An Open Letter to Members of the Congressional Black Caucus on the Bail Out

By John Burl Smith

Honorable Madams and Sirs,

      We have entered treacherous times not only for us as a people but as a

nation.  As in times past, our role will prove crucial.   Unfortunately,

once this crisis passes, this ungrateful nation will again overlook our contribution.

America threw open her doors to all that came, but we were kidnapped.

Brought here in chains, we were forced to work as slaves building the wealth for this economy that we are now being asked to help save.

      For the sake of unity, our humanity was sacrificed by the Founding Fathers in writing of the United States Constitution, which codified

slavery by making blacks 3/5 of white men.   This stigma remains a part

of the Constitution, the law of the land, because it was not repealed by either the 13th, 14th or 15th Amendment; our freedom remains conditional.

 Following Emancipation and the Civil War, blacks, who had suffered 146 years of bond slavery, were simply turned loose to fend for themselves.

The vast majority was penniless, without education or skills and only the promise of forty acres and a mule; still, they had to compete against the same white men they made rich with their free labor.

      Besieged by Jim Crow segregation for seventy years, our ancestors were legally held in place by the 3/5 Compromise second class citizenship which was reaffirmed by Plessy v Ferguson (separate but equal) until Brown v Board of Education (1954).  Even this did not stay our 3/5 Compromise second class status, as federal and state governments fought to maintain segregation.  Only the Memphis sanitation strike, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the cry of black power gave America pause.  Relenting only slightly, whites made cosmetic changes, taking down black and white signs but holding fast to discrimination, racism and the hostile environment long endured by black Americans.

      Today, adding insult to injury, newly arriving foreigners to America are given total constitutional protection, while everyone from the President on down still insist regarding blacks, “We still have a long way to go.”

Why is that?  What is there left for blacks to prove?  We have fought and died in every war and conflict in which this nation has engaged since the American Revolution.  We have paid taxes even though we are denied equal access to the institutions our tax dollars helped build.

      Now, we come to another crucial turning point in this nation’s history and we are being asked once again to stand by America, yet America has never stood by us.  The banks we are being asked to save abandoned the black community during the 1970s and 80s.  They redlined the inner city and refused to make loans or investments.  These same financial institutions closed their doors to slave descendants and took reprisals against those businesses that tried to stick it out in the face of economic exploitation.  These financial institutions, including insurance companies, levied a ghetto tax on the backs of blacks, forcing us to resort to subprime markets for loans to purchase homes, cars and other consumer products based solely on the color of our skin.  By forcing blacks to pay more for everything, these vultures drained the black community of what little wealth its residents might have amassed.

      Black businesses were driven under because they were refused financial help by these same banks.  Look at the ownership of businesses, such as gas stations, convenience stores and taxis.  At one time, blacks owned gas stations, convenience stores and drove cabs.  Now, these enterprises are all owned and operated by people from foreign countries or corporations.  Someone made those decisions.  Why should slave descendants help save an economy in which they are relegated to the very bottom and foreigners are brought in and given a higher status?

      Madams and Sirs, this time it is up to you to make a difference.  If we are going to help bail out Wall Street, then Wall Street must pledge to help bail out slave descendants, not minorities, because we were shafted by that with affirmative action.  Our price for signing onto this massive bail out proposal must entail putting the needs of slave descendants back on America’s agenda.  If the country is going to spend a trillion dollars saving private businesses, those private businesses must pledge to break down racial barriers and go far beyond tokenism.  They must pledge to do substantial community service and development that reconstruct hard hit poverty areas in the black community.

      Marginalized, slave descendants have been pushed to the back of the bus on every issue in America.  The US government must recommit itself to fighting racial discrimination, disparate treatment, and the hostile work environment slave descendants endure.  Educational institutions must begin to make meaningful efforts to recruit, retain and promote slave descendants as professors and graduate students.  Professional schools, foundations and think tanks must lead the fight to end white legacy policies in all American institutions.  White only or the token black in newsrooms, whether broadcast or print, must end and serve as an example of what the future will look like if this bail out is to help this nation break with its racist past and become a better place.

