE VICTIMS OF SYSTEMIC RACISM/AKA REDLINING THUS DENIED A CONVENTIONAL MORTGAGE. THE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT OF 1977 WAS DESIGNED TO CORRECT THE DAMAGE OF REDLINING, A NOW-ILLEGAL PRACTICE IN WHICH THE GOVERNMENT WARNED BANKS AWAY FROM NEIGHBORHOODS WITH HIGH VOLUME REDLINING HISTORY IN THE 1930s, SURVEYORS WITH THE FEDERAL HOME OWNERS' LOAN CORPORATION DREW LINES ON MAPS AND COLORED SOME NEIGHBORHOODS RED, DEEMING THEM "HAZARDOUS" FOR BANK LENDING BECAUSE OF THE PRESENCE OF AFRICAN AMERICAN'S OR EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS, ESPECIALLY JEWS. REDLINING HAS BEEN OUTLAWED FOR HALF A CENTURY. AND FOR THE LAST 40 YEARS, BANKS HAVE HAD A LEGAL OBLIGATION UNDER THE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT TO SOLICIT CLIENTS - BORROWERS AND DEPOSITORS - FROM ALL SEGMENTS OF THEIR COMMUNITIES. BUT IN MANY PLACES, THE DAMN LAW HASN'T MADE MUCH DIFFERENCE. The analysis - independently reviewed and confirmed by The Associated Press - showed BLACK APPLICANTS WERE TURNED AWAY AT SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER RATES THAN WHITES IN 48 CITIES, LATINOS IN 25, ASIANS IN NINE AND NATIVE AMERICAN'S IN THREE. IN WASHINGTON, D.C., THE NATION'S CAPITAL, ALL FOUR GROUPS WERE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE LIKELY TO BE DENIED A HOME LOAN THAN WHITES. "IT'S NOT ACCEPTABLE, from the standpoint of what we want as a nation: to make sure THAT EVERYONE DOESN'T SHARE IN ECONOMIC PROSPERITY," Yet Curry's GOVERNMENT INSPECTION AGENCY WAS PART OF THE PROBLEM, DEEMING 99 PERCENT OF BANKS SATISFACTORY OR OUTSTANDING BASED ON BIASED INSPECTIONS ADMINISTERED UNDER THE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT. AND THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUED JUST NINE FREAKING FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FOR FAILING TO LEND TO PEOPLE OF COLOR UNDER THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION. THE LAW NEEDS TO BE UPDATED, REFORMED WITH STIFFER  PENALTIES FOR NON-COMPLIANCE. "THE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT HAS NOT AGED WELL THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS GONE THE OTHER WAY, WEAKENING THE STANDARDS BANKS MUST MEET TO PASS A COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT EXAM. NOT SURPRISINGLY, DURING DONALD TRUMP'S FIRST YEAR IN OFFICE, THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SCOUNDRELS DID NOT SUE A SINGLE LOUSY LENDER FOR RACIAL DISCRIMINATION. A growing housing gap THE DISPROPORTIONATE DENIALS AND LIMITED ANTI-DISCRIMINATION ENFORCEMENT HELP EXPLAIN WHY THE HOMEOWNERSHIP GAP BETWEEN WHITES AND AFRICAN AMERICAN'S IS NOW WIDER THAN IT WAS DURING THE JIM CROW ERA. IN THE UNITED STATES, "WEALTH AND FINANCIAL STABILITY ARE INEXTRICABLY LINKED TO HOUSING OPPORTUNITY AND HOMEOWNERSHIP," SAID LISA RICE, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL FAIR HOUSING ALLIANCE, AN ADVOCACY GROUP. "FOR A TYPICAL FAMILY, THE LARGEST SHARE OF THEIR WEALTH EMANATES FROM HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HOME EQUITY." The latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show the median net worth for an African American family is now $9,000, compared with $132,000 for a white family. Latino families did not fare much better at $12,000. Lenders and their trade organizations do not dispute the fact that they turn away people of color at rates far greater than whites. But they maintain that the disparity can be explained by two factors the industry has fought to keep hidden: the prospective borrowers' credit history and overall debt-to-income ratio. They singled out the three-digit credit score - which banks use to determine whether a borrower is likely to repay a loan - as especially important in lending decisions. "While quite informative regarding the state of the lending market," the records analyzed by Reveal do "not include sufficient data to make a determination regarding fair lending," the Mortgage Bankers Association's chief economist, Mike Fratantoni, said in a statement. The American Bankers Association said the lack of federal enforcement proves discrimination is not rampant, and individual lenders told Reveal that they had hired outside auditing firms, which found they treated loan applicants fairly regardless of race. "We are committed to fair lending and continually review our compliance programs to ensure that all loan