The Color That Matters Most Is Green
Walter Williams writes at the WashEx that sometimes what people see as racial discrimination is another kind of discrimination altogether:
In 2000, black applicants were turned down for prime mortgage loans twice as often as whites; however, white applicants were turned down nearly twice as often as Asian-Americans.The racial discrimination explanation requires that we believe that white bankers racially discriminate not only against blacks but against whites, as well. It also requires that we believe that black-owned banks are in cahoots with white-owned banks, because they, too, turn down black mortgage applicants more often than white applicants. The true explanation is not rocket science. Lenders prefer to lend to people who will pay them back. Average credit scores are higher among whites than blacks and higher among Asian-Americans than whites.
If I'm a lender, trying to make money by making smart loans, I'd be an idiot to discriminate on anything other than how likely you are to pay me back. Some lenders may not like black people -- or white people or Asians.
Again, the bottom line, even with the haters, has to be the bottom line.
Then you can buy a huge mansion or even an island and only invite in people from the race or races you're okay with.
This makes you a person I don't want to have anything to do with, but if you are a lender, lending on the basis of the green, it makes you a smart lender and probably a rich-as-shit one.
"Then you can buy a huge mansion or even an island and only invite in people from the race or races you're okay with. This makes you a person I don't want to have anything to do with,..."
You might have been a little sloppy here, but technically, you've just insisted that a private individual invite people from the race or races she doesn't like.
This is completely contrary to a basic principle underpinning your own rights: the freedom of association.
A person may help or handicap herself by doing as they please with the front door, but it is manifestly not my business to dictate one syllable to her.
It might be stereotypical to categorically exclude people based on some demographic, but there is a reason stereotypes exist: they work. Not in all cases, but still - they work.
Radwaste at March 20, 2013 2:41 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/03/20/the_color_that.html#comment-3648382">comment from Radwastebut technically, you've just insisted that a private individual invite people from the race or races she doesn't like.
Where did I do that?
What I said is that I don't want to be around people who are racist.
You're confusing the right of freedom of association -- a prohibition against the GOVERNMENT telling you who you can associate with -- with my preference to not hang out with racists and to discourage this kind of thinking. Discourage merely by presenting my opinion.
And "sloppy" how? Colloquial English is fine to use.
Amy Alkon at March 20, 2013 5:05 AM
I love living around Asians (I'm hispanic btw). Japanese-Americans are the best neighbors. I have an elderly Japanese American friend who experienced internment. Plus she's always feeding me. I'm even going to stop by the Japanese American Museum next week.
Ppen at March 20, 2013 7:42 AM
Too often people who see discrimination in outcomes are confusing equality of opportunity with equality of outcome.
Jay at March 20, 2013 9:31 AM
Even by the the mid 90's the majority of banks were some kind of chain. So the loan officer sitting in front of you is really nothing more than a glorified clerk with signing authority for the bank.
So all they were doing is taking the information off your application typing it into the computer and then the system would automatically approve based on the credit scores and if not went to some underwriter at the headquarters.
The paperwork for the FHA was sent back via interoffice mail. So when they said it was fair, it was based off your creditworthiness, not anything else.
Jim P. at March 20, 2013 10:45 AM
This is the Filter Fallacy. You measure the effectiveness of a filter by what it lets through, not by what it keeps out. If all the accepted mortgage applicants have the same (the bank hopes miniscule) default rate, the filter is valid and not racist. If Blacks have a lower default rate than Whites, the Blacks are being discriminated against in the form of higher standards they must meet compared to Whites. And so on.
Atomic at March 20, 2013 10:51 PM
Behavior ultimately expresses itself in law, even Constitutionality.
Can someone show me a person who routinely invites any class of people to their home - mansion or not - they do not like?
Radwaste at March 21, 2013 3:18 AM
And... who did our President associate with, before the election engine decided to hide that?
Radwaste at March 22, 2013 8:00 AM
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