Nikitra Bailey

Black America Needs a ‘New Normal’: Equitable Credit Access to Build Wealth

Charlene Crowell NNPA Newswire ContributorJune 17, 2021

Although many officials have called for a ‘return to normal’, millions of small businesses and communities need something new instead. In Black America especially, the ‘old normal’ never delivered equitable access to wealth-building opportunities as those that well-served served much of White America. Instead, a lengthy history of public policies designed to create and sustain a burgeoning middle class systemically excluded Blacks and other people of color.

Charlene Crowell News (Business)

Biden’s First 100-Day Challenge: Transitioning to a More Inclusive Economy

Charlene CrowellDecember 3, 2020

The tumultuous 2020 presidential election triggered a record number of participating voters. Never before had so many people cast their preferences. And similarly, together substantiated how divided the nation is.

Charlene Crowell

Wealth gap costs over last two decades: $2.7 trillion in Black income, $16 trillion to U.S. economy

Charlene Crowell, Senior Fellow with the Center for Responsible LendingOctober 8, 2020

“Yet even today, with all those credentials and as one of the leading executives on Wall Street,” wrote Raymond J. McGuire, Citi’s Vice Chairman and Chair of its Global Banking and Capital Markets, “I am still seen first as a six-foot-four, two-hundred-pound Black man wherever I go — even in my own neighborhood. I could have been George Floyd. And my wife and I are constantly aware that our children could have their innocence snatched away from them at any given moment, simply for the perceived threat of their skin color.”

News Political

Dodd-Frank and the fight for a better America

Thandisizwe Chimurenga Contributing WriterJuly 31, 2020

“Predatory mortgage lenders started by targeting Black and Brown communities where they began climbing away at the hard-earned wealth of Black and Brown families. And too few people in power could be relied on to care: not the investors making money hand over fist, not the regulators who were cozy with the banks; not the pundits who blamed the borrowers; not the lenders who were boosting their products,”

COVID-19 News

Center for Responsible Lending virtual town hall focuses on COVID-19 and economic relief

By Faith Petrie Contributing WriterMay 21, 2020

The non-profit research and policy organization is targeted towards the education surrounding predatory lending, a practice commonly directed towards minority communities. The virtual town hall, moderated by White House Correspondent and CNN Political Analyst April Ryan, focused primarily on the areas of small businesses, housing and student loans with a particular emphasis on minority and Black communities.

Charlene Crowell Opinion

Will proposed CRA rule help or hurt Black America?

Charlene CrowellDecember 26, 2019

Amid the tinsel and garland celebrating the holiday season, two important federal financial regulators are planning how the future financial needs of low-and-moderate income (LMI) communities – including neighborhoods of color – will be met. In an effort to “modernize” the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) on December 12 the board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) endorsed a proposed Notice of Public Rulemaking (NPR) offered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

Charlene Crowell Opinion

Remembering Congressman Elijah Cummings and the Journey Still Ahead

Charlene CrowellNovember 7, 2019

The nationally televised October 25 funeral services for the late Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, paused partisan debates and revealed how a son of Baltimore worked tirelessly for his constituents and for this nation. In the days since his home-going, I have marveled at how his life’s work somehow brought together officials who held firm to their stark political divides but united to honor a man who believed that everyone deserved a fair chance at all America had to offer.