*This past Sunday on “Meet the Press,” the presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said the following, “Latinos, women and young people — that is the new governing coalition.”
OUCH.
To be sure, there are Black folk in each of those categories. But since President Obama’s victory on Election Day, I have been troubled by the paltry attention paid to the record turnout amongst African Americans to make Mr. Obama only the fourth Democrat in a century to be re-elected to a second term. I know Doris Kearns Goodwin, so I don’t think she intended to suggest that Black votes don’t matter. But there is this creepy sense that in the midst of this historic moment in Black history, Black Americans are being pushed off stage. And while Black Americans are being pushed off the stage, there is a growing debate on the internet and in the mainstream media about whether and how Black folk should push President Obama now that “he has nothing to lose.”
There’s a whole lot of pushing going on.
This is real simple for me. With all due respect to the formidable coalition of Latinos, women, and young voters, Barack Obama would not be sitting in the Oval Office right now had Black folk stayed home in their “house slippers.” African Americans are his most loyal constituency and everybody in the Obama re-election campaign and in the Obama White House knows it. The president owes Black folk. BIG time.
The poet Gwendolyn Brooks had this wonderful refrain, “the last of the loud.” Respectfully, somebody has to remind the president day in and day out of the debt he owes Black America. After four years of being sidelined and silenced, it’s time to get loud. We have to be willing to engage even if we are “the last of the loud.”
Our Latino brothers and sisters immediately (as in the day after the election) jumped on a national media conference call to make it clear that they saved the president in some key battleground states. I ain’t mad at ‘em. That’s exactly what they should have done. Black folk taught the disenfranchised masses how to make demands in the name of unarmed truth and unconditional love. Ready for the hard truth? At the moment, our Latino brothers and sisters are better examples of the Black prophetic tradition than are Black folk.
Word now comes that many Black notables will join together at a national symposium later this week to discuss the state of Black America and the road ahead. We will see if Black leaders are finally ready to turn up the volume. If we aren’t, well, we’re just going to get drowned out over the next four years. There is a line of folk wrapped around the White House who intend to collect on the Obama promissory note they’ve been holding since 2008. Where are African Americans in that line? Are African Americans even in the line?
We celebrate this electoral victory today, but what about tomorrow? How tragic would it be at the end of eight years to be confronted by economic data which suggests (as the data does now) that in the Obama era Black folk lost ground in every single leading economic indicator category? I shudder at the very thought. So should you.
Are we going to be the last of the loud, or just the last?
– Tavis Smiley
Here’s what Tavis is missing – it’s not about Black people against Hispanics. We’re currently knee-deep in the middle of a class war, so it’s now about the poor and middle class against the rich. So what Tavis is preaching is division,and division lends comfort to the enemy.
Where did you get that from? Where did Tavis make it a ‘black vs hispanic’ issue? You totally distort what he said above. He said that Latinos/Latinas who voted for Obama are demanding that their issues be addressed in return for their vote. The Jews do it. The Christians do it. The Asians do it. The gays do it. Everyone else except black people, who told to be quiet and just support the President blindly. That’s ridiculous. Blacks have a right to demand their issues be addressed without being accused of being a crab in the barrel, hater, or a bunch of degoratory names because some Blacks *dare* to raise questions. It seems like we are too caught up in symbolism instead of substance.
And yes, I read your post below but that still doesn’t discount that there are more blacks unemployed than whites. And not all those blacks are ‘undereducated’, ignorant, etc. I totally understand that this country was in a recession before Obama became President and don’t expect him to work miracles overnight. Not to mention that many of us lost our homes and livelihoods through the mortage and pension scandals. But I do also expect to him address the concerns that Blacks have just like he addresses corporate heads, other ethnic and gender groups. Now suddenly demanding that our issues be addressed is considered ‘divisive’??? Wow!
What issues has the president not address regarding black people? He has addressed unemployment, via extentions, training/ programs, tax breaks…….., he has addressed healthcare affordability and accessibility, he has addressed home ownership by implementing SPECIFIC programs and overhauling rules and regulations. He has addressed education BIG TIME…. I mean every aspect of black peoples concerns he has addressed. Is it because he hasn’t labled it “BLACK ONLY” that makes people blatantly overlook what he has accomplished???. WOW!!!
