Elizabeth Warren's Unifying Narrative on Race

[crazytown]

Last edited Wed May 8, 2019, 02:30 PM - Edit history (1)

American Prospect, May 7, 2019
https://prospect.org/article/elizabeth-warrens-unifying-race-narrative

Elizabeth Warren’s Unifying Narrative Race Narritive

snip Warren: In Trump’s story, the reason why working families keep getting the short end of the stick isn’t because of the decisions he and his pals are making in Washington every day. No, according to Trump, the problem is other working people, people who are black, or brown, people born somewhere else …

It all adds up to the same thing—the politics of division. They want us pointing fingers at each other so that we won’t notice that their hands are in our pockets. That stops here. That stops now. We say, no, you will not divide us.

snip Warren: During the 1960s, redlining was banned. And over the next 25 years or so, black families started building more wealth. The black-white wealth gap began to shrink. And that might have been the end of the story.

In the 1990s, as more black families were buying homes and building wealth, big banks and sleazy mortgage lenders saw an opportunity. They targeted communities of color for the worst of the worst mortgages. And bank regulators, the guys who are supposed to work for the American people, looked the other way. The results were catastrophic. Black homeownership rates are now lower than they were when housing discrimination was legal. Today, the black-white wealth gap is bigger than it was back in the 1960s

snip Warren: Ultimately subprime mortgages spread far beyond communities of color, and it eventually wrecked our economy. During the crash of 2008, millions of people—black, white, Latino, and Asian—lost their homes. Millions lost their jobs. Millions lost their savings—millions, tens of millions, but not the people at the top. The bank CEOs just kept raking in the money.

Two sets of rules: one for the wealthy and the well connected. And one for everybody else. Two sets of rules: one for white families. And one for everybody else. That’s how a rigged system works. And that’s what we need to change.

So this brings me back to you. Everyone will tell you to work hard. Teachers. Parents. Coaches. And I agree. Under the rules of commencement speakers I am required to say, “Work hard.” And you should.

But I’m here with a bolder message: It’s time to change the rules. Let me say that again for those in the back. Change. The. Rules.

[underthematrix]

1. Sen Warren is out here giving history lessons.

She's my number two pick.

[crazytown]

3. Her speeches are improving by the month

Last edited Tue May 7, 2019, 07:30 PM - Edit history (1)

At the SEIU:CAP corforum she had then laughing, cheering, eating out of her hands.

[underthematrix]

6. I always thought she was impressive. I love her #JustTwoCents tax policy

[crazytown]

9. It's really not that much

A billionaire would pay ~ $20 million

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

7. Elizabeth nails it AGAIN!! She's also MY #2... guessing a lot of others too.

Imagine if we ALL came together to support our #2 Elizabeth, the smartest, most qualified policy wonk to come along in a long time... she would breeze to the nomination!!


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Sherman A1]

2. I'm happy she has stated this

It’s always been about keeping the masses at each other’s throats so that the monied interests can laugh all the way to the bank.

[BeckyDem]

4. +1.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

8. So freakin' true!!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[philly_bob]

5. Many foreclosed homes were "land contracts"

I'm no real estate expert, but my family which has owned homes for three generations would not have allowed me to buy a home on a land contract. That kind of family know-how is an example of uncounted white privilege -- and I acknowledge it.

I think with a land contract, if you miss one payment, you can lose everything.

Good going, Prof. Warren.

[emmaverybo]

10. Love her, but why can't White people let Black people

Do the talking? Obama delivered an eloquent speech on race.
How many times do I see that speech given any due?
The thing about race that White people fail to understand is that Black people are not some group-think, monolithic political or social force just waiting for White people to call out White people so they can get on with their lives and honor their ancestor’s and their own role in American history, in the unfolding of America today.
You get down to it and most Black people, POC’s, African-Americans do not need much more than to be recognized as Americans, fully capable of individually identifying themselves as they please, aware of their heritage, in no need of White calling out the obvious, and as voters, not some pawns
in a guessing game about how they vote, who they will or will not support.
Flash news!! Some black people are Republicans. Most are not progressives in favor of allowing prisoners to vote. Many are not supportive of a more progressive social agenda and like all Americans, just getting used to the nomenclature—cis, bi, non binary etc.
Please White people, stop trying to make Black Americans over in your own image of America, political and social and cultural wish lists.
Why, surprisingly, are not more black voters, including women, supporting Sanders, Warren, et al?
Cause they try too hard.
Being authentic, including owning your own ethnicity, race, place where you came from, will get you more brownie points from members of traditionally disenfranchised groups than all the bending over backwards will ever do.

