Tasty Morning Bytes – Predatory Lending, Debt Crisis in Ward 8 and How to Define Culture
Good morning, DCentric readers! Welcome back to the work week.
There’s a bigger house of cards that hurt minorities’ wealth It is eay to blame minorities for buying homes they couldn’t afford and diminishing their family’s wealth, but that “would excuse the government for its monumental failure to tame predatory lenders. And it would absolve the lenders who came up with exotic mortgages that should never have been pitched ubiquitously, especially not to financially fragile minority borrowers. But blaming the victim is what we do so well in America.” (The Washington Post)
US debt crisis: worst off in Ward Eight face prospect of even harsher poverty “While Congress is locked in stalemate, across the Anacostia river one of America’s poorest areas remains unseen and unheard.” The woes of Ward 8 reach across the pond to the Guardian. (Guardian Unlimited)
Rosa Parks essay reveals rape attempt “”I was ready to die but give my consent never. Never, never.”…Most people know the story of Parks, a black, middle-aged seamstress who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus…her personal papers reveal a much more complex individual, one who spent a lifetime fighting for racial equality and against the sexual violence of black women.” (The Grio)
People of Color are Leading YouTube’s Growth “Much like general online groups who visit video-sharing sites, blacks and Latinos have significantly higher proportional viewership on their cell phones. They’re also more likely to record a video on their phones, and more likely than whites to post a video.” (Colorlines)
More colleges helping out with the financial burdens of internships “…low-income students…often need to work during the summer to save up money for the next school year. Taking an internship requires many students to finance the experience using student loan money, cash from parents, savings or credit cards.” (The Washington Post)
Ignite Talk: Hacking Diversity, Part 1 – How Do We Define Culture? “The thing that people forget to understand is that the idea that culture will be nebulous, and can be something hard to define is actually a good thing. It’s a huge benefit for America. We are not homogenous and we aren’t supposed to be homogenous. We weren’t founded in an homogenous way, and we are supposed to be diverse and reflective of that…” (Racialicious)