NYC,
Both Tavis, and his buddy, West, need to be talked about, because they, along with people like Clarence Thomas, Herman Cain, Larry Elder, and others, are Black bigots. Period:
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“Brother” West,
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Your explanation for your comment that President Obama is a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface” is as lame and disingenuous a cop out as I’ve ever heard. You claimed that your critics are trivializing your comment by not getting to the core of your assertion, which was President Obama is a “Rockefeller Republican.” Then YOU tried to trivialize the significance of the addendum, “in blackface,” as though it was meaningless, by saying, “I have a black face, you have a black face, my mother has a black face,” etc.
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Well, if you know that the phrase “in blackface” is going to distract from the core issue, why don’t you stick to the core issue and stopping adding such racially offensive language? Could it be for the publicity? I think it is, and your cavalier attitude in this matter speaks volumes. Obviously, your passionate craving for publicity and need to promote the Smiley/West Corporation takes precedence over whether or not you offend the Black community. So it seems that your infamous “love for your people” stops at your pocketbook.
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You’re not a complete idiot, so you know full well that the addendum to your comment was drenched in racial innuendo, and you’ve become a serial offender in that regard. You know very well that the phrase, “in blackface,” conjures up images of White minstrels portraying Black people by painting their faces jet black, with huge oversized white lips, and then running across the stage shouting, “mammy!” So the subtext of your comment was clear – you think President Obama is a White clown beneath a painted blackface. That’s a grossly racist and disrespectful statement to be directed at anyone, and particularly the President of the United States. Who do you think you are!!?
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Then just as bad, and just as disrespectful – this time, however, directed at the entire Black community – you have the unmitigated gall to now come on this show, and in your most self-righteous and condescending tone, try to tell Black people who took issue with your comment that they’re just being silly for objecting to your blatantly racist statement. In other words, we’re too stupid to know a racist comment when we hear one.
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Cornel, you’re indulging in the exact same kind of racist act of conflation as any vicious, petty, and unrepentant bigot. You know the kind – the ones who go on Fox News and talk about “Welfare Queens,” when everybody in the world knows they’re actually talking about black women in general; or say, “We’ve got to do something about crime,” when they actually mean, it’s time to start brutalizing and killing more Black men. Then when they’re confronted with it, just like you, they say, “Ooooh, where did you find that race card? That wasn’t what I meant at all!”
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So “brother,” you ain’t foolin’ nobody. The depth of your self-serving racist behavior would make Jesse Helms blush . . . MORE
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http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/12/beneath-spin-eric-l_8.html
Tavis, West, and Malcolm
While browsing the web this morning I came across an article written by Dr. Boyce Watkins blaring, “Cornel West Says that Sharpton, Dyson are “Up for Sale”: Let’s Talk about That One, Shall We?” My first reaction was, “Hmmmm, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson must have gotten a new job.”
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The reason that’s the first thing that came to mind was because Cornel West is rapidly building a reputation for attacking anyone in the Black community who tends to overshadow him. This tendency, and the reckless and petty way in which he pursues it, has become so pronounced in West that it’s beginning to betray his primary agenda as a whole. He’s not interested in the Black community at all. All Cornel West is interested in is keeping Cornel West in the media spotlight.
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Look at the facts. First he attacks Barack Obama. He was fine with Barack at first – as long as he could look upon him as subordinate. But once Obama began to get widespread public attention, West started to cool towards him. But when it became clear that Obama could actually become the President of the United States, and he had the audacity to refuse to dance to Tavis and West’s music, West went into wild-eyed opposition to everything he represented – only cooling off long enough to become certain that he wasn’t going to enjoy the notoriety of a prominent role in an Obama administration, and he wasn’t going to be able to strut around with the president on speed dial. Only then, did he see fit to publicly declare that the president was a puppet to plutocrats and afraid of “free Black men.” I don’t recall him ever being that disrespectful to George W. Bush.
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Then, he came out against Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry. But just like with Obama, West was fine with Dr. Perry at first. He recruited her to come to Princeton and they were colleauges. Once it became clear, however, that Dr. Perry had a mind of her own and that she wasn’t prone to hero worship, he began to undermine her at Princeton, so she quiet left. But once West found out that she had been given a show on MSNBC, all hell broke loose. Instead of this good brother – who only lives to serve his people – being happy over the prospect that another intelligent Black voice had gained access to the mass media, he saw fit to publicly proclaim that this very impressive Black woman was “a liar and a fraud.”
