How many young black men will stay in school because Obama did? Howmany will bury their noses in homework because Obama did? How manywon’t be ashamed to be seen with a book under their arms because Obamawasn’t?**
If the election of Barack Obama — a47-year-old black man with a political resume as ephemeral as a Metspennant drive and a governing philosophy as dubious as Paris Hilton’schoice of boyfriends — accomplishes nothing else, it should illustratethe peculiar distorting effect on American society of white liberalguilt.
The final nail in the coffin of John McCain’s presidential candidacy,it now seems clear, was the fact that the American economy tanked inthe months before the election. Fairly nor not, voters blame suchdownturns on the incumbent party. Whatever caused the current fiscalcrisis, therefore, must be considered a prime factor in McCain’sdefeat. The seeds of the crisis date back the Community ReinvestmentAct of 1977 — which initiated a concerted, decades-long effort by thefederal government to coerce banks into making loans to lower-incomeborrowers.
The sentiment was noble, albeit rooted in adesperate race consciousness: If more black families owned their homes,the theory went, they’d accumulate wealth as the properties increasedin value. They would pass that wealth down to their children, and thefinancial inequalities stemming from America’s sordid racial past wouldgradually diminish.
The problem, of course, is thatmathematical probabilities don’t bend to noble sentiments. The reasonbanks weren’t lending to black borrowers as frequently, or on as goodof terms, as to white borrowers, had nothing to do with racism. It hadto do with risk analysis. Writing loans to lower-income,lower-collateral borrowers means more defaults.
With the riseof subprime lending, lenders were able to make up for the increasedrisk by charging higher interest rates. To further mitigate the risk,lenders sought to reformulate and repackage the riskier loans, sharetheir exposure, and tap into other sources of revenue. Congress pavedthe way with various forms of deregulation. The price of real estatesoared because of new demand from those who’d otherwise have beenunable to buy a house; speculators naturally moved in, because thereseemed no way to lose; and then, well, here we are. In a mortgagemeltdown, with grotesque foreclosure rates, on the precipice of a deepglobal recession and credit crunch, because sooner or latermathematical probabilities have their way.
Ironies abound. Themost bitter is that a disproportionate number of foreclosures haveaffected black homeowners, because they were riskier buyers to beginwith. But the most profound is that the fiscal crisis precipitateddecades ago by the Community Reinvestment Act has contributeddecisively to the election of the first black president, Barack Obama.
**This piece does not address much in the way of Barack Obama’s covert socialist ideology. Though it ends on a positive note, it is our additional hope that blacks who take some kind of inspiration from Barack Obama will inculcate the kind black self preservation that is less race hustling and more race reclusive. — Ed