Disturbing Article Raises Troubling Questions
As I was browsing the web for relevant information touching on the Latino community across the nation, I uncovered an interesting article from an Australian newspaper, named The Canberra Times. This article was so troubling, so bleak in its assessment of what is a potential danger for our community, that I felt it should go on the news link of this site so that our friends could read it for themselves. On top of that, I reacted so strongly to it that I felt compelled to add my own observations about the “potential danger” that the article points out.
I try never to operate from a basis of fear, which means that I don’t react to fear-based claims, nor do I incite others to action on the basis of fear, if I can help it. Having said that, the element of fear that is inherent in the Australian article is a fear that cannot be ignored or dismissed. In short, the article claims that according to history, times of great economic struggle often open the door to polarizing struggles across national, class, religious and racial lines.
According to the writer of the article, history shows that people cling to these lines as they search for something, or some group, to blame for hard times. In post Depression Germany, the problem ultimately became the Jewish people, for example. It’s a far stretch to compare Nazi Germany’s reaction to the way the United States is reacting to the current situation. However, there is a degree of concern in the story that cannot be ignored. As the article further points out, many talking heads on and in mainstream media have been given the opportunity to proclaim that the reason the housing market is falling apart is because of low income blacks and illegal immigrants, particularly Latinos.
The article quotes these talking heads–for example; a writer in The National Review blames the greed of Hispanics for the sub prime loan debacle. Wow! Really??!! Another talking head on Fox News blames minorities for the sub prime disaster. What?
The article goes on to point out that these talking heads create claims that avoid speaking about the real issues behind the economic situation, namely the greed of the rich and powerful, and instead create fear of and anger toward targeted groups that serve as easy scapegoats. And, the article states, in the current United States situation, low-income and/or illegal minorities are the perfect scapegoat. We, Latinos, become the reason why the economic crisis is happening, and unfortunately for us, our neighbors believe it.
As a housing advocate in my role as the director of Puentes, I have been in meetings where this has been discussed. I can tell you that housing advocates across the nation agree, the blame for the sub prime loan debacle does not belong at the feet of minority or low-income home buyers. The truth is, the majority of homeowners who found themselves stuck with a sub prime loan were and are middle-class Americans of all ethnicities. There is no disproportionate number of minorities who hold sub prime loans.
Even so, regardless of who holds the loans, the fault doesn’t necessarily remain in the purchaser’s hands. A good deal of fault in this issue can easily be placed in the laps of lenders and mortgage brokers who utilized questionable ethical business practices in pushing buyers into risky loans. Even the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation understands this, having come out earlier this week to criticize the bail out plain in public. The FDIC’s concern for the consumer is real. Consumers are often the victims of greed, but it’s not consumer greed-rather, it’s corporate greed. Misinformation thrives on unsuspecting buyers who end up with a mortgage they can’t afford and a house that is overvalued. We would all like to believe that we cannot be suckered into a bad deal, and maybe there are a few of us out there who are always vigilant. I think, however, that even the best of us sometimes end up in situations that we did not foresee fully.
So to have so-called experts and leaders publicly blame one minority group as the reason for this economic turmoil does ring a bit like history. And as the article points out, if history is to be a lesson at all, it will fall upon us all to not be swayed by these fear-based claims and realize that the very people who are being bailed out on Wall Street share a large portion of the blame for our economic debacle and not, as some would like us to believe, the minority groups who found themselves losing homes that had rising mortgage payments and decreasing appraisal values.
We have a lot to fear in our daily experiences that we must confront and deal with if we are to have successful, frutiful lives. Fearing that we are going to hit the bottom of the economic tank because an inordinate amount of Latinos and Blacks hold sub prime loans is simply untrue. To believe otherwise means that society is falling trap to the fear-based FALSE claims that are cast out in order to hide the true issues and the true problems happening around us. I only hope that we have matured enough in our humanity to understand this so that our way out is solutions-based for all and not devisive and fear-based, as some among us would have it.
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