Opinion
Letter to the Editor
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ERNIE F OSTER
Founder/Publisher
DANTE JAMES
RESPONSE TO
THE SKANNER
EDITORIAL
B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER
Executive Editor
T ED B ANKS
Advertising Manager
J ERRY F OSTER
Account Executive
L ISA L OVING
News Editor
H ELEN S ILVIS
Multimedia Editor
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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Dear Mr. Foster:
This letter is in response to your
editorial in The Skanner, entitled,
“Advocate for Communities of
Color? Not My Job, Equity Direc-
tor Dante James Says”.
The Skanner voiced concerns
and asked questions regarding my
role as Director of the City’s
Office of Equity and Human
Rights—concerns I am eager to
address. I know some folks in the
community have similar ques-
tions.
The Office of Equity and Human
Rights (OEHR) was established to
promote equity and reduce dispar-
ities within City government, as its
first task. My job is not to advo-
cate for community members with
each of the City’s 30+ bureaus and
6 elected officials. My job is to
change the way City staff and
decision-makers in each of those
bureaus and offices think and act,
by training and ensuring enhanced
accountability with the expecta-
tion that City services will be
provided in a more equitable and
just manner. OEHR’s internal
focus will lead to better outcomes
for all communities, and commu-
nities of color specifically. More
importantly, what needs to change
is City government’s response to
community advocates. When the
City as a whole better recognizes
and addresses how institutional
racism can detrimentally affect
service delivery, the community
will be better served.
Communities of color have his-
torically and systematically been
left out of decision-making in Ore-
gon. While I have built some
bridges and opened some doors in
my first year in Portland, clearly
there is much more to do. Rela-
tionships between the City
government and underrepresented
communities have been broken for
decades, even centuries. It may
take five years to repair the most
egregious damage – and it will
take longer unless we in the com-
munities of color stay focused on
the vision for OEHR that many
community leaders helped craft.
The creating ordinance directed
the office to begin its work with an
internal focus on City bureaus.
The City must put its own house in
order, before telling others how to
run theirs.
My bureau has advocated for
underrepresented communities to
have their concerns addressed by
appropriate agencies and, in spe-
cific instances, to improve the
interaction between those agencies
and communities of color. To
name three in the past six months:
• We provided advice on
improving Minority Contracting
opportunities in the pilot Commu-
nity Benefits Agreement for
construction of the Water Bureau’s
new maintenance building on
Interstate.
• I consulted with the Revenue
Bureau and testified at Council on
formation of a new taxi company
owned by union refugee and
immigrant drivers; the first new
taxi company in Portland in 15
years.
• We pushed behind the scenes
to fix Arts Tax inequities, and
OEHR is identified in the direc-
tion from Council to guide a
permanent restructuring of that
fee.
OEHR was never intended to
function as a civil rights office.
State and City agencies already
exist that handle discrimination
complaints, including a Civil
Rights Compliance Officer within
the City of Portland’s Office of
Management and Finance. OEHR
refers complaints to those agen-
cies, and will increase publicity to
facilitate direct access to them.
Every year in June, OEHR pres-
ents a Report to Council on
achievements, progress made, les-
sons learned, and the work plan
for the next year. This year, our
Report will be informed by assess-
ments from the Bureau Advisory
Committee and by the New Port-
landers Advisory Council, both
established since our last Report.
Together these groups bring in 50
community leaders of color and
ethnic minorities, to provide over-
sight and accountability for my
performance and that of OEHR. I
am glad to meet with The Skan-
ner’s editorial board to brief the
Publisher and staff prior to our
annual Report, and any time I am
invited to do so.
In closing, I must say that as a
former community organizer and
activist, my life’s work has been
dedicated to increasing communi-
ty access to government and
ensuring government responsibili-
ty. It was hard for me to shift my
focus to addressing barriers within
City bureaus. One year later, I
realize why the Creation Commit-
tee demanded that the Council
start the Office of Equity’s work
by changing the way City jobs,
contracts, and services are award-
ed by City staff. Institutional
racism demands work within the
institution to eliminate racism.
That is my job.
