Redlining - Reverse Redlining in USA (III)

By

Sampson Iroabuchi Onwuka

Part I


Given the very correct outline about the American economic society, given the much bigger fact that the society is that large in just about everything, it is in many ways wise to conclude that the only way to have done anything that significant in US was through its inner Cities and Urban areas. That is to say that the role American Banks and Insurance companies in determining the longevity of many American businesses was essentially possible, and many important areas of America were set according to their design. The other option for understanding America is through its Cities and inner cities, especially the nature of Redlining is through. These areas were to attract people from different parts of the world over a very long period of time before

If the effect of Redlining is proven by poverty of the American Black society, it is hardly the subject of many American studies on economics at any time. There are no real indications that Nigerians themselves have taken the subject very seriously, or has many doctorate students of Black studies and US Commercial laws made significant point about the effects of Redlining and origins of poverty in African American society. The usual pattern of thinking has always being the one that deals on the impact of Welfare system. It is not to be missed that such economic view hardly disappoints when it narrows down to the very end of the Black society and how they are doing.

If that does not take the place of these opinions about the people in question, it is because our views are largely clouded by other attention manifest in several parts of the world on what is now the US. It is largely forgotten, that if Blacks had an opportunity to make the necessary amends in terms of their pursuit of business and happiness, they would have done it. But they just couldn’t because the money for the ‘American Dream’ now as well then follows a pattern that set blacks up against the vulnerable to caprices of the other.

In a new book by Jason De Parle 'American Dream', the author tried to discuss the reason behind the deepening poverty of African American society in the light of the American Dream. And once more he retracted the evolution of these poor migrants from the South of US to the North in search of better life. Many of them in the South were not allowed to school together with others, and in the North, there was the issue of separation by means of financing. The financial apartheid in the North was however a far cry from the South where it was an open hostility. In the South, it was a matter of survival between Black and Whites. In places like Mississippi, the question of hate led to the departure of many people.

Jason De Parle narrated a long view investiture of the Milwaukie as the ‘Epicenter of Welfare Reform’, where the pregnancy of a certain Angie was a matter of concern in the whole debate. There was the issue of Jewell and Opal, who were tainted in drug. Jason De Parle who has covered the welfare business for a decade before the 1996 signature of Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of the Bill Clinton Era. He discovered that “Black families were more than six times s like as Whites to a welfare check. Among long-term recipients were African American”, that it was a situation that began long ego from among the competing Americans that Blacks themselves were barred by law from much ado with American society.

De Parle also cited the comments of Powder Maker that “Because the Whites are so seriously outnumbered special means must be taken to keep the Negro in his place….”, that they may be “good” niggers and bad “niggers” but a “nigger” is a “nigger” and cannot escape the taint. Such talk may just be a salesman bluffing, but of course the product taint of Powder Maker was the whiter. De Parle cited a statement by a certain Hattie Mae that “Men back then didn’t allow girls to have much a childhood” that migration to the North in the Civil rights era, left a lot of families without the father – hence the plan for Health care under Roosevelt administration was a welcome gesture and with many of these uneducated black moving from the plantation to the City had to rely on what the Banks had to offer.

De Parle continued that between 1940 and 1970, there was no fewer than 5 million forcing many American Cities to have the problem of Housing in the country. These Plantation migrates sometimes brought the world of drugs from the South to the North. It was a question of time when the trafficking became perpetuated. And these people now turn to cheaper avenues of drugs, and from then, the syndrome sets in. The lives of these African Americans forever tainted with blood, especially the lives of these black women moving in and out of Health Care services, forced a sort of complacency about the society in terms of the reaction to overall American lives that those in many other places formed their own opinions about themselves.

The nature of businesses in places like New York forced people from different parts of the world to be present and that was also a comforting issue. The formal point of Welfare in terms of such matters was very secondary since it was an outcome of the 1935 Social Security for American poor of the great depression.

De Parle book presented the impact of that struggle against Welfare program, where the lives of three women and children became the central fix in the whole debate about US Welfare system. The author made out the case in their favor, tracing the evolution and movement of blacks from several parts of the South, and other variously segregated former plantation areas in the South to search for better life in the North. The North was a passage since the Cities were up and going in the years leading to the Great Depression, and the immigrant population tempered the tension between Blacks and Whites.