      I will never forget that day following the Election of 2000 when the gentle ladies of the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Maxine Waters and Rep. Alcee Hastings, challenged the nation in the Senate to live up to its creed of freedom, justice and equality, and the nation, in the person of the US Senate, refused to count black people’s votes.

      Now, black people count because your votes will determine whether or not there is a bail out.  The votes of the Congressional Black Caucus are the most powerful instrument for change slave descendants have ever wielded.

What will our grandchildren and great grandchildren say about us when they speak of this time?  There have been other times when a few have had to stand up and face the fire for many.  This is your time.  We, as a people, will be judged by what you do with this opportunity.  As in 2000 the question is unity not numbers.  If you do not stand together for us, no one will.

      Remember, God had to bring Pharaoh to his knees before he freed his Israelite slaves.  Will it be any different for slave descendants in America?  No!

Respectfully,

John Burl Smith

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080924/us_nm/us_usa_economy_creditcards_1;_ylt=AsxGDqBIk401BkVVktZZiRkb.3QA

Credit card insiders tell of deceptive practices

By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa

Reuters

Wednesday, 24 September, 2008

Two former employees of credit card issuer MBNA, now owned by Bank of America, said on Wednesday they were forced to use aggressive and deceptive practices with customers in order to boost revenues.

Cate Colombo, from Maine, said she signed up for a customer service job but was instead instructed to make insistent sales pitches aimed at getting MBNA customers deeper into debt.

"I was hired to sell money," she said on a conference call organized by Americans for Fairness in Lending, an advocacy group. "We had a goal of selling $25,000 an hour, $4 million per month. And I was one employee among hundreds, just at this one site."

To meet these goals, Colombo said she was told to turn every regular call from a customer into a sales call. She would do this by running the customer's name through the computer and finding out every possible line of credit they had ever obtained through MBNA.

She would then total the amount of credit outstanding and offer it to the customer as a blank check. MBNA was a bit lighter on disclosure details, such as telling customers that taking on more debt would reduce the borrower's credit score and thereby boost their outstanding interest rates.

"If we didn't attempt to max out, we were considered insubordinate," said Colombo.

In July, a U.S. House of Representatives committee passed legislation aimed at curbing credit card billing practices that surprise borrowers with unexpected interest rate increases.

It is unclear if credit card legislation will make it through Congress this year with the legislative session shortened by November elections.

Consumer indebtedness is a major problem in the United States, one that is becoming worse amid a financial crisis that threatens the economy with a recession. Americans had $969.9 million in outstanding credit card debt as of July, according to Federal Reserve data.

A spokeswoman for Bank of America said the bank does not seek to extend credit to customers who cannot pay.

"We don't comment on allegations of former employees, but I can tell you that the allegations cited do not reflect our practices," said Betty Riess, a spokesperson for Bank of America. "Bank of America has nothing to gain by extending credit to people who do not have the ability to pay us back."

"By the way, if you're talking about former MBNA employees, their employment would date back many years ago prior to the merger with Bank of America," Riess said.

Bank of America completed its purchase of MBNA in January 2006.

Colombo said in one instance she was disciplined for not being aggressive enough in "pushing product" to a 90-year-old man who could barely hear over the phone.

Jerry Young, another MBNA rep, said he was asked to intensely target customers in such a way as to leave them little choice but to stretch their finances, to the company's profit.

Travis Plunkett, legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America, said the behavior continues at Bank of America but current employees are too frightened to speak out on the record.

"We can assure you that these same practices are being done up to the present at Bank of America," said Plunkett.

Colombo said another tactic employed by MBNA was to hide the existence of the Soldiers and Sailors Act, which gives spouses of troops on active military duty the right to a lower interest rate.

"We were not allowed to offer that information to them," the former service representative said.