BUSINESS 'FINANCE
,
a national cure h
pe nalty consider.
"what is it that I've d ne to con­
tribu to the probl rn?"
Of course there is m thing
that Bush aM his Administration
can do to clean up the sore. His
reactionary Federal Disas r dec­
laration already caused Hous­
ing and Urban Development
Secretary Jack Kemp to move
with $700 million to ti tch up the
current sore in south-central L.A.,
a 7-by-15 mile area that is larger
than W hington, D.C.
The disaster proclamation
will make low-interest loans
available to the business sector
there which suffered over 5,
fires leaving charred stores,
buildi.ngs and more urban blight
But, if Bush and Kemp look
closely at the sore as they dole out
money to right tbe wrongs done
there they will see i Is source, be­
cause the business sector
recipients will bear little
resemblance to the rioters,
Bush will also convene meet­
ings with th "Black leaders that
he knows," and provide
numerous "pboto-ops" am tty to
get this thing behiOO him.
BUfWHAT he should do is:
-Direct as much peace
dividend morey as he is putting
into Russia and the Soviet
Republics into a Marshall Plan­
type urban development for the
inner -cities and send Congress
legislation to get this going on a
full-time basis.
-Be as much "on the ball"
about this Subject as was Lyndon
Johnson and Richaard Nixon
during their presidential years of
racial twmoil, when they each
appointed a qualified domestic
affairs advisor woo had direct ac­
cess to the President on maners of
Black affairs, The best Bush ever
did in outreach toward us was to
have a low .. level staffer in charge
of dropping by Black
organizations' chicken dinners
and saying, "George aM Barbara
are busy working in the White
Home and 'couldn't come, but
they told me to tell you, 'we love
you."
-Get a copy of Con­
gressman John Conyers' House
Bill 3745 aM appoint a Presiden­
tial Advisory Committee to
realistically look at � issue of
Black Reparations.
, .
�_t
-' .
_'t
.'
..
.
.1
,
, TO CURE the COWltIy'S sore
we have to eliminate real, aoo not
perceived, racial divisiom. We
should not make, the mistakes of
the past with foolish programs
like we threw on the fires of the
60's.
Integration of housing and
public facilities, to some extent,
have shown that they have little to
do with continual limitations to
access to jobs, wages, education
and medical facilities that mil­
lions of America's Underclass
face. Busb, nor Clinton, or any on
else, can change the basic feelings
we each have about superiority
and inferiority, or our positions of
victim or oppressor, but us.
The South-Africans, on
whom we tried to throw our col-
'lective, and residual, racial guilt
have been telling � during the
years we were beating up on them
and tbat, "we have to straighten it
(race relations) out ourselves."
If harmony and true equality'
are ever to be real in the land, it is
up to you and me. We each have
to k ourselves, "Am I a part of
the solution, or, part of the prob­
lem?"
The 28 percent R e
To lnd out how much hous you
UTHE PERSON, if we
turned them down, didn't have
income to support the loan, or
they had poor credit," said
Bruce Werth, executive vice
president of one of the banks,
First National Bank of Chicago
Heights.
The banking industry and its
regulators are under pressure
after a 1990 Federal Reserve
study showed Blacks and
Hispanics are far more likely to
have their mortgage applications
denied than whites, even when
they had similar incomes. The'
study also showed affluent
Blacks had their applications
rejected as often as poor whites.
Legislators and minority leaders
said the study indicated
widespread racial discrirnina­
tionin the banking industry and
called for tougher enforcement
of fair lending laws. Bankers
questioned the study, saying it
didn't consider factors in lend­
ing decisions such as the credit
records of applicants.
The banks being investigated
must explain the disparity be-
The olde t aying in real e tate i
th t th three mo t important fac-
an
ob
9 bia'
tween lending to whites and
lending to minoritie ,Cross said.
The comptroller's office will
then decide whether to continue
the investigation, he said.,
Forty banks are being inves­
tigated to see if they illegally
pre-screened minori ty bor­
rowers by discouraging their ap­
plications.. Cross said. Those
banks are classed as large
lenders because they handled at
least 350 applications, but fewer
than 1 percent came from
Hispanics or Blacks.
The Tribune said none of the
Illinois banks fit that descrip­
tion. In Chicago, National
Security Bank, National
Republic Bank and Marquette
National Bank confirmed they
had been questioned, the
Tribune reported.
Elsewhere in the state,
Aurora National Bank, Old
Second National Bank of
Aurora, First National Bank of
Blue Island, First Midwest
Bank/Illinois in Joliet, First Na­
tional Bank of Joliet and First
National Bank & Trust Co. of
Rockford confirmed they had
been contacted, in addition to
Fir t National Bank of Chicago
Heights, the report said.
A NUMBER OF the bankers
said they had recently been
given, passing marks by
regulators during routine ex­
aminations under the Com­
munity Reinvestment Act
(CRA). Regulators are supposed
to check for illegal discrimina­
tion as part of that exam, the
bankers said.
Executives at the Chicago
Heights bank and Aurora Na­
tional Bank said regulators told
them they had already been
cleared based on their CRA
exams and their responses to the
investigation.
"That's possible," Cross
said. But she refused to discuss
any specific banks.
tion h
n e
Your ent hould keep in to h
ith you nd end you r ul r
repo on ho e or le. e
ure th ent wor ull-time, nd
n give you referral of recent
clien .
eep in mind th t the gent
wor or th eller, but, good '
profe ion I hould be ble to ti­
fy both eller nd buyer.
Ten th gent ex ctly wh t you
re 100 in for in home:
The price, ize, loc tion, nd
convenience. A good gent will
help you find financing, a I wyer
nd firm to inspect the ho e.
When hou e hopping t e
along camera to take pictures and
a notepad and jot down note 0 you
can compare later.
When buying a home, having a
good real e tate agent i invaluable.
A good agent will know the corn­
munity in which you plan to buy
and will ave time by howing you
The
When you finally find a house
you like you will have to determine
how much to offer. A major factor
in getting the best deal i knowing
why the house is on the market.
CHICAGO (AP) - A nation­
wide probe into racially biased
mortgage lending has targeted at
lea t 10 Illinois banks, a publish­
ed report ays.
The inve tigation involves
266 banks across the nation
who e records showed they
turned down Black and Hi panic
mortgage applicants more than
twice as often as white ap­
plicants, said Lee Cross, a
spokeswoman for the Comp­
troller of the Currency.
The Illinois banks confirmed
they are being investigated in
response to questions from the
Chicago Tribune, which looked
for likely targets by analyzing
more than 250,000 loan applica­
tions made in 1990.
All of the banks denied dis­
criminating against minority
borrowers, the Tribune said in
Sunday's editions.
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Charles Ros is the host 0/ the
nationally syndicated radio pro­
. gram "Your Personal Finance" and
author o/the The Best ofYour Per­
.sonal Finance.
Memb r of the National Association of Black Automotive Supplier made their annual pr enta­
tion of cholarshlps to area youths recently. Making the award w r • left to right, R glneld B.
Carnegl ,Award recipient; Roy Robert, gu at sp ak�r; Dr. Reble Klngaton who accepted the
award for Drake Sydnor; Delbert Mull n ,NABAS pr sid nt; Michael Guthrie, pr sldent pro-tem;
and Jes e Stewart Jr. membership chairman.
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