Sincerely,
Dante J. James, Esq.
Student Loan Borrowers Need Enforcement
E
arlier this year, the Con-
sumer Financial Protection
Bureau (CFPB) asked for
public comments on private stu-
dent loan debt affordability. By the
April 8 deadline, more than 4,300
organizations and consumers
answered. The volume of these
requests suggests that the more
than $1 trillion of debt already
incurred by student loans is on the
minds of many Americans. Clear-
ly, consumers want repayments to
be manageable, but there are also
concerns for fairness and enforce-
ment.
As a nonpartisan organization
dedicated to protecting family
wealth and working to eliminate
abusive financial practices, the
Center for Responsible Lending
(CRL) had strong advice to offer
CFPB.
According to CRL, “First, no
student loan modification or refi-
nancing program should take the
place of enforcement actions
against predatory private student
lenders. Some lenders have
engaged in a variety of unfair,
deceptive and abusive practices,
trading on students’ hopes to better
themselves through education.”
In its call for strong oversight
and enforcement action against
private student lenders, CRL noted
that Sallie Mae recently issued pri-
vate
student-loan
backed
securities. This publicly-traded
corporation originates services
and collects on student loans. Cur-
rently, it manages accounts for
more than 10 million borrowers
and $180 billion in related debt.
CRL reminded CFPB that mort-
gage-backed
securities,
the
secondary market’s purchase and
bundling of sub-prime loans, was
Page 4 The Portland Skanner April 24, 2013
R ESPONSIBLE
L ENDING
Charlene
Crowell
a major contributor to the housing
crisis and the lingering Great
Recession.
“This demand could drive
increased originations of student
loan accounts in default – even
though they were continuing to
pay what they could.
Further, if servicers of student
loans are unable to process the
volume of distressed borrowers,
as in mortgage servicing, student
loan borrowers will suffer again
from the same lack of responsive-
ness by servicers, lost documents,
and other dysfunctional errors.
For communities of color, the
specter of a second major financial
dilemma does not bode well. With
a trillion-dollar loss of wealth
It would be an agonizing loss if these
young peoples’ pursuit of higher
education only brings a lifetime of
debt
loans and degrade underwriting
standards, similar to mortgages in
the early-and mid-2000s. The
Bureau should stay vigilant as the
private student loan market
grows,” added CRL.
stemming from foreclosures, and
unemployment double that of the
rest of the nation, consumers of
color in many cases turn to student
loans to finance much of college
education costs. In many
Lenders have engaged in a variety of
unfair, deceptive and abusive
practices, trading on students’ hopes
In CFPB’s own October 2012
report, the Bureau independently
found that just like with problem-
atic mortgages, private student
loan borrowers were complaining
about servicers who placed their
instances, students are encouraged
to take out a higher-cost private
loan even when they have not fully
utilized their eligibility for cheap-
er federal student loans. In other
instances, for-profit schools target
low-income and minority students
and steer them towards the higher-
cost private loans.
If private student loans follow
the same secondary market trends
as that of mortgages, i.e. sold,
packaged and serviced similarly to
mortgage loans, it is conceivable
that two generations of the same
family will suffer long-term finan-
cial stress, shortchanging the older
generation’s preparation for retire-
ment; and delaying – if not
denying the younger generation’s
ability to buy a first home.
Add to that looming likelihood,
a recent research report funded by
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foun-
dation advised that public colleges
are going to find it difficult to keep
raising tuition in response to
reduced public funding of public
institutions. Statistics from the
Center on Budget Policy Priorities
recently found that state spending
on higher education from 2008-
2013 declined 28 percent
nationwide. Additionally, the
states of California, Florida,
Washington and Georgia had pub-
lic tuition rates rise from 60 to 72
percent.
In a March address before the
National Newspaper Publishers
Association, Arne Duncan, the
U.S. Secretary of Education noted
that Black college enrollment has
grown by 15 percent from the fall
of 2008 to the fall of 2011.
It would be an agonizing loss if
these young peoples’ pursuit of
higher education only brings a
lifetime of debt.
Charlene Crowell is a communi-
cations manager with the Center
for Responsible Lending.