And she is he writes and speaks of black politics, social movements and racial inequality in the United States. Shes