applicants are receiving fair treatment," Boston-based Santander Bank said in a statement. This Nov. 12, 2017, photo provided by Reveal shows Point Breeze neighborhood in Philadelphia. Fifty years after the federal Fair Housing Act banned racial discrimination in lending, African Americans and Latinos continue to be routinely denied conventional mortgage loans at (Sarah Blesener / Reveal via AP) New Jersey-based TD Bank, which denied a higher proportion of black and Latino applicants than any other major lender, said it "makes credit decisions based on each Customer's credit profile, not on factors such as race or ethnicity." Reveal's analysis included all records publicly available under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, covering nearly every time an American tried to buy a home with a conventional mortgage in 2015 and 2016. It controlled for nine economic and social factors, including an applicant's income, the amount of the loan, the ratio of the size of the loan to the applicant's income and the type of lender, as well as the racial makeup and median income of the neighborhood where the person wanted to buy property. Credit score was not included because that information is not publicly available. That's because lenders have deflected attempts to force them to report that data to the government, arguing it would not be useful in identifying discrimination. In an April policy paper, the American Bankers Association said reporting credit scores would be expensive and "cloud any focus" the disclosure law has in identifying discrimination. America's largest bank, JP MORGON CHASE & CO., HAS ARGUED THAT THE DATA SHOULD REMAIN CLOSED OFF EVEN TO ACADEMICS, CITING PRIVACY CONCERNS. STUDIES HAVE FOUND PROPRIETARY CREDIT SCORE ALGORITHMS TO HAVE A DISCRIMINATORY IMPACT ON BORROWERS OF COLOR. THE NEANDERTHAL "DECADES-OLD CREDIT SCORING MODEL" CURRENTLY USED "DOES NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT CONSUMER DATA ON RENT, UTILITY, AND CELLPHONE BILL PAYMENTS," "THIS EXCLUSION DISPROPORTIONATELY HURTS AFRICAN-AMERICAN, LATINOS, AND YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE OTHERWISE CREDIT-WORTHY." ___ A CASE STUDY: PHILADELPHIA PHILADELPHIA WAS ONE OF THE LARGEST CITIES IN AMERICA WHERE AFRICAN AMERICAN'S WERE DISPROPORTIONATELY TURNED AWAY WHEN THEY TRIED TO BUY A HOME. AFRICAN AMERICAN'S AND NON-HISPANIC WHITES MAKE UP A SIMILAR SHARE OF THE POPULATION THERE, BUT THE DATA SHOWED WHITES RECEIVED 10 TIMES AS MANY CONVENTIONAL MORTGAGE LOANS IN 2015 AND 2016. WHAT BLATANT DISPLAY OF SYSTEMIC RACISM! BANKS ARE FOCUSED ON SERVING THE WHITE PARTS OF TOWN, PLACING NEARLY three-quarters of ALL BRANCHES IN WHITE-MAJORITY NEIGHBORHOODS, COMPARED WITH 10 PERCENT FOR BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS. Reveal's analysis also showed that the greater the number of African Americans or Latinos in a neighborhood there, the more likely a loan application there would be denied - even after accounting for income and other factors. When Faroul applied for a loan in April 2016, she thought she was an ideal candidate. She holds a degree from Northwestern University, had a good credit score and estimates she was making $60,000 a year while teaching computer programming as a contractor for Rutgers University. Still, her initial loan application was denied by Philadelphia Mortgage Advisors, an independent broker that made nearly 90 percent of its loans to whites in 2015 and 2016. "I'm sorry," broker Angela Tobin wrote to Faroul in an email. Faroul's contract income wasn't consistent enough, she said. So Faroul got a full-time job at the University of Pennsylvania managing a million-dollar grant. We are committed to fair lending and continually review our compliance programs to ensure that all loan applicants are receiving fair treatment. But that still wasn't enough. When she tried again a year later, this time at Santander Bank, a Spanish firm with U.S. headquarters in Boston, the process dragged on for months. Eventual

HUMAN ERASERS?

ARE PEOPLE WHO VANDALIZE, THE BLACK LIVES MATTER PROPERTY, [HUMAN ERASERS]? OR JUST PLAIN OLE ASS-HOLES, DEFACING WHAT ESSENTIALLY IS GOVERNMENT PROPERTY?

CAN'T PUT REPARATIONS IN THE REAR VIEW...

CAN'T PUT REPARATIONS IN THE HANDS OF FATE, AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME TO WAIT... CAN'T PUT REPARATIONS IN THE REAR VIEW, IT'S NOW OR NEVER, SO THAT WILL NEVER DO...