But De Parle never quite discussed the root of the problem leading to Welfare and why Welfare serves as the last hope on these African Americans and other minorities without Insurance of just about any kind. The much of financial apartheid and loan denials and guarantee strangled over the years much of African American businesses in America.

But the quest however continues, irrespective of the difficulty with African American audience in doing their bit in promoting the right manners in Banking. It is my hope that enough would be done in this department, to raise awareness of the issue of Redlining and the role Africa and Africans are likely to play in the future. Americans have also failed in the effort in the whole process as well and is never that much of the Commercial studies in the United States. In realty there is nothing quite possible about that study given the origins of the American commercial industry and US legal system.

In Virginia where it all began, there was a battle ground for the very place we call America between English and Dutch Americans over the Commercial Territory. The war between English, France, and Netherlands started over the control of the sea. Such war forced the British to acquire lands owned by the Dutch, and the gluttony led them to parts of Virginia. So began the ‘Scramble for America’ which latter led to other Scramble for other places such as Africa, Asia, North and South America, Oceanic. That also means that the evolution of American legal system began from commercial laws with overlay of English laws eventually. The Common Wealth of Massachusetts did much better in terms of forming better opinions about the society and that includes what it must do in terms of business in relation to the country. Pennsylvania with New York containing

But the Apostles of that system in terms of what it became in later years were among the Whites, and by the time the curtain of Redlining fell in the 1930’s, it was too difficult for the Society to attempt a reverse. The Societies of the African Americans were degenerating and the high default rate in terms of business increased by day, offering more reasons to make that the Banking and Commercial laws that permanent. And banking was a different world in those years.

In the book 'Universal Banking', where the layout of the facts are made the book reflected the history of banking in United States through the eyes of senior lecturers and in terms of 'efficiency' and 'growth'. The book highlighted several question of banks 'should banks be in the securities business and insurance, and where and not universal banks should be regulated given it perform relationship to 'specialist firms' and Hedge Funds in Global markets. The book 'Universal Banking' also highlighted the abuses of Banking Industries in taxes, especially the CHASE national bank and Chase Securities and Income involving Albert Wiggin to the Glass - Seagull Act in 1933.

Yet no mention at any time was made in the Book about the need and necessity to trace some of the troubles, abuses, and prejudices of 'Redlining' in Banking industry to inner cities of American society. It is up to many blacks to do same as a way to widen the studies on the very subject. What African Americans must do is allow the changes that have taken place to continue and provide effective studies on the very issue at hand and why it’s important.

In many ways there is a serious connection of the likes of I, who get slammed every else and the young and older African Americans who have lost hope in the Banking industry. The question of who know what is really happening to Banks? And who can widen that challenge by asking Barack Obama and his compeers to look at the serious problems of denial of loans and services to minority African Americans.


For black business studies, the book 'Black Business and Economic Power' concerns business in African American society did not at any time treat the problem, saving for one mention of the history of Banking in Africa in the article 'Money, Credit, and Banking in Colonial and Post Colonial West Africa' by Adanmu G. Adebayo, where highlights of ABC-African Banking Corporation, West African Currency Board, SAP, ECOWAS and so on was made, and nothing that serious was ever said about African American businesses in the last 20th Century. It is up to the current generation of people and men to make the case for the evolution of the society and that include the changes that has taken place in Black and minority society and how it has helped to make the necessary changes. It is the experts who can make the difference.



Part II

My inspiration to extend any useful review of this whole thing come from a book by Martin Mayer titled the 'Feds', published in 2001 by the Free Press of Simon and Shuster Inc New York. The author made serious arguments about the 'monstrous' acts of denial perpetrated by Banks which if Americans should per chance the record, it could lead to distrust of Banks. But this is just the 'if'. This Book called the 'Feds' deserves a longer review because it details out the whole measure of what the US House of Reps have been doing for some time especially the position of CRA - Congress for the Community Re-investment Act (CRA), where at least in "1991 Congress included the FDIC improvement Act a requirement that when 'CRA' find violations of equal credit opportunities Act, they must refer to the Department of Justice.

In the 'FEDS', the author who is not African American exposed what he called ''monstrous'' practice of this redlining which he argued was much more about Civil Justice, than anything else, and that it was instrumental in bedeviling African American business and businesses with some of them getting the same message of the so-called inadequacy of credit. Then those who could some Loans and financed Venture Funding, get serious punitive requirement owing to the history of the neighborhoods involved.

