Page 2 The Skanner January 3, 2018
®
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Opinion
In Defense of Black Women and Girls
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
Black Women and Girls Deserve More Respect, Visibility in the #MeToo Movement
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
T
Jerry Foster
Advertising Manager
Christen McCurdy
News Editor
Patricia Irvin
Graphic Designer
Melanie Sevcenko
Reporter
Monica J. Foster
Seattle Office Coordinator
Susan Fried
Photographer
2017
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his has been a monumen-
tal year for the reaffirma-
tion of women’s rights
in the workplace and
the ballot booth. This is long
overdue. The battle for the
rights of women, and specifi-
cally Black women and girls,
has gone on for centuries.
In America, the spotlight on
this fight for women’s rights
shines brightly on White
women, while Black women,
who have often fought more
vigorously for equality and
justice, are largely consigned
to the shadows of the move-
ment.
TIME magazine placed “The
Silence Breakers” on their
cover, noting that the tenacity
and courage of the women’s
voices could be heard over the
walls of systemic oppression.
Still, in the stories of Dajer-
ria Becton, a teenager who
was violently handcuffed and
thrown to the ground by an
overzealous McKinney, Tex-
as police officer and Sandra
Bland, who was arrested and
died in police custody in Prai-
rie View, Texas, that oppres-
sion seems unsurmountable.
Most acts of extrajudicial
violence and aggression to-
wards Black women never be-
come national headlines and
many Black women suffer
in quiet silence as their com-
Ed Gray
North
Dallas
Gazette/
NNPA
Member
plaints of sexual harassment
are ignored and discounted,
regardless of their socioeco-
nomic status.
Mainstream America labels
“
You leave your kids with your
mama ‘cuz your headin’ for
the club
In a skin-tight miniskirt
lookin’ for some love
Got them legs wide open while
you’re sittin’ at the bar
Talkin’ to some n**ga ‘bout his
car
I guess he said he had a Lexus,
what’s next?
You headin’ to his car for some
sex
We must elevate Black women
from social media hashtags to
highly-valued and respected mem-
bers of the global community
Black women as angry Jezeb-
els unfit for normal, social
interactions. Black American
pop culture hypersexualizes
our young girls while con-
demning them for being too
fast. There is a deafening si-
lence in the Black community
that is complicit in the degra-
dation of our Black women.
When we do speak, in-
stead of a healing, sometimes
our words just cause more
wounds.
One of the most influential
hip-hop artists of all time,
Tupac Shakur spoke directly
to Black women in “Wonda
Why They Call U Bytch”:
Today,
some
people
would criticize Shakur for
slut-shaming, while others
would applaud him for telling
it like it is.
White women have been ap-
plauded for coming forward
to tell their stories of sexu-
al assault and harassment
under the #MeToo flag. The
movement would be much
stronger and more credible, if
its leaders forced mainstream
media to also carry the sto-
ries of Black women on their
morning shows and popular
websites.
Black men must bear some
of the blame for mainstream
media’s ignorance and apathy
towards the plight of Black
women. We band together,
as brothers, ignoring the an-
guished cries of our sisters.
We must stop, look and listen.
We must reject R. Kelly for
his alleged abuse of Black
women and girls with the
same unanimity that Black
voters in Alabama rejected
the alleged sexual predator
Roy Moore.
We must step in the name
of love and in the name of jus-
tice with respect for our Black
mothers, wives, sisters and
daughters. This respect must
begin in the Black commu-
nity; we must clean our own
house, first. We must elevate
our women from social me-
dia hashtags to highly-valued
and respected members of the
global community.
In “Keep Ya Head Up,” Shak-
ur offers a critique on the
exploitation of women in the
Black community:
And since we all came from a
woman
Got our name from a woman
and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our
women
Read the rest of this commentary at
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Add Civil Rights Voices to Housing Policy Discussions
W
herever you live,
or household size,
home is a special
place where children
are raised, and memories are
made. Owning a home is also
the largest, single investment
that most families make in a
lifetime.
Since the nationwide hous-
ing crash, family outcomes
have varied. While some
households have witnessed
full recovery, others – often
people of color – wonder when
or how they too can turn the
proverbial financial corner.
Now, nine national civil
rights organizations are de-
manding to know why related
deliberations of a key policy is-
sue now underway with both
the U.S. Senate Banking Com-
mittee and its counterpart,
the House Financial Services
Committee are being conduct-
ed in private: the future of af-
fordable homeownership.
“Our constituents repre-
sent the majority of future
homebuyers, and any system
that is not structured so as to
ensure that they have fair ac-
cess to safe and sustainable
mortgages will not serve the
country well,” wrote the co-
alition to leadership of both
committees on December 15.
Signing the letter were: The
Leadership Conference on
Civil and Human Rights, the
National Coalition for Asian
Pacific Community Develop-
Charlene
Crowell
NNPA
Columnist
ment, the Center for Respon-
sible Lending, National Fair
Housing Alliance, NAACP,
UNIDOSUS (formerly known
as the National Conference
of La Raza, National Urban
“
than 25 years.”
Central to these discussions
is the future of two Govern-
ment Sponsored Enterpris-
es (GSEs) – Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac. During the
housing crisis, The Feder-
al Home Loan Corporation,
more commonly known as
Freddie Mac, and the Federal
National Mortgage Corpora-
tion – Fannie Mae – went into
federal conservatorship. As
a result, the entities created
decades ago by Congress to
Low-and-moderate-income con-
sumers, as well as consumers of
color could easily question wheth-
er fair access to mortgage credit
will be possible for them
League, National Community
Reinvestment Coalition and
the Lawyers’ Committee for
Civil Rights Under Law.
“At a time when the nation-
al homeownership rate is
declining, and local rents are
skyrocketing, every effort
should be made to increase
sustainable homeownership
opportunity and make rent-
al housing more affordable,”
the coalition continued. “Al-
ternative facts and false math
should not be used to undo
the access and affordability
provisions that have helped
secure opportunity for hard-
working families for more
reduce the cost of credit for
low and moderate-income
households has remained in
government control.
Now, as much of the hous-
ing market has recovered,
questions are being posed as
to when or how the two GSEs
will return to private oper-
ations. Secondly, as housing
costs continue to soar for
renters and homeowners
alike, affordable housing is a
growing concern nationwide.
Without an affirmative policy
in place, many low-and-mod-
erate-income consumers, as
well as consumers of color
could easily question whether
fair access to mortgage credit
will be possible for them.
For their part, the civil
rights organizations’ letter
gave committee chairs a list
of 10 items that if left unad-
dressed will trigger orga-
nized opposition:
1. Align with and support
longstanding federal an-
ti-discrimination laws and
enforcement;
2. Provide adequate capital
to protect taxpayers and
housing system;
3. Serve all credit-worthy
borrowers;
4. Eliminate and ban exces-
sive risk-based pricing;
5. Serve all markets across
the country throughout
the business cycle;
6. Require utility regulation
and expand restrictions
that prevent risky behav-
iors;
7. Ensure equal treatment
for small lenders;
8. Promote cost-effective loan
modifications;
9. Strengthen FHA and pre-
serve low down payment
mortgage loans; and
10. Address the federal gov-
ernment’s history in fos-
tering racially discrimi-
natory mortgage lending
policies.
Read the rest of this commentary at
TheSkanner.com
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