Jacquie Taliaferro, SFNAACP Communications Chair, Archbishop Franzo King, SF NAACP Foreclosure Chair and Ed Donaldson, Housing Advocate at "Occupy Our Homes" Protest at Wells Fargo Bank in Bayview Hunter's Point.

San Francisco -On December 5,2012 across the USA many protests were staged about unfair banking practices. ACCE, OCCUPYBERNAL and the SF NAACP Foreclosure Chairman Archbishop  

Commentary by Jacquie Taliaferro, SF NAACP Communications Chairman

Franzo King appointed by SF NAACP President Dr. Amos Brown held a rally-protest outside of the San Francisco Bay View Hunters Point Wells Fargo Bank branch. The Bay View that was once 70% Black-African Americans, has been increasingly fighting a high rate of foreclosures that is resulting in yet another form of gentrification. Wells Fargo Bank has been responsible for many of the foreclosures in the community.

At the rally I took time to talk with some of the bystanders to get a sense of their POV...Point of View. A City of San Francisco social service office is located in the Bay View Plaza where WFB is located.

I asked one of the social workers (a Black Women) what she thought of the rally and handed her a flyer. "I am just happy to have a job and not be in that situation, " was her response.  

Another social worker standing next to her would not take the flyer and said with the Black security guard, "those people are on private property and most of them don't look like they can afford a loan anyway." I asked them "how does a person that can afford a loan look? Their answer, "look at the way they are dressed."  As I observed, most of the protesters were dressed casual like most of the multimillionaires in Woodside and Silicon Valley. "The Millionaire Next Door" also affirms outside appearance is not always an indication of a person's ability to "afford a loan." 

The front line exchange with the social workers and the guard reminded me of when I was visiting a NAACP member's home and his white neighbor stopped by. We where watching TV and the topic of race came up. We went back and forth on this subject until we just decided to drop it. About 5 minutes later under his breath he said, "Blacks are so mean to each other." We all acted like he did not say what we heard. Mostly we all just wanted to relax and we also knew that his statement is true. Willie Lynch theory came to mind, along with the documentation of how the Black slave overseers were harder on Black slaves than white overseers. This tendency of the oppressed to behave like the oppressor was seen in the World War II Concentration Camps and in studies at universities like Stanford.

The flyer I tried to share with them was about Wachovia's admission to slavery trade roots. Wells Fargo obtained the holdings of Wachovia that bought the loans of World Savings that dissolved after its predatory lending practices were too blatant to defend. There was no room to include Wells Fargo/Wachovia drug money laundering admission. What a tangled web of financial greed, treachery, and arrogance they have weaved. Bankers, lobbyists, and sleeping, careless or money-seeking lawmakers have entangled the American people as jobs are shipped off shore in such a way that the American Dream of home ownership has been strangled.

Even the New York Times has indicated that the banking industry is disingenuous when it comes to helping distressed homeowners in the editorial from November 22, 2012-"More Questions About Mortgage Relief." 

Aside from the laws and policies that prefer the banking corporations above the individual homeowners, there is the added problem of timing that prefers the corporations. As banks have trillions of dollars and time on their side, the individual besieged homeowner can be quickly removed from their home. Bush Administration policies that changed the Bankruptcy laws are of no use to many people. If they figure out at the last minute that they could file for bankruptcy, many are at a loss because the requirement to take a credit counseling class makes bankruptcy null and void. Bankruptcy is usually a stopgap measure, a limited means for homeowners to get some bearings to discover other strategies to fight off the powerful banks.   Keep in mind many of the homeowners were duped by the banks predatory lending practices as indicated by their $26 billion "mea culpa" settlement with states across the nation.

The NAACP recently put out a nationwide communication about foreclosure assistance.   

National Message from NAACP: If you or someone you know experienced foreclosure between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010, visit www.independentforeclosurereview.com to see if you qualify.   

http://www.naacp.org/action-alerts/entry/naacp-supports-congressional-initiatives-to-help-homeowners-facing-foreclosure  

Here are other links for your consideration.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-29/banks-financing-mexico-s-drug-cartels-admitted-in-wells-fargo-s-u-s-deal.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/us/14justice.html

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/320-80/13895-us-sues-wells-fargo-in-mortgage-fraud-case 

You can do your own search and take the time to speak to people about their experience and not make assumptions as the social worker and guard did at the rally and protest.   It was interesting to note that one story highlighted at the rally was a United Airlines worker fighting to have a foreclosure rescinded because of dual tracking ( bank saying they are working on a modification while at the same time foreclosing and auctioning off a home).  

Also sad to note that as the unnecessary show of force from the San Francisco police department stood watch over the peaceful protesters, stories flowed from their rank that many of their fellow police officers and firefighters in San Francisco are in the midst of foreclosure.

If trillion dollar banks guilty of mortgage fraud, drug money laundering, slave trading and other financial atrocities can skate through the judicial system, in a country built on justice and the importance of the individual, surely policies can be put into place to give the people of America a fair shake.  

Help your neighbors--join the "Stop the Wells Fargo 27 Holiday Foreclosure and Evictions" campaign.  A phone call and/or email can make a difference in whether someone has a home for the holidays.

Jackie Wright of Wright Enterprises-"Create humanitarian solutions to the foreclosure crisis."  

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