Opinion
Obama Races from Issue of Race
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ERNIE F OSTER
Founder/Publisher
B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER
Executive Editor
T ED B ANKS
Advertising Manager
J ERRY F OSTER
Account Executive
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News Editor
H ELEN S ILVIS
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B RUCE P OINSETTE
Reporter
D AVID K IDD
Graphic Designer
M ONICA J. F OSTER
Seattle Office Coordinator
J ULIE K EEFE
S USAN F RIED
Photographers
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tion, published each Wednesday by
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415 N. Killingsworth St.,
P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228.
Telephone (503) 285-5555.
W
hen Barack Obama
accepted his party’s
presidential nomination
in Denver on August 28, 2008 –
the 45th anniversary of the March
on Washington where Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I
Have a Dream Speech” – excite-
ment filled the air.
Amid that jubilance, however, it
struck me as odd that Obama
failed to mention Dr. King by
name.
“.. And it is that promise that, 45
years ago today, brought Ameri-
cans from every corner of this land
to stand together on a Mall in
Washington, before Lincoln’s
Memorial, and hear a young
preacher from Georgia speak of
his dream,” Obama said at the
time.
Seconds later, he would add:
“’We cannot walk alone,’” the
preacher cried. And as we walk,
we must make the pledge that we
shall always march ahead. We can-
not turn back.”
When Obama was inaugurated
for the second time on Jan. 21, the
day we officially celebrated as the
King federal holiday, I knew – or
thought I knew – that President
Obama would not make that same
omission again.
I listened carefully as he
said: “We the people declare
today that the most evident of truth
that all of us are created equal – is
the star that guides us still; just as
it guided our forebears through
Seneca Falls and Selma and
Stonewall; just as it guided all
those men and women, sung and
unsung, who left footprints along
this great mall, to hear a preacher
say that we cannot walk alone; to
hear a King proclaim that our indi-
T HE C URRY
R EPORT
George E.
Curry
vidual freedom is inextricably
bound to the freedom of every soul
on Earth.”
Why couldn’t President Obama
utter Dr. King’s name on the day
he used the slain civil rights
leader’s Bible to be sworn in? On
King’s birthday, why couldn’t he
remarks by Rev. Jeremiah Wright,
his former pastor, he said in
Philadelphia: “But race is an issue
that I believe this nation cannot
afford to ignore right now.”
However, that’s exactly what he
has been doing.
Frederick C. Harris, director of
the Institute for Research in
African-American Studies at
Columbia University, noted, “…
as president, Mr. Obama has had
little to say on concerns specific to
blacks. His State of the Union
address in 2011 was the first by
any president since 1948 to not
mention poverty or the poor. The
political scientist Daniel Q.
To discuss race less than Lyndon
Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill
Clinton, all White southerners, should
be embarrassing to President Obama
be called more than just a preach-
er?
Even though Beyoncé lip-
synced the National Anthem on
Inauguration Day, she hasn’t been
accused of faking it when she
sings another song – “Say My
Name.”
If you ain’t running a game
Say my name, say my name
The problem is larger than the
failure to say Dr. King’s name.
The problem, according to
Michael Eric Dyson, is that, “This
president runs from race like a
Black man runs from a cop.”
When candidate Obama was
forced to address the issue of race
in the wake of controversial
Gillion found that Mr. Obama, in
his first two years in office, talked
about race less than any Demo-
cratic president had since 1961.
From racial profiling to mass
incarceration to affirmative action,
his comments have been sparse
and halting.”
Sure, he had a beer summit at the
White House with Harvard profes-
sor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the
White police officer who arrested
him in his own home. Obama said
the officer had “acted stupidly,”
but later softened his criticism.
The president also said, “If I had a
son, he’d look like Trayvon [Mar-
tin].”
Of course, the issue is not
whether Obama has a son who
looks like Trayvon Martin. What
is he going to do about people who
are treated like Trayvon?
To discuss race less than Lyndon
Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill
Clinton, all White southerners
who grew up under segregation,
should be embarrassing to Presi-
dent Obama. It should be even
more of an embarrassment that
Obama hasn’t taken leadership on
the issue as Bill Clinton did when
he launched his “One America Ini-
tiative” on race. Putting aside the
merits of the initiative, it demon-
strated Clinton was willing to con-
front the issue of race.
