Debra,

Why is it that virtually everything you blog about has to come down to how whitey is beating down the black man? That is the kind of thinking that just fuels the fire of race wars. I find it hard to believe that the mortgage parasites consciously targeted blacks - they were targeting EVERYBODY. Yes, the lower socio-economic classes get hit the hardest, and urban areas have so many more potential victims, but it's not always about race.

Some good reading suggestions here.

I just want to point out, though, that the current obsession with the New Yorker cover and Bernie Mac's jokes are not just frivolous; they are manifestations of post-Swiftboat fear. I almost called it paranoia, but there's too much good reason for such concerns. Will a fatal anti-Obama meme worm its way into the national consciousness? Everyone wants to know! I personally don't think so, but after the Kerry Swiftboating, and the Gore flip-flopper, Love Story, internet, earth tones innuendos, it seems reasonable to worry. We cannot allow another candidate to become ridiculous in the public's eye, so the current mood is hyper politically correct.

You're darn right there was fraud going on. The FBI stated two yrs ago that 80% of mortgage fraud was done by the industry itself. In the book, "Protect Yourself from Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud," (Roberts/Dollar) the authors also stated this could not have happened without the industry's involvement. Everyone from builders to real estate agents, to lenders to appraisers was getting in on creating the bubble. How quickly we forget that many builders have been investigated and fine by HUD, Beazer is still under investigation, many appraisers say they were blackballed if they didn't inflate appraisals, and everyone wanted to just make the deal. NO ONE was looking out for the home buyer, even in some cases not their own real estate agent, or the home inspector their agent urged them to use. Inspectors who were honest were often called "dealbreakers" and blackballed. Builders set up their own mortgage co's and got in on it too. What puzzles me is that all these experts in the industry and government, all the investors and so on, did LESS due diligence than any consumer is expected to do. None in the industry or regulatory positions can honestly claim they "didn't see it coming." I volunteer for a consumer org and we saw it coming. Unfortunately no one in a position to stop it while they could, was interested in doing anything when it was "just" consumer groups and consumers who were issuing the warnings that this is what it'd come to. Many in this industry should go to jail, but I bet most will just pay a fine without admitting wrong doing, like so many of the builders have paid to HUD.

Gary, you seem to have taken all of the other points raised by Ms. Dickerson and disregarded them, focusing instead upon the attempts by mortgage lenders to defraud blacks and people of colour. Just because she points out these truisms does not mean she is making the case for "the man" stepping upon the necks of the most vulnerable, which economically have always included blacks, the elderly, and those living in poverty or near-poverty. It was true as long ago as just before my birth that people of colour were prohibited from fully engaging in economic advantages that others in society were able to utilize. That mortgage lenders were willfully using these methods to keep particular segments of society from being as prosperous as they might have been otherwise, is worth noting. That there are those who want to disregard these truisms in no way lessens the reality.

Your post seems to indicate that we would be better off as a society if Ms. Dickerson and others like her who raise awareness of these tactics were to ignore them completely. This is, of course, wishful thinking. I would venture to say that no one is going to start a "race war" based upon this information, of which people of colour are already aware...even without evidence, it is something we suspect because we've been there before. If you were truly interested in this issue, you might do better to decry the practices of the mortgage lenders and work to enact legislation that exacts meaningful retribution for those who were victimized.

Ms. Dickerson, I applaud your efforts to become more attuned to great sources of journalism that provide us with more in depth analysis of the situations in which we find our nation. Thank you for making a cogent attempt to help us all to become more engaged citizens.

I just ran across this blog and what a crock of BS. I have worked in mortgages for 20 years and never once I have attended a meeting or seen a memo that instructed anyone to target anyone. Some losers were hired and abused the products. Some irrational lenders put out products that never made sense at all for anyone. I never in my career wrote an option arm loan or any other junk product. My customers are still buying homes and doing just fine. A good deal of my clients (more than 50% are minorities). The old saying goes something like you can't cheat an honest man.