The State newspaper promotes racism and division

The State newspaper printed a letter to the editor on October 20, 2008, entitled “Financial chaos a result of white guilt”.  The letter, written by Mr. Hambrecht of South Carolina, is full of GOP talking points with one goal; to promote division.  Not content to merely print the letter, The State newspaper saw fit to give Mr. Hambrecht’s letter its own page.

You can read his letter here.

There is certainly enough blame to go around for the financial mess we find ourselves in today on both sides of the political aisle, Republican and Democratic, what is not able to be disputed is that the cause; the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act.  

Subprime loan origination was very small up until 1998.  In 1997, subprime mortgage origination levels were around $50 billion dollars.  In 1999, President Clinton signed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act.  In 2000, with the help of Sen. Phil Gramm who currently advises Sen. John McCain, the Financial Services Modernization Act was signed into law.  In 2003, subprime mortgage origination levels skyrocketed.  By 2006, subprime mortgage origination levels reached near $700 billion dollars.  You can see the graph of subprime mortgage lending here.

Peter J. Wallison who is with the American Enterprise Institute wrote an article in September 2008 stating that deregulation wasn’t the cause of the financial meltdown.  He stated in his article that the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act didn’t affect the financial markets EXCEPT that it allowed banks to become involved in securities marketing.  This is the same practice that John Kenneth Galbraith cited as one of the reasons for the 1929 Great Depression in his historical breakdown of that crisis; that banks were allowed to hold and trade in stocks and securities.  It was the mismanagement by the banks that led to the 1929 Great Depression, and, once the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed it happened once again.

While this seems to point to President Clinton as the cause of our current financial crisis, he is not.  As we learn from history, the Glass-Steagall Act was under attack as far back as the 1960’s.  In fact, it was under President Reagan and President Bush Sr. that the Glass-Steagall Act was all but “gutted” when the Federal Reserve Board began “reinterpreting” Section 20 of the Act in order to help banks.  So, by 1999, when President Clinton signed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, it was just a shell of its former self.

We have seen an unparalled use of race and racism during the McCain/Palin campaign.  One of the most used attacks is that Sen. Obama “isn’t like us”.  Supporters of Sen. Obama have been the victims of violence and crimes.  The reason for this is clear; the racist rhetoric that is amped by the campaign and surrogates of Sen. McCain.  The State newspaper has now given a voice to that rhetoric in publishing Mr. Hambrecht’s letter.  

If you ask the editor’s at The State, they will say that it is Mr. Hambrecht’s “opinion”, and thus, it is fair game to be printed.  Yes, they believe that printing a “belief” that is devoid of fact, devoid of truth, and promotes a “it’s all the blacks fault”, is within their rights as a newspaper.  In fact, all they have done is show that they too are mired in the racist attitude that the financial crisis was all the fault of the poor black who was “given” a loan they couldn’t afford.

This ideal, however, forgets a very important fact; it wasn’t simply “blacks” who were given mortgages they couldn’t afford.  It was poor whites.  It was military families.  It was anyone and everyone that these predatory lenders could give a mortgage.  

It was reported that the foreclosure crisis hit military families in South Carolina the hardest out of all military families nationwide.  So, that poor private, white or black or latino, who wanted a home for their family and was given a mortgage they couldn’t afford is now the fault of the blacks exclusively?  It is in the mind of a person who is racist, whether overtly or not.

That The State newspaper gave this letter its own page is telling; racism is alive and well in South Carolina while facts, decency, and the truth have no place.