African Americans are the most symbolic ethnic group I know. My people love symbolism. Churches, schools, businesses, organizations and sometimes families enjoy giving out trophies, plaques and certificates to people for any and every reason.
Elected officials are perhaps the kings and queens of symbolism, or the art or practice of using symbols especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible.
If a politician changes the name of a street or building, sponsors a resolution about you or your group or gives you a worthless certificate, our people may think that politician is all right.
The Negro leaders that you adore and believe in are talking a lot about a new voting rights bill, that will not stop voter suppression, election fraud and other crimes. They talk about defunding police department legislation that will do nothing about “qualified immunity” or stopping law enforcers from shooting Black kids playing in the park or firing a hail of bullets inside an innocent woman’s home and leaving her dead body on the floor for all to see, and they talk about making laws to prevent Presidential criminal behavior and misconduct like insider trading by members of Congress that seek to enrich themselves.
Symbolic bills sound good but they do little or nothing to significantly change your lives.
Well, The Gantt Report knows something that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Congress can do to improve the Black lives that T-shirts say matter quick, fast and in a hurry!
They can pass legislation to immediately address unfair and inappropriate banking policies and procedures that negatively impact Black, and other people of color, that deposit money into beast banks but can never get bank services and considerations that white people get.
You tell me, how Bruce and Becky that have minimum wage jobs, a 500 credit score and live in a trailer park can get a mortgage loan and a Black individual, or family, with a 700 credit score, an income of nearly $100,000 and has $25,000 in a bank savings account can’t dream of getting a mortgage loan.
Banks don’t reject you, refuse you or redline your community because of your geographical confines, they turn you down for bank loans because you’re Black!
A white person can file for bankruptcy today and three months later borrow a million dollars but a Black person can have one late rent or mortgage payment in five or ten years and can’t borrow a dime from any bank in town.
If banks are allowed to set up branches in Black neighborhoods where most of their depositors are African American, why can’t there be federal laws that require banks to lend to people of color in a percentage equal to the amount of money deposited by people of color?
The people that are gentrifying your neighborhood can’t move there without the loan assistance they get from beast banks. They can’t open coffee shops, gay bars and other businesses in Black neighborhoods without the bank financing they get and the funding that you don’t get!
Banks don’t have to do anything special for us, just give us equal banking opportunities. If we have money deposited in the bank, why can’t we borrow our own money?
If you don’t know, your bank information is supposed to be confidential but bankers meet regularly to discuss bank data for individuals and corporations.
If you hit the lottery, every bank in town will know where you deposit your millions. And, when you’re turned down for a loan, competing banks can easily become privy to that information too.
Biden, Harris and company can pass bank guarantee bank loans for qualified Black borrowers just like they guarantee loans to farmers, auto makers, airlines and even wall street bankers.
It’s all about the money. The idea of reparations sounds good but mortgage loans and business loans sound better to me.
Symbolic bills with cute titles will do far less than you think.
The President elect and his administration can help their Democratic voting Black base by making banking better for Black people and others with skin color.
Lucius is a contributing columnist to NNPA newspapers around the nation, and the author of “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” available on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.