Page 6
March 9, 2016
O PINION
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Making Me Proud of the Skin I’m In
My Black History
Month story
by a aliyah
J osePh
To be black is to be
powerful. To be a black
woman means to be
strong. To be black and a
woman means I am resil-
ient. To be black is to be me; black is
who I am.
When I was young, I challenged a
fear of my skin color. As I got older, I
began working through my challenges
and began to see who I was and how
strong I truly am.
My misunderstanding to all things
race-related started when I was young
and innocent. I grew up in north Port-
land, lived on Mississippi Street, and
was surrounded by people who looked
like me, spoke like me, acted like
me, and were young and innocent
like me. I had no clue that because
of what color I am, that my moth-
er, father, brothers, and ancestors
had suffered some of the same
challenges. My biggest fear once
I got into the seventh grade was
the color of my skin, a deep and dark
chocolate sunkissed. A different shade
of brown, yet similar to the browns
around me.
I asked myself: What makes me dif-
ferent? Why do I look at myself dif-
ferently when I am around the people
who too look like me? Has it always
been this way?
My friends and family surrounding
me were telling me “Aaliyah you are
and always will be loved. You are a
part of us and will always be a part
of us.”
My family and friends showed me
their love by helping me up whenever
I fell down. I slowly began to love my-
self and understand that I am someone
with feelings, aspirations, and desires
like everyone else. I began saving me
from myself and making me proud of
the skin I’m in.
Now three years later I am in the
10th grade and a sophomore at De
La Salle North Catholic High School.
Still I am surrounded by people who
look like me. People that are browns,
chocolates, and caramels. People that
talk and help one another up. People
who act, knowing that we are all one
group one community, trying to make
it together in a hard world.
I have overcome my fear of my
darker skin. Learning that regardless
of what I look like I will have people
who love me for me. Yet every so of-
ten I am reflective on what it is like
growing up as a young black woman
in Portland, Oregon.
Having new friends, and loving
what and who I am have helped me
succeed and overcome my fears. Even
though, every once in awhile, I will
have my doubts that I too am beauti-
ful, I still learned that no matter how
far I seem to slip, my friends and fam-
ily are there and pick me up.
Aaliyah Joseph is a sophomore stu-
dent at De La Salle North Catholic
High School.
Cracking Down on Abusive Debt Collectors
Regulators
can stop this
national crisis
l ee a nn h all
Have you ever
picked up your
phone to find an
aggressive voice on
the other end de-
manding payments
on a debt you know nothing
about? You’re far from alone.
Once you’re in the sights of
a debt collector, the impact on
your life can be devastating:
Your wages can be garnished
and your credit ruined. You
might lose your driver’s li-
cense, or even your job.
And it could happen over a
debt you don’t even owe.
In a recent analysis of 75,000
complaints about debt collec-
tion practices submitted to the
Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau — just a sample of the
total number — this was the
most common complaint by
far. Over 40 percent of people
being harassed by collectors
said they didn’t owe the debt in
the first place.
Other complaints charged
that the collectors made false
statements or threats to coerce
people to pay.
The government created the
Consumer Financial Protection
by
Bureau — or CFPB ¬— to ad-
dress abusive financial prac-
tices after the 2008 financial
crash. This year, the bureau is
considering strengthening rules
to protect consumers from de-
ceptive and aggressive
collection practices.
Abusive
collec-
tion tactics impact
people with all kinds
of debt — including
credit card debt, med-
abusive tactics.
When my organization, the
Alliance for a Just Society,
analyzed the complaints for
our new report — Unfair, De-
ceptive, & Abusive: Debt Col-
lectors Profit from Aggressive
Tactics — we tallied the com-
plaints in the database and built
a list of the 15 companies with
the most complaints.
The list is topped by
heavy-hitting debt buyers like
About 77 million people — or 35
percent of adults in the United States
with a credit file — have a report of
debt in collections. That alone makes
a compelling case for the bureau to
crack down on abusive tactics.
ical debt, payday loans, stu-
dent loans, mortgages, and
automobile loans. Collectors
often strike when people are
most vulnerable, such as when
they’re recovering from illness
or desperately seeking work.
They aggressively target the
poor, immigrants, and people
of color.
About 77 million people — or
35 percent of adults in the United
States with a credit file — have a
report of debt in collections. That
alone makes a compelling case
for the bureau to crack down on
Encore Capital Group and PRA
Group, whose business models
hinge on buying portfolios of
consumer debts for pennies on
the dollar and then wringing
payments out of alleged debt-
ors. Both of these companies
more than doubled their profits
from 2010 to 2014.
Major student loan servicer
Navient (formerly Sallie Mae)
also makes the top 15 list for
complaints about its debt col-
lection tactics.
But it’s particularly worth
noting that six out of the top 15
offenders on this list are orig-
inal creditors, not third-party
collectors. They include Citi-
bank, JPMorgan Chase, Cap-
ital One, Wells Fargo, Bank
of America, and Synchrony
Financial (the largest issuer of
private label credit cards).
This is important, because
the primary protection most
consumers have against unfair
collection tactics — the federal
Fair Debt Collection Practices
Act — applies only to third par-
ties, not original creditors. This
is a troubling double standard.
The new rules must also to
apply to the original creditors
— including payday lenders,
credit card companies, and big
banks — along with third-party
collectors and debt buyers.
The rules should limit phone
calls to prevent harassment
and require collectors to have
complete documentation be-
fore attempting to collect. The
rules should prohibit selling,
purchasing, and attempting to
collect old, paid, or expired
“zombie” debt.
Finally, the bureau should
toughen the penalties for col-
lectors breaking the rules.
Living with debt isn’t a per-
sonal failing — it’s a nation-
al crisis. The bureau needs to
stand up for everyday people
and put a stop to abusive col-
lection tactics.
LeeAnn Hall is the executive
director of Alliance for a Just
Society. Distributed by Other-
Words.org.
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