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So again, it seems that Cornel West is always prepared to preach a much better sermon on black love and respect than he’s willing to live. His comments were extremely disrespectful toward both Black women, and the Black community as a whole. A true brother – a true man – wouldn’t even speak to a lady like that in private, much less, badmouth her like that publicly.
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Whatever happen to the concept of cherishing our women? No one should have to teach Cornel about that. As a so-called Black intellectual, that’s exactly what he should be teaching our young people – that it’s impossible for them to have any respect for themselves, if they don’t respect the very womb of their culture. How can anyone profess to be an intellectual and fail to understand that very fundamental concept? West also betrayed his elitist sense of entitlement, and his disdain for the poor and working class when he complained about a mere baggage handler getting tickets to the Presidential Inauguration while he couldn’t.
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And it doesn’t end there. West has also seen fit to go after Jay-Z. Obviously Jay-Z was getting a little too much publicity over his part ownership of the Brooklyn Nets and the Barclay Center. So West took it upon himself to set the record straight. In essence, he said, “Wait a minute, world! That pickaninny don’t own nothing. TheWhite man owns it! So you see, I’m still the man!” Okay West, but what does fronting off Jay-Z have to do with moving Black people forward? . . . MORE
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/11/tavis-west-and-malcolm.html
Sorry, but you are so simple. After reading this very prescient article (which had absolutely nothing to do with Cornel West), all you come away with is a personal attack? You didn’t find ANYTHING substantive about this article?
But to respond to your attack on West, do you feel the same about Harry Belafante? Is he also a hater who’s jealous a politician didn’t invite him somewhere? lol Belafante has criticized Jay-Z as well. And Harris-Perry CAME AFTER HIM FIRST, all because he dared criticize her meal ticket aka Obama. It is a FACT that there is a correlation in a lot of prominent Blacks who have gotten jobs especially on MSNBC, have not publicly criticized this president since. That is documented, you can go check that fact. You are naive to believe that is a coincidence. Those of us in the real world though know that if it looks like a sellout, smells like a sellout, walks like a sellout, it’s probably a sellout. Taking money to not criticize a politician = SELLOUT.
It’s so depressing that there are REAL issues being raised and the majority of the Black community be simple and reduce everything to “he’s a hater” than to honestly address those issues. This community is all but doomed if something doesn’t change STAT.
TGen,
In Defense of My Stance Against Cornel West
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In response to my last column, Dr. Boyce Watkins Announces His Withdrawal from Cornel West Controversy , one reader said the following:
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“Wattree – you should stop kissing President Obama’s ass without thinking about your political decisions. He hasn’t done anything for you, but you talk about him like you work for him.”
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Such comments are so typical of Cornel West supporters that they’ve become a mantra. They invariably accuse anyone who dares to point out that West’s blatant public slander of the President of the United States was counterproductive, unsubstantiated, and frankly, stupid, as only being interested in defending President Obama. They try to avoid the issue of West’s grossly unprofessional behavior by accusing his critics of being Obama cheerleaders. So let me dispose of that allegation at the outset.
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As I’ve mentioned many times before, I’ve written several articles that are highly critical of President Obama – one, long before Obama was even sworn into office. In the article, A Journalist’s First Responsibility, written on July 8, 2008, I point out unequivocally that it’s not a journalist’s responsibility to try to protect a favored candidate:
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“On June 20th Senator Barack Obama announced that he was supporting the current FISA bill before the senate. That bill gives retroactive immunity to all telecommunications companies against all private law suits for cooperating with the Bush administration’s program of spying on the American people without a court order, as currently required by current law . . .
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“I’ve been roundly criticized by fellow Obama supporters for bringing this issue out. They say that ‘I’m hurting our candidate’, and ‘I’m not seeing the big picture.’ But in response I suggest, when truth becomes a hindrance to a candidate’s viability, it’s not truth that’s the problem–it’s the candidate. And when the “greater good” involves journalists keeping the people in the dark, it becomes the nation’s problem. Thus, it’s not up to journalists to keep Obama’s candidacy viable–it’s up to Obama.”
