Page 2 The Skanner December 6, 2017
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Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Opinion
Hundreds Rallied for Meek Mill, but What about the Rest?
Bernie Foster
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Executive Editor
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News Editor
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Reporter
Monica J. Foster
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Photographer
2017
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ecently, hundreds of fans
and supporters held
a rally outside a Phil-
adelphia
courthouse,
chanting for Robert Rihmeek
Williams a.k.a. Meek Mill,
to be released. The rapper
was sentenced to two to four
years in prison for violating
his parole, stemming from 10
year-old charges, including
drug possession and carrying
a firearm without a license.
Several media outlets have
reported that the presiding
Judge Genece Brinkley is now
under investigation by the
FBI.
In the United States, there
are more than 61, 000 people
incarcerated for parole viola-
tions. So, to all of a sudden see
thousands of people chanting
and tweeting #FreeMeek-
Mill is ironic to say the least.
Mass incarceration is a part
of the rudimentary diet of
Black people, appearing on
the menu alongside predato-
ry lending and housing dis-
crimination. It is difficult to
find a Black person who has
been exempted from interac-
tion with the criminal justice
system; either through the
incarceration of family and
friends, an overnight stay for
traffic violations, or extend-
ed restrictions due to parole
or probation agreements. I
have a brother, cousin, and
boyfriend incarcerated, right
Lynette
Monroe
NNPA Guest
Columnist
now. In Meek Mill’s case, I
agree with the sentiment that
the two- to four-year sentence
is unwarranted, however,
our sole concern should not
be whether or not the subse-
quent consequence for the vi-
olation of these terms is fair;
he agreed to them and has
“
The issue is
a system that
does not car-
ry out justice
equally
violated those terms several
times. The issue is a system
that does not carry out jus-
tice equally, a system where
if Meek Mill were White, sta-
tistically he would less likely
be arrested or incarcerated in
the first place.
Now, I know we protest for
unarmed civilians murdered
at the hands of police. It’s easy
to yell, “F--k the Police!” stand-
ing in a crowd of thousands
of people, but where was that
same outrage when Kalief
Browder was held in Rikers Is-
land for three years without a
trial. He later committed sui-
cide and Jay-Z produced a doc-
umentary about Browder’s
tragic life. And what about
the millions of Black men and
women trapped in a system of
injustice that don’t rap or rise
to the attention of people like
Jay-Z? Their stories go untold
in the absence of media cover-
age, sometimes, because they
don’t fit the narrative that es-
tablishes purity as a prerequi-
site for grace.
The support for Meek
Mill in the Black communi-
ty wasn’t unanimous; Blacks
seem to have a much harder
time forgiving these trans-
gressions than their White
counterparts.
In August, when an 8-year
old biracial Black boy was
hung by a rope in Claremont,
New Hampshire by several
older, White children, Clare-
mont Police Chief Mark Chase
said that the culprits should
be protected. “Mistakes they
make as a young child should
not have to follow them for
the rest of their life,” he stated
in response to inquiries about
the investigation.
In September, when 26 year-
old Katie Layne Quackenbush
of Tennessee was charged
with attempted murder for
exiting her vehicle and shoot-
ing 54-year old Gerald Melton,
her attorney and father, Jesse
Quackenbush claimed she
and her friend were being
harassed and threatened with
sexist remarks. “She didn’t
try and kill this guy, she had
no intention of killing him.
She didn’t know that she hit
him,” he said immediately af-
ter her arrest.
Why can’t we, as Black peo-
ple defend our family and
friends with matching zeal?
Why must we send our young
men and women into the bel-
ly of the beast to “learn a les-
son” we couldn’t teach them at
home?
Why have we accepted the
disproportionate incarcer-
ation of Black Americans as
the norm? Some still view in-
carceration as a subconscious
rite of passage.
Take a few minutes and
think about the number of
people that you know who are
currently incarcerated, have
been incarcerated or on pro-
bation.
Anyway, I’m really happy
for y’all. I’ma let y’all finish
marching for Meek, but re-
member, according to a study
by The Marshall Project, as
of April 2017, an estimated
61,250 Americans are incar-
cerated for technical parole
violations. They deserve your
support, too.