Martin Mayer in my view should be congratulated for necessarily highlighting the problems from a banker position, and relevant architects of monetary policy of the world, both of the Executive arm and the Legislative should do the same. Martin Mayer is credited with up to 30 books on Banking and in the 'The Feds' he challenged the State and US Feds to do more in terms of investigating the normalized bad manners of the Banks towards lending.

In short view, many blacks and in fact Africans and especially Nigerians looking for loans to do business will not likely get it in New York, except for Mortgage loans in slums where half of the buildings are likely to lose their value with time, and then the 're-possession' due to payment strangled by loss of Job.

But who are we kidding, it is seriously encouraging to make such inquiries into Banking since it mirrors the challenges of the US Feds in Today's market, and not only that, it allows us to have a Firsthand look at what is happening to our financial institutions, and its central question of survival. If the Sovereign Wealth on Euro is misplaced in business among the Africans, there is something

Yet, the attention of many people is not so much what the banks do in Mortgage industry, or the issue of Mortgage Obligation, but what is happening to small American businesses that are owned and managed by certain range of minorities. The language of open source committee does not infect with action on what happens in a trade situated condition when the world of that finance is like the very monetary 'machine that can go on itself', nor do we expect Composites that run other finance materials to explain it all since it goes beyond the reach of many average time investors.

Much more worrying is what happens in derivative market where international markets join heads with American company and groups, in a place where the gap is further widened by different levels of repos. Thus in doing this, the competition that take place during ins and outs of what now happens in our daily business where people who receive enough company incentive will literally deny such incentive to certain people to permit indulgence, will not allow a careful review of this serious problem of lending malpractice.

The attempt by the Federal Open Market Committee to investigate certain claims may do more harm than good while the authors who write about African American business and the role of Banks in America might choose to avoid this part of their service to enable a survival rope to continue in their career.


The malpractice of feeding only a particular group of Americans loans and offering credit expansion should however be investigated by Federal Bank Supervision and Federal Bank Agency (FBA) on day by day accounting and they should look into what actually cripple African American business, and why they are not seriously represented at any level of business practice available anywhere in the world.

The same should also be said of the 'Truth-in-Lending Act' enacted in 1969 which left the FEDS with some powers to essentially legislate through the three banking regulators among the Home loan Bank Board, the Bureau Credit Unions, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Civil aeronautics Board, the Agriculture Department, where power structures have the power to probe the activities of Banks and Financial institutions under their canopy.

It will be very difficult to make such thing happen given the extra ordinary impact of mid-income Americans in today's world. But Martin Mayer’s position is only worthy of re-investigation since it helps to widen the gap in knowing what happens in a society where Banks profile others according to their wish.


On the political side of the very state, Obama would not have learnt that as much Spanish is almost an official language of lower houses of the State, the domination of New York by many other forces has carved a landscape between African Americans and the rest of the society. That It is up to Nigeria to

The more confounding problem in New York is that many Black neighborhoods have suffered seriously and very long.

There are at least 5000 banks and financial institutions in New York with long roots in the continent of US and barely a handful of these banks are majority owned by Blacks. I mean, we can count very less than nameless ten in number including Insurance companies and old foundations owned by African Americans. In many ways the problem will continue long after now, even as we hope against the facts that some studies should be done in this world of inquiry.

The African American business men and women are seriously suppressed except for proven talents, and so is their market. The major fulcrum in that whole engine is the banking sector of American finances, a fact that is so understated except for cases when Banks who 'wanna' look good will put a few black eagles in their teller services and in their front line. In many areas of New York, to be sure Queens, you don't have to show up if you are not like 'them'. So the condition that Nigerians have to deal in US is like a flash in the pan given the serious advantage of cheap Nigerian to Nigeria connection which black America do not really have and which if they venturesome, become protective and nearly anti each other. The Advent of Euro and the rise of Asia as a diorama giant

Yet nothing is done by the US congressional committee to micro-manage the problem, lout of option, and largely because they are to effectually conduct investigative study through FHA (Federal housing Authority) about such practices especially now that it has taken a very sophisticated form. That role of Bank in determining the first and last of what happens in our society may also lead away the stranger facts of determining the shocking lack of African Americans is senior management positions, not that the talent is not there but the Funds available and securities curve and other National and International Derivatives markets are only open to specialized units and fund managers with safety nets.