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Thus, my strident criticism of Cornel West has nothing to do with trying to protect Obama. I’m speaking out against West’s unmitigated stupidity. Period.
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Any Black person who doesn’t recognize the importance of, at the very least, respecting the first Black President of the United States is an idiot. While that doesn’t preclude one from criticizing Obama’s policies, just like any other president, West criticized him as a Black man, which is an exercise in self-hatred, and betrays his true attitude toward Black people in general. So West didn’t merely make himself look stupid, he made the Black community look stupid as well. First, West clearly demonstrated that many of us don’t have any self-respect. And secondly, since his high profile sends the false impression that West is one of the best and brightest in the Black community, his reckless and unprofessional assertions and behavior reinforces the racist belief that Black professionals are something less than their White counterparts.
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To this day, there are many racists who claim that Black professionals are professionals in name only. They contend that due to Affirmative Action, Black professionals didn’t have to pay the dues to obtain their credentials that their White counterparts had to pay. Therefore, they’re less qualified. As a direct result of that attitude, many highly qualified Black professionals are being passed over for upward mobility in their chosen professions . . . MORE
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/03/in-defense-of-my-stance-against-cornel.html
Sorry, another FAIL. “West criticized him as a Black man.” AND??? Should he pretend that he is not SHOCKED that a fellow “Black” man who happens to be the most powerful man in the world systematically IGNORES the plight of other Blacks and dismisses them with “a rising tide will lift all boats?” You say he is “unprofessional” which is more obfuscation to divert attention from real issues. And you say you aren’t defending the president, then go to your next post and list a slew of “accomplishments” you no doubt found on the White House website. lolol
Honestly, you are not in West’s league.
TGen,
You can help Black people without throwing your fist in the air. By the way, what has West ever done for Black people? What Black people need more than anything else is education, and West has never taught in a school that more than the top 1% of Black people could attend in his career. On the other hand, Obama was the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review. He could have become a law clerk in the United Supreme Court, or got rich by going to work at his pick of the top law firms in this country. But he became a community organizer in the projects of Chicago. I mean, brother! Don’t preach me a sermon, live me one!
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Both Tavis and West are frauds. Wake up! You’re being hornswoggled:
Wells Fargo to pay $175 million
WELLS FARGO HIRED TRUSTED BLACK FIGURES TO ALLEGEDLY DRAW MINORITIES TO HIGH-RATE LOANS
Tavis Smiley Headlined Seminars
Targeting African Americans
“The Washington Independent reports that Wells Fargo & Co. allegedly targeted African American borrowers for higher-cost subprime mortgages. The bank attracted attendees to a series of day-long “Wealth Building” seminars held in black neighborhoods in eight cities across the country by featuring trusted black speakers.
“The seminars, promoted heavily in black media, featured prominent African American commentator and PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley as well as Kelvin Boston, the host of “Moneywise,” a multicultural financial affairs show.”
Datails:
http://www.mysanantonio.com//business/article/Wells-Fargo-to-pay-175-million-3703567.php
Wattree, what really is your angle? Are you really this dishonorable? Did you even read the article at the link you give? It doesn’t have your quotes in it, and there is nothing about Black spokespeople pushing subprime mortgages onto Blacks. But if you want to go down the shady corporate road, did you check your president’s donor list? If having backing from a large corporation means automatic corruption, what say you about Obama’s record-breaking donor list from 08 and 12? It’s packed full with banks that have taken advantage of folks:
https://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cid=N00009638
Dear Eric: I read your post and could only shout BRILLIANT, BEAUTIFUL, BRILLIANT, BEAUTIFUL!!! My wife ran into the computer room and thought I’d either hit the powerball or had lost my mind!! You sum up beautifully and matter-of-fact-ly why Corny & Tavis are so threatened by Black REAL intellectuals. I plan to take your post to my barbershop this weekend and hold a public forum. 99% of the folks in Africa-America know what Corny & Tavis are up to and it took you brother to shine a penetrating, revealing flash light on their self-glorifying rusty arses. Brother Eric, maybe if we wrote them a letter saying “dear brothers corny & tavis, even though President Obama has forgotten more than you two clowns know, you two are a little bit smart, but not much.
Fanteeking
Thank you, David.