[athena]

12. It's up to white people to end racism.

If Black people could do it on their own, they would have ended it already. That was said, by the way, by Ben Jealous, a Black leader. (I’m paraphrasing, since I didn’t write down the exact words at the time.)

If white people are criticized for defending the concerns of black people, racism will never end. It’s pretty disingenuous, and grasping at straws, to criticize Elizabeth Warren for having such a good grasp of the systemic problems Black people face and for speaking out about it.

[emmaverybo]

15. It is up to all Americans to work together, with black Americans leading the discussion, the terms

of the fight, as in the civil rights movement.
I did not mean to criticize Warren in particular and do take your argument (and others here) to heart.
I agree that white people must own and address racism, within themselves, and the systems they have been dominant in creating.
But I also believe their efforts must be coordinated with black leaders in multiple fields and communities.

[appalachiablue]

11. Hispanics, black people, women and first time home owners

were targeted to attend 'wealth building' seminars put on by financiers who promoted home ownership, often with ARMs, Adjustable Rate Mortgages with introductory, lower adjustable rates (rather than safe 'fixed' rates) that would likely go up in cost and did. FRAUD.

Tell it Senator Warren!

[backtoblue]

13. Tell it!

Too much forgotten atrocities to let slip away...

[appalachiablue]

14. It was a huge racket that caused tremendous loss and pain.

The US hadn't had a major, Titanic financial crash like that since 1929, and as a result of that misery for decades American banks were safe, dull and uninvolved in high risk speculation/gambling. That is until the 1980s when regulations began to be lifted under Reagan (ie S & L Scandal fraud).

By the 2000s, everybody up the food chain was in on the Sub Prime (Hi Risk) Mortgage Bubble and Crash during the 'Aughts.

Whether enticed by fraud wealth seminars, or seeing all the new house building going on and new buyers, or the get rich quick ads and marketing everywhere to 'buy & sell properties-Ezee!' to entrap people, many enablers were involved- crooked realtors, home inspectors, and mortgage banks that approved loans to people with insufficient income and dodgy credit. It was devastating and widespread like Warren says.

After the initial crash in 2008, some area banks as I read, let distressed homeowners, particularly FINANCIALLY INEXPERIENCED individuals, like Hispanic loan holders, just turn in the property keys, rather than hold on to the place. The bank then took over the house, sold it and made a profit. Total scam...

[backtoblue]

16. Thank you

We've got to remind each other about these things. The news moves far too fast to remember some details of past atrocities.

Taking advantage of the poor and minorities is disgusting and tells so much about the people who came up with such a sick way to make money

[appalachiablue]

18. Well said. And the predators are always out there, so are the

vulnerable, an increasing number of them as conditions worsen for many people.

It's going to be a rough ride for a while so fasten your seat belts! Scammers proliferate in times of loose or non-existent regulation ('cops'), prowl more and make out in troubled times. So we need to remain vigilant if possible.

[crazytown]

17. What the likes of Countrywide did

was to the securitize subprime mortgages, Goldman Sachs sold them on to investors, then created derivates that brought in big bucks when the mortgages failed. As per internal memos, this was known as ‘fucking the muppets’.

Warren wanted the fraudsters in jail. AG Holder fined them.

[appalachiablue]

19. Securitized junk mortgages to gamble with was a large part of the scam.

Sell those mortgages, bundle them into securities,'MBS' to gamble with on WS. Then create more complex 'financial products' like CDO's- credit default swaps' (obligations) to insure the risky securities.

The racket included principals like Angelo Mozillo of Countrywide, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo, Goldman, Citigroup and many other banks and financial firms, even in Europe which profited from speculating on sub prime mortgages. Many knew it was a bubble, it was going to explode and it did.

This nightmare gave me a deeper appreciation of how my grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles survived other major US/world crises- WWI, the Spanish Flu of 1918-19, The 1929 Crash, The Great Depression, WWII and Korea. They were regular yet sturdy folks like many others.

In the 'Aughts, Regulator and lawyer Brooksley Born, Fed Chair of the CFTC tried to warn us about these dangerous new financial instruments. Yet her valid concerns were essentially dismissed by the denials of the Treasury/financiers Tim Geithner, Hank Paulson, Alan Greenspan, and Arthur Levitt.
- 'Effing Muppets,' low..Some Bankers claimed they were "correcting Redlining" & that it was all the government's fault.
--------------------------------------
- PSB Frontline 'The Warning' (2009) program covered the securities and commodities dangers detected by Born.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooksley_Born

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/





- 'The Big Short' (2015) Brad Pitt, Christian Bale focuses on speculation with securities, risky packaged mortgages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Short_(film)