BLACK PERSPECTIVE
We Still Have a Ways to Go
By Charles E. Lewis, Jr., Ph.D.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
  
The fact that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is the odds-on favorite to make history by securing the Democratic Party’s nomination for president of the United States provides evidence that the United States has made significant strides in overcoming its history of slavery and racial discrimination.  

Should Obama ascend to the White House, many will celebrate his presidency as the sign of a new post-racial era in America and reason to abandon laws and regulations that protect the interests of minorities. Some—like scholars Thomas Sowell and Shelby Steele and anti-affirmative action activist Ward Connerly—believe race-based policies are counterproductive and work to divide Americans along racial lines.

Those who oppose affirmative action believe race-based policies do little to address historical wrongs, create unfair preferences for middle-class and affluent Blacks, and cast dispersion on the abilities of Black people to achieve progress through hard work and merit.  They believe the focus should be on addressing class differences rather than racial differences.  But then along comes the subprime housing crisis to blow holes in arguments that we can do away with laws and regulations that address the racial injustice that has been institutionalized in many areas of American society.

Ironically, the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on April 11, 1968 provides the relevant backdrop to reflect on how much progress has—or has not—been made in equalizing opportunities for Black Americans.  Also known as Title VIII of the 1968 Civil Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act “prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of dwellings, and in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status” and disability.
Although we have witnessed some integrating of neighborhoods—some Black neighborhoods such as Southeast Washington, D.C. and Harlem in New York City are experiencing greater influxes of White residents and more affluent Blacks are moving into predominantly White areas that were traditionally inaccessible, by and large, American neighborhoods remain homogeneous. People tend to surround themselves with people like them. Americans treasure our freedom of association and we don’t like the government telling us who we have to party with.

However, the operative word is “fair.”  Everyone should get a fair opportunity to educate themselves, earn a decent living and live in decent housing. When the system is rigged to favor Whites or discriminate against Blacks and Latinos, then the government has an obligation to protect the rights of the aggrieved. There is indisputable evidence that subprime lenders have targeted Black Americans as victims of their predatory lending practices, yet the Department Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Justice have abrogated their responsibility to hold the predators accountable.

The National Fair Housing Alliance blames the lack of federal oversight of mortgage lenders and brokers for the current foreclosure crisis, stating that the Bush administration has not been diligent in enforcing fair housing laws despite the record number of complaints it received in 2006.  The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has filed a class action suit against 14 mortgage lenders citing a National Community Reinvestment Coalition study that found that lenders made high-cost subprime loans to higher-qualified Blacks 54 percent of the time, compared to 23 percent of the time for Whites, even when they were less qualified.

What little progress African Americans were making in closing the homeownership gap with Whites has been reversed.  Overall, 68.1 percent of all Americans owned homes in 2007, slightly below the peak of 69.2 in 2004.  Black homeownership peaked at 49.1 percent in 2004 and dropped to 47.2 in 2007 compared to 75.2 percent for Whites in 2007, down slightly from 76.1 percent in 2004.  Homeownership is critical to wealth generation.  The gap between African Americans and Whites remain huge. The median net worth for Black households in 2004 was $11,800 compared to $118,300 for White households.

In their report “Foreclosed: State of the Dream 2008,” the organization United for a Fair Economy, estimates a net loss of 164 to 213 billion dollars in wealth for people of color during the past eight years because of foreclosures due to predatory subprime lending.  It is estimated that African Americans will have lost between 71 and 92 billions dollars in net worth.  While we can all bask in pride in Senator Barack Obama’s historic rise to the top of national politics, we can’t lose sight of the bigger picture.