I’m doing more than just writing them a letter. I joined their Smiley and West website and I’m posting everything I write about them right there on their site. Every day I get emails from their supporters saying, “What! I didn’t know that!”
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Obama Initiatives II
Whenever I write anything, immediately after I make an assertion I will either give the facts to substantiate my claim, or connect the dots that support why I’ve come to a given conclusion. Thereafter, I leave whether or not the reader agrees with me up to the reader.
As for your nitpicking through all of the nation’s problems and responding to why Obama hasn’t addressed this issue or that, I don’t play that game, because it’s a rhetorical device that only a fool would engage in. That’s why it’s one of the favorite games of the GOP.
I can make anyone seem to come up short by playing such a silly game, because it can go on endlessly. If I decided to assess my mother based on what she didn’t do instead of what she did do, she would always come up short. So why should I get into a game with some idiot where he’s asking questions like the following:
1). Did your mother provide you a mansion to live in as a child?
2). Did she buy you new school clothes every week?
3). Did she provide you with security so you would never get beat up after school?
4). Did she buy you a brand new Escalade after you graduated?
It’s stupid to get into that sort of thing, and it’s stupid for conservatives to think that I’m dumb enough to engage in it.
I’m not going to assess Obama as a president based on what he didn’t do, because since no one can do everything, the list will undoubtedly be endless. I’m going to assess him on what he HAS done, like the following:
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1). He stopped the nation from hemorrhaging 800,000 jobs A MONTH under Bush. I think that helped Black people.
2). He stopped the nation from going into a second Great Depression. That helped Black people
3). He save the America auto industry. Didn’t that help Black people?
4). He was the first president to successfully passed healthcare reform in 70 years. That helped Black people.
5). He created more jobs in 27 months than Bush did in 7 years.That helped Black people
6). And he managed to get Osama Bin Laden in his spare time. That helped Black people because that’s where all the money went under Bush. Didn’t Bush ravish the national treasury trying to find Osame Bin Laden in Iraq? Bush spent nearly a trillion dollars, then Obama got him with two helicopters and a hand full of men. And Tavis and West want to CRITICIZE this brother!!!!?
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In addition, Obama did the following:
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- Spur Job Creation: “In addition, to help those most affected by the recession, the Budget will extend emergency assistance to seniors and families with children, Unemployment Insurance benefits, COBRA tax credits, and relief to states and localities to prevent layoffs.”
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- Reforming the Job Training System: “The Budget calls for reform of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which supports almost 3,000 One-Stop Career Centers nationwide and a range of other services. With $6 billion for WIA at DOL—and an additional $4 billion in the Department of Education—the Budget calls for reforms to improve WIA.” Strengthen Anti-Discrimination Enforcement: “To strengthen civil rights enforcement against racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, religious, and gender discrimination, the Budget includes an 11 percent increase in funding to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. This investment will help the Division handle implementation of a historic new hate crimes law. The Budget also provides an $18 million, or 5 percent increase, for the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), which is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee. This increased investment will allow for more staff to reduce the backlog of private sector charges.”
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- Support Historically Black Colleges and Universities: “The Budget proposes $642 million, an increase of $30 million over the 2010 level, to support Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), including Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In addition to this discretionary funding increase for MSIs, the Administration supports legislation passed by the House of Representatives and pending in the Senate that would provide $2.55 billion in mandatory funding to MSIs over 10 years.”
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- Help Families Struggling with Child Care Costs: “The Budget will nearly double the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for middle-class families making under $85,000 a year by increasing their credit rate from 20 percent to 35 percent of child care expenses. Nearly all eligible families making under $115,000 a year would see a larger credit. The Budget also provides critical support for young children and their families by building on historic increases provided in ARRA. The Budget provides an additional $989 million for Head Start and Early Head Start to continue to serve 64,000 additional children and families funded in ARRA.”
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- Reform Elementary and Secondary School Funding: “The Budget supports the Administration’s new vision for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) … The Budget provides a $3 billion increase in funding for K-12 education programs authorized in the ESEA, including $900 million for School Turnaround Grants, and the Administration will request up to $1 billion in additional funding if Congress successfully completes ESEA reauthorization.”