As my friend Courtland Milloy
wrote in the Washington Post, it’s
time to stop making excuses for
Obama.
Unfortunately, some of the most
vocal Black leaders have either
been co-opted by the White House
or fear a backlash from adoring
Black voters.
The usually outspoken Rep.
Maxine Waters [D-Calif.] told a
crowd in Detroit, “If we go after
the president too hard, you’re
going after us.”
And former Congressional
Black Caucus Chairman Emanuel
Cleaver, II of Missouri admitted,
“With 14 percent [black] unem-
ployment if we had a white presi-
dent we’d be marching around the
White House.”
If we don’t get some true leader-
ship on this issue, perhaps it will
be time to march around the White
House, Congress and the head-
quarters of some of our civil rights
organizations.
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Page 4 The Portland Skanner
Credit Card Reform Fears Never Materialized
S
ince the enactment of the
Credit Card Accountability
Responsibility and Disclo-
sure (CARD) Act of 2009, con-
sumers have benefited from more
transparent pricing and improved
ability to manage credit card debt.
Although 68 percent of consumers
had a credit card in 2010, fewer
than 40 percent carried a balance
that year – the lowest proportion
on record. Interest rates paid on
credit card debt has fallen since
the Act’s implementation. More-
over, the number of late fees paid
by consumers dropped by more
than half – from $901 million in
January 2010 to $427 million in
November that same year.
Consumers benefited while
issuers continued to profit. At the
same time, the nation’s top five
credit card issuers – who account-
ed for more than half of the credit
card market with combined port-
folios of $475 billion, continued to
enjoy net earnings that were sig-
nificantly higher than those of
other commercial banks.
The State of Lending in America
and its Impact on U.S. House-
holds, addresses how credit card
practices and usage have changed
since the enactment of credit card
reform. It also speaks to emerging
challenges.
While opponents of credit card
reform predicted that the Credit
January 30, 2013
R ESPONSIBLE
L ENDING
Charlene
Crowell
CARD Act would lead to higher
prices and shrinking credit avail-
ability, those claims were never
realized. According to CRL,
“Opponents of the Credit CARD
Act raised fears that the reforms
an additional cost of $66.5 mil-
lion.
Despite these encouraging
developments, debt remains a
weighty financial burden for mil-
lions of Americans. After examin-
ing consumer activity from 2000
to 2012, CRL found that credit
card debt rose over a full decade
from $172 billion in 2000 to $855
billion in 2012. The only con-
sumer debts that surpassed credit
cards were housing, cars, and stu-
dent loans.
Many low and moderate income
households still turn to credit
A series of credit card enforcement
actions in 2012 by the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau resulted in
consumers receiving nearly half a
billion dollars in refunds
would result in the unintended
consequence of restricting con-
sumers’ access to credit. This has
been proven unfounded.”
Additionally, a series of credit
card enforcement actions in 2012
by the Consumer Financial Protec-
tion Bureau resulted in consumers
receiving nearly half a billion dol-
lars in refunds. Government penal-
ties were added to these refunds at
cards to pay for basic expenses at
the rate of 40 percent. Credit card
debt has also stemmed from out-
of-pocket medical costs for 47 per-
cent of low- and middle-income
families. And among families
struggling with the challenges of
employment, 86 percent racked up
credit card debt.
Further, new financial chal-
lenges are emerging with a seven-
year surge in the use of prepaid
cards. In 2009 alone, six billion
prepaid card transactions totaled
$140 billion in the U.S.
In addition to consumers, many
governmental benefits are shifting
towards payment via prepaid cards
and some employers now offer
prepaid cards instead of traditional
payroll checks.
“Prepaid credit cards can pro-
vide convenience and safety, but
these advantages can be quickly
eroded by high fees. Many prepaid
cards come with significant
charges – fees to sign up, deposit
money, check a balance, use an
ATM, and cancel the account,” the
report said. “Because the disclo-
sure of fees varies from card to
card – many are hidden altogether
– consumers have difficulty know-
ing what their costs will be, let
alone comparison shopping”, the
report said.
CRL urges continued state and
federal enforcements and strong
defense of both the CFPB and the
Credit CARD Act. For prepaid
cards, CRL will analyze credit fea-
tures, mandatory arbitration and
the effect of overdraft fees.
Charlene Crowell is a communi-
cations manager with the Center
for Responsible Lending.