The shooting of a black unarmed teen by an armed Hispanic man has caused an uproar in the US. By all accounts, this was a man who felt threatened by a young man in a hoodie who was black.
This is only one example of prejudice that thrives in the country. During the mortgage meltdown debacle, many persons of color were charged higher loan fees than white borrowers. Countrywide especially behaved badly. Well over half of the African-American and Hispanic loan applicants to Countrywide had to pay higher notes. This despite being fully qualified on the same level as the white borrowers. Yet what was true at Countrywide was true also with many other banks. Racial profiling continues to keep deserving, qualified persons of color from home ownership by jacking up the costs.When justice prevails, all qualified persons regardless of color will be charged the same for a home.
A recent postscript to this injustice was issued by, appropriately, the Justice Department which fined Bank of America $ 335 million as the now-owner of Countrywide. The money is to be paid to African American and Hispanic borrowers who paid more than their white counterparts. I applaud the department for stepping in to bring some right into a wrong. Was the amount adequate to enable the victims to buy the house that eluded them? Probably not, yet some measure of justice was accomplished.Will we see the end of racial profiling soon ? Probably not. But we must work for justice no matter how elusive it is.
What do you think?
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