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- Increase Pell Grants: “The Recovery Act and 2009 appropriations bill increased the maximum Pell Grant by more than $600 for a total award of $5,350. The Budget proposes to make that increase permanent and put them on a path to grow faster than inflation every year, increasing the maximum grant by $1,000, expanding eligibility, and nearly doubling the total amount of Pell grants since the President took office.”
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- Help Relieve Student Loan Debt: “To help graduates overburdened with student loan debt, the Administration will strengthen income-based repayment plans for student loans by reducing monthly payments and shortening the repayment period so that overburdened borrowers will pay only 10 percent of their discretionary income in loan repayments and can have their remaining debt forgiven after 20 years. Those in public service careers will have their debt forgiven after 10 years. The Budget also expands low-cost Perkins student loans.”
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- Prevent Hunger and Improve Nutrition: “The President’s Budget provides $8.1 billion for discretionary nutrition program supports, which is a $400 million increase over the 2010 enacted level. Funding supports 10 million participants in the WIC program, which is critical to the health of pregnant women, new mothers, and their infants. The Budget also supports a strong Child Nutrition and WIC reauthorization package that will ensure that school children have access to healthy meals and to help fulfill the President’s pledge to end childhood hunger. The President continues to support the nutrition provisions incorporated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).”
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- Revitalize Distressed Urban Neighborhoods: “The Budget includes $250 million for HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods program, which will target neighborhoods anchored by distressed public or assisted housing with physical and social revitalization grounded in promising, measurable, and evidence-based strategies.”
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- Increase Funding for the Housing Choice Voucher Program: “The President’s Budget requests $19.6 billion for the Housing Choice Voucher program to help more than two million extremely low income families with rental assistance to live in decent housing in neighborhoods of their choice. The Budget continues funding for all existing mainstream vouchers and provides flexibility to support new vouchers that were leased and $85 million in special purpose vouchers for homeless families with children, families at risk of homelessness, and persons with disabilities.”
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- Preserve 1.3 Million Affordable Rental Units through Project-Based Rental Assistance Program: “The President’s Budget provides $9.4 billion for the Project-Based Rental Assistance program to preserve approximately 1.3 million affordable rental units through increased funding for contracts with private owners of multifamily properties. This critical investment will help low-income households to obtain or retain decent, safe and sanitary housing. In addition, the Administration requests $350 million to fund the first phase of this multi-year initiative to regionalize the Housing Choice Voucher program and convert Public Housing to project-based vouchers.”
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- Promote Affordable Homeownership and Protect Families from Mortgage Fraud: “The Budget requests $88 million for HUD to support homeownership and foreclosure prevention through Housing Counseling and $20 million to combat mortgage fraud. In addition, the Budget requests $250 million for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation’s (NRC) grant and training programs. Of the $250 million, $113 million is requested for foreclosure prevention activities, a $48 million increase (74 percent) over 2010.”
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- Fight Gang Violence and Violent Crime: “The Budget provides $112 million for place-based, evidence supported, initiatives to combat violence in local communities, including $25 million for the Community-Based Violence Prevention Initiatives that aim to reduce gun and other violence among youth gangs in cities and towns across the country, and $37 million for the Attorney General’s Children Exposed to Violence Initiative, which targets the youth most affected by violence and most susceptible to propagating it as they grow up.”
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- Expand Prisoner Re-entry Programs: “The Budget provides $144 million for Department Justice prisoner re-entry programs, including an additional $100 million for the Office of Justice Programs to administer grant programs authorized by the Second Chance Act and $30 million for residential substance abuse treatment programs in State and local prisons and jails. In addition, the Budget provides $98 million for Department of Labor programs that provide employment-centered services to adult and youth ex-offenders and at-risk youth..”
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- Fully Fund the Community Development Block Grant Program: “The Budget provides $4.4 billion for the Community Development Fund, including $3.99 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Formula Program (CDBG), and $150 million for the creation of a Catalytic Investment Competition Grants program. The new Catalytic Competition Grants program uses the authorities of CDBG, but will provide capital to bring innovative economic development projects to scale to make a measurable impact.”
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If Tavis and West REALLY care about Black unemployment, here’s the issue they’d be addressing:
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The REAL Reason for High Black Unemployment:
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/10/is-obama-real-reason-that-black.html
Do not worry Tavis, Obama got this, don’t hate its a ugly thing. be proud of this black man God got Obama, enough is enough.