Lynette Monroe is a graduate
student at Howard University.
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Payday Lenders Continue Attack on Consumer Protections
“I
f at first you don’t suc-
ceed, try, try again” is
a well-known adage. In
recent weeks, it seems
that phrase could also be an
apt description of the unre-
lenting efforts of predatory
payday lenders to sell their
wares.
Across the country, 15 states
as well as in the District of
Columbia, with varying ge-
ographies, economies and
demographics have enacted
strong rate cap limits. In each
locale, these actions were tak-
en to curb the harmful con-
sequences of payday lenders’
300 percent or higher inter-
est rate loans.
When voters or legislatures
approve rate caps, these lend-
ers seek loopholes to evade
state requirements. Changing
products from payday to car
title-loans is one way. Oth-
ers pose as “loan brokers” or
“mortgage lenders” to avoid
regulation of payday lending.
Even at the federal level and
on the heels of a still-new rule
by the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (CFPB),
payday lenders and their sup-
porters are now pressing for
legislation to continue and
expand triple-digit lending
on small-dollar loans.
The same deception that
hides the real cost of preda-
tory, consumer loans is re-
flected in the title of pending
legislation in both the House
Charlene
Crowell
NNPA
Columnist
of Representatives and in the
Senate. The Protecting Con-
sumers’ Access to Credit Act
of 2017 (H.R. 3299 and S. 1624)
would allow payday lenders,
high-cost online lenders, and
“
Payday lend-
ers are bad
for the Black
community
other predatory lenders to
partner with banks to make
loans that surpass existing
state interest rate limits. This
legislative scheme would
legalize payday lenders to
charge triple-digit interest
rates, despite state laws ban-
ning them.
Some term this financial
switch as innovation for “fin-
tech,” a recently coined term
that smacks of the 21st Cen-
tury’s tech focus, but in ev-
eryday terms, these actions
are a renewed effort for an
old scheme known as “rent-a-
bank.”
If the bill is enacted, states
that have annually saved an
estimated $2.2 billion each
year by banning triple-digit
interest would have to face
the return of past debt trap
lending. Additionally, and
in 34 states where a $2,000,
2-year installment loan with
interest higher than 36 per-
cent is illegal today, would
enable predatory lenders to
charged unlimited rates on
these longer-term loans.
One more item to note: these
measures are advancing with
bipartisan support.
Virginia’s Senator Mark
Warner, the lead sponsor of
that chamber’s version has
Senators Gary Peters (Mich-
igan), Pat Toomey (Penn-
sylvania) and Steve Daines
(Montana) as his co-sponsors.
On the House side, Rep. Pat-
rick McHenry from North
Carolina, has the help of two
Congressional Black Caucus
(CBC) members, New York’s
Congressman Greg Meeks
and Wisconsin’s Congress-
woman Gwen Moore.
Right now, both New York
and Pennsylvania have rate
caps that prevent triple-digit
rate lending. It is therefore
curious why bill co-sponsors
would strip their own state
law protections. In other
home states of these legis-
lators, payday loan interest
rates are some of the highest
in the country. For example,
in Wisconsin the average pay-
day interest rate is 574 per-
cent; in Michigan, the average
interest is 369 percent. This
bill would expand this type
of predatory lending in their
states, rather than reining it
in.
On November 15, the House
bill passed out of its assigned
committee with a split among
CBC members serving on the
House Financial Services.
While Representatives Max-
ine Waters (California), Al
Green (Texas), and Keith Elli-
son (Minnesota) opposed the
bill, Lacy Clay and Emanuel
Cleaver (both of Missouri),
joined Meeks and Moore in
its support.
It is noteworthy that in Mis-
souri, the average payday
loan interest rate is 443 per-
cent.
For civil rights advocates,
the committee vote was dis-
turbing.
“The potential costs and
damage to consumers is sig-
nificant, especially for bor-
rowers of color, as research
shows that payday lenders
disproportionately
target
communities of color and
trap consumers in unsustain-
able cycles of borrowing and
reborrowing high-cost loans,”
said Vanita Gupta, the presi-
dent and CEO of The Leader-
ship Conference on Civil and
Human Rights.
Read the rest of this commentary at
TheSkanner.com
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