title:  8 Years After Housing Collapse, Banks Continue To Punish Wealthy Black Communities
text: Almost a decade after targeting the black community with subprime loans and economic ruin, the Big Banks are STILL punishing black homeowners because racism is totally dead in America:According to a new Washington Post analysis, the higher a Zip code s share of black residents in the Atlanta region, the worse its housing values have fared over the past turbulent housing cycle.Nationwide, home values in predominantly African American neighborhoods have been the least likely to recover. Across the 300 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, homes in 4 out of 10 Zip codes where blacks are the largest population group are worth less than they were in 2004. That s twice the rate for mostly white Zip codes across the country. Across metropolitan Atlanta, nearly 9 in 10 largely black Zip codes still have home values below that point 12 years ago.If you ll recall, subprime loans were supposed to be mortgages given to high-risk borrowers so they could take a stab at the American dream of owning a home. But then the financial sector figured out how to make a ton of money by pushing crap loans onto an unsuspecting public. Naturally, they targeted minorities because, again, racism is dead in America:Even well-off African Americans, like the ones in some South DeKalb subdivisions, were more likely to be given subprime loans when they should have qualified for better ones. Nationwide, black families earning around $230,000 a year, according to research by sociologist Jacob Fa ber, were more likely at the height of the bubble in 2006 to be given a subprime loan than white families making about $32,000. The problem, Faber argued, wasn t that professional blacks didn t understand that they qualified for better loans; they were targeted for bad loans. Subprime lenders viewed them, Faber argued, as particularly profitable targets.This is not the first time banks have targeted the black community. Redlining was the practice banks employed to keep  Those People  out of white neighborhoods. They literally drew a red line on the map to signify which areas blacks were allowed to buy homes in and which areas were off-limits. The subprime debacle was less overt but no less racist. But even now, the banks are not done screwing over black homeowners:In Atlanta and its suburbs, along with dozens of other cities, the National Fair Housing Alliance has also documented that banks have done a poorer job maintaining foreclosed properties in largely minority communities than in white ones.Properties that fall into disrepair are known as  blight  and drag down property values. And through the wonders and magic of systemic racism, it just  happens  to occur more often in black neighborhoods. But remember, racism is dead in America so it must be the fault of black communities.This ongoing assault on African-American homeowners is a direct result of white supremacy in this country. It doesn t matter if it s a deliberate act or just implicit racism, the result is the same:  The banks are hurting wealthy black communities because they know the system is rigged heavily against them. When white people complain, something gets done. When black people complain, they re just whining.And then we wonder however in the world did white people accumulate so much more wealth than black people and pretend it s because we re inherently superior.AmeriKKKa.Featured image via Getty