The Wells Fargo article says nothing about Tavis Smiley being in cahoots with them to defraud black people. Because a company hires somebody to represent a product does not mean that the person hired has some kind of control or knowledge of a company’s true intent. If anyone is the fraud, its the company, not the hired spokesperson. It’s one thing to dislike someone for their opinion or views but it’s quite another to deliberately distort their views to fit in your own misintepretion of said views.
Suit Alleges Trusted Blacks Drew Minorities to High-Rate Loans
By Mary Kane
Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 2:39 pm
As the housing market began booming in the mid-2000s, Wells Fargo & Co. teamed up with prominent African American commentator and PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley and financial author Kelvin Boston, the host of “Moneywise,” a multicultural financial affairs show, to host something called “Wealth Building” seminars in black neighborhoods.
Smiley was the keynote speaker, and the big draw, according to Boston and Keith Corbett, executive vice president of the Center for Responsible Lending, who attended two of the seminars. Smiley would charge up the audience — and rattle the Wells Fargo executives in attendance — by launching into a story about how he hated banks, and how they used to refuse to lend him money for his real estate projects in Compton, Calif., and elsewhere. After Hurricane Katrina, Smiley also emphasized the importance of building assets and wealth, saying those who had done so were able to leave New Orleans, while people with nothing had to stay behind, Boston said.
“My spiel was the financial planning process, how you want to be able to save and invest for the future, and to have a plan of action,” Boston said. “Then Tavis talked about his experiences with the banks, and how people should be thinking about some real estate.”
The seminars in some cities drew standing room only crowds, with numerous Wells Fargo representatives on hand, seated at carrels to meet one-on-one with potential borrowers who lined up after the speeches, which were usually held in hotels. The free, day-long events were heavily advertised in the black media, and launched in eight cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Richmond, Va., and San Francisco.
But what appeared on the surface as a way to help black borrowers build wealth was actually just the opposite, according to a little-noticed explanation of the “Wealth Building” seminar strategy, contained in a lawsuit recently filed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
Wells’ plan for the seminars all along was to target black borrowers for higher-cost subprime mortgages, not for wealth-building, the suit charged. And the seminars were a part of the bank’s overall illegal and discriminatory practice of steering black and Hispanic borrowers into riskier and more expensive loans, the suit said.
“According to a former Wells Fargo Home Mortgage employee, one of these ‘Wealth Building’ seminars held in Maryland was planned for an audience that would be virtually all African American,” the suit said. “The plan for the seminar was for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage employees to talk about subprime mortgages, although they were directed by Wells Fargo Home Mortgage to use the term ‘alternative lending’ when marketing these products.”
The former employee, who is white, was scheduled to speak at the seminar, but was told by a manager that she was “too white,” and that only black employees could make presentations, the suit said.
Wells Fargo, one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders and a recipient of $25 billion in government bailout money, has denied all the charges in the Illinois suit, as well as other allegations of unfair lending. The bank did not respond to requests for comment on the seminars. Smiley, an author and advocate who hosts the late night talk show, “Tavis Smiley,” and who organizes the State of the Black Union symposiums each year, also declined comment.
Corbett pointed out that Wells’ outreach to the minority community through the seminars wasn’t unusual. Lenders sponsoring financial literacy sessions, holding wealth building seminars, or contributing to local minority advocacy organizations, became a common marketing strategy as the subprime market grew. Some of the efforts were genuine, aimed at finding new customers in minority neighborhoods once deprived of credit. But sometimes they were used instead as a cover to push predatory loans, Corbett said.
“The wealth building seminars are certainly needed,” Corbett said. “But, if, in fact, Wells was selling bad products out of them, it was totally wrong.”
Boston, for his part, described himself as the small player in the seminars, giving an opening talk before Smiley went on. Boston said he spoke in general terms about the need to save money and to invest. Neither he nor Smiley ever mentioned or discussed subprime loans, he said.
“Basically we were just speakers for hire,” Boston said. “We didn’t have any role or any control over what else happened. The main point is that we were not involved in any of their discussions or in anything they sold.”