And speaking of safety nets, US trade Almanac allow us to view what happens to the so-called U.S Total Retirement Market where even rackets from Investment Company Institute, Federal Reserve Board, National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administration, American Council of Life Insurers, Internal Revenue Service provide a degree of funding for the general American, but such open tray of Funding never make it to the proper hands of African American Business who desperately need it.

It has in fact gotten much worse in the last decade following the rise of the Euro pretending as counterweight to common benchmarks and common markets and rise of immigrant populations of Asia. Obama's 700 Billion dollars spending and the spending done in hundreds of billions by Bush to the Americans may have been expected to filter through to the working ranks of American society, but in structure and in mocking jest, it will not reach the small business who needs it. For Blacks the only compensation is the very homeless shelters and Welfare systems that are quite their right. As more and more people appears from different parts of the world into US, more and more the issue for greater resolve in terms of the attitude of black businesses compound. The case is largely due to the fact that

This is likely the case and may well be, given the highly selective attitude of American banks towards lending, a selection that is entirely visible and hideaway the profiling status of these inner cities Americans which were once a haven for Americans. So the issue of LABOR REVOLUTION within the American society should include what the Africans and the Caribbean are willing to do in the US, in terms of Brokerages and in terms of Banks as Anchors for International Nigerian business society and so on. Without much foreign national foundation like Africa and Nigerian, there is not a whole lot Blacks can do. If they have no penetration what’s so ever, there will be a newer generation of bad business in the very US for African Americans and Africans as well. Nigerian Banking committee should drop the arrogance of the past and see how it can encourage Africans to participate in the very business of the society.

Need must be said of the problems of the civil rights era did not even highlight the role of Banks in creating financial inequality between Whites and Blacks in every part of United States and for lack oversight committee of the part of these African Americans, there is virtually no mention of this atrocity of profiled lending by Banks. Yet the bad lending acts of Banks in New York, the Bad lending acts of financial institutions associated with the world do not get a mention in several books of the world. Many people who have complained that this non-lending behavior of Banks is still evident are no longer with the banking industries, they got strategically isolated, and those who still complain make a case for themselves and may and may not point out the root of the problem, which is the Bank.


The advent of Obama's nomination for the Nobel Peace prize as conferred on him by a collage of peoples representing the institution in Norway, had given new tension on the merits of his accomplishment. But the price may not have been for peace that is to come but for his effort in encouraging diplomacy in line with the likes of Bishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and late Martin Luther. The aforementioned group represents the era of civil struggle and how they sought to put away the divisive issues of their day through diplomacy.

The nomination of Obama forces a new era of that civil struggle to begin, that the likes of Obama as with other men and women of international repute, are now recognized for their effort is forcing changes in better life programs and in advancement of women's movement. From that angle of fighting poverty and poverty prevention, there is required necessity to remind ourselves of those who have made significant efforts in changing the attitudes of Banks towards other Americans and other citizens and towards the Continent of Africa.

That effort must now be made to include what is truly wrong with Banks and other financial institutions having to only extend loans to people who look like them and to a large extent enjoin the same religion.

Not many people will overlook the monstrosity of Indian financial industry in India, where people are turned down on loans for being a certain kind of Caste. Not only in India but in Korea, in South Africa, in Russia, and in Japan where people who do not belong to the 'family' or not among the numbered are to be ignored and should not even try to ask for loans. The relationship between Commerce and National Laws should in many ways educate our minds about the incidents of poor voting practices in these areas and no voting rights. In India, the monstrosity of Redlining continuous

In many ways what we know of ourselves in a larger society like USA explain what we know about the world at large.

But they can all pretend to be good people in world markets. In India, there is the monstrosity of voting rights where half of the population is not required to vote, they are not illegible to vote and then there is the women's right issue which all carry into the banking and housing industry where the shame is fully unleashed. In many ways, the idea of Redlining which seem to be original to America in the years past, is a mere drop in the bucket concerning what goes on and around the world in terms of profiling and in terms of prejudice. These practices are still very evident USA, very much alive in New York