I had a neat little exchange with a racist on reddit. Of course I'm not stoked on the fact that this is a thing, but I am stoked on raising awareness and the fact that most people were in agreement in the thread, which is outside of the norm of reddit. There was a post about how in 2005, Wells Fargo started a program to educate black communities on building "generational wealth." This program turned out to be a front for steering black people into predatory loans. WF paid damages, but not before hundreds of houses were foreclosed. This is a quote from the linked article:
According to The New York Times, affidavits found loan officers referring to their black customers as “mud people” and to their subprime products as “ghetto loans.”
“We just went right after them,” Beth Jacobson, a former Wells Fargo loan officer, told The Times. “Wells Fargo mortgage had an emerging-markets unit that specifically targeted black churches because it figured church leaders had a lot of influence and could convince congregants to take out subprime loans.”
In 2011, Bank of America agreed to pay $355 million to settle charges of discrimination against its Countrywide unit. The following year, Wells Fargo settled its discrimination suit for more than $175 million. But the damage had been done. In 2009, half the properties in Baltimore whose owners had been granted loans by Wells Fargo between 2005 and 2008 were vacant; 71 percent of these properties were in predominantly black neighborhoods.
A poster makes this sarcastic comment underlying his frustration with popular ignorant opinion: "See, black people just need to get over slavery. The only thing holding them back is their own hip hop culture."
Racist responds with: "Are you the guy that brings up the holocaust every time something bad happens to a Jew?"
This is where I take over by saying: "I don't know, are you the guy that denies historical events and institutionalized discrimination influences modern culture?"
Racist: "Oh really? Please connect the dots between slavery in the 1800s and Wells Fargo fucking over poor people in the 2000s."
Me: "Are you serious? There's not really too many dots to connect here. The US has a pretty clear history of policies that have been destructive to the economic rise of black people. Discriminatory practices in jobs, housing, education, politics, and much more are pretty well documented and they have all contributed to the economic and cultural state of black people. They have fostered a state of lowered expectations and generational poverty. You know, the exact thing that WF claimed to try to combat in this criminal policy. That being so, they are an easier target than other groups for unscrupulous businesses to exploit. It is the reason why programs like this can exist."
Racist doesn't respond directly to me, but edits his comment with this addition: "EDIT: Below: People getting angry and saying the line is obvious and easy to draw, but nobody actually drawing the line. Just saved you all a few minutes."
Most people responded to the dude with comments similar to mine, so that's cool, but there were a couple idiots too. Good times.
Topic: Things You Are Stoked On But Not Stoked On (Read 846719 times)