Corbett said that after the speakers finished, bank employees and other financial experts were offering credit checks, real estate counseling, and other kinds of assistance. Corbett said he also believes some employees were signing up people for loan pre-approvals, on the spot, though he couldn’t be sure of what kind of loans they were. He said attendees lined up to talk to the Wells employees in both events. “If they weren’t actually selling loans, they were setting up borrowers for the kill,” Corbett said.
Once their speeches were over, however, Boston said he and Smiley had nothing to do with the workshops and counseling. He said he and Smiley together did about 15 seminars over a period of about two years. He declined to comment on how much he or Smiley were paid.
In 2005, before the subprime crisis, Boston said, the main worry in the black community over mortgage lending was the banks were lagging behind in their lending to minority neighborhoods. He said expressed his concerns about this to Wells Fargo. Smiley, he said, also later raised questions about subprime lending tactics with the bank. “Tavis definitely had some dealings with them on this issue,” Boston said.
Nonetheless, in hindsight and with the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, Boston said he has second thoughts about participating in the seminars.
“Were we probably used? We probably were,” he said. “If I had the chance to do it over again, would I do it in a different manner? Probably.”
“You look back now and you feel for the homeowner who could have qualified for a better mortgage and got the costly type of mortgage. That concerns me a lot, not just for Wells Fargo, but for everybody out there, Citigroup, Countrywide … they were all doing the same events.”
But at the time, Boston said, having a major bank doing outreach in the black community was considered an encouraging development, after so many years of redlining and restricted access to credit. “We all thought at the time that we were doing a positive thing,” he said.
Boston said he quit doing the seminars after his contract ended two years ago. Smiley, he said, continued to work with Wells Fargo, particularly on his annual State of the Black Union symposiums. On his Website, Smiley recently posted a statement regarding Wells Fargo that said, “in this economic climate, we continue to be reminded every day that there is no perfect company.”
Smiley said in the statement that his relationship with Wells began in 2005, as part of the bank’s “commitment to increase financial literacy in the African American community.” He said that “the partnership with Wells Fargo focused on building personal wealth, which for most Americans begins with buying a house.”
According to the statement, Smiley also has had partnerships with other companies, but has never served as a spokesperson or representative for any of them, including Wells Fargo. The statement also said Wells Fargo will no longer be one of the sponsors of his Black State of the Union event in 2010, although the bank sponsored the event as recently as last spring.
“Given the fact that Wells Fargo has been an industry leader, they have partnered with many African American and Latino national civil rights organizations on various community initiatives,” the statement said.
The Illinois lawsuit against Wells is one of many such actions winding their way through the court system around the country, offering more details of alleged discriminatory tactics by lenders during the height of the subprime boom. As TWI reported last week, housing advocates call these lawsuits the “smoking guns” of the housing crisis, providing what they see as proof that lenders deliberately targeted minorities for high-rate and risky subprime mortgages, while white borrowers with similar incomes and credit scores received lower-cost loans.
In a city of Baltimore lawsuit against Wells, former employees charged that Wells Fargo loan officers referred to minority borrowers as “mud people” and called subprime mortgages “ghetto loans.” But some prominent black bloggers find the “wealth building” seminars just as egregious, and question why Smiley, Boston, and anyone else who participated in them hasn’t been called on further to account for their actions.
“If Tavis Smiley was white, Wells Fargo and ‘Ghetto Loans’ would be front page news,” wrote Genma Stringer Holmes, a Nashville, Tenn., business owner and blogger who has blasted out several posts on the seminars.
Holmes said Smiley should speak out more against discriminatory subprime lending practices – but he hasn’t been forced to, because the black media has been silent on the issue, she said. The scandal that remains is that the ads and seminars targeted the most vulnerable members of black community, according to Holmes. “People who follow Tavis will follow him off a cliff,” Holmes said.
Boston said he still does seminars and presentations pushing wealth building, but he focuses on avoiding foreclosures and helping with loan modifications. He recently wrapped up work on an upcoming show on helping homeowners facing foreclosures, he said.
http://washingtonindependent.com/59633/suit-alleges-trusted-black-figures-drew-minorities-to-high-rate-loans
I think the “Black” vote was divided on the gay marriage issues. Quite a few vowed to stay home or vote for the other guy because of that.
@Eric Wattree…. thank you for the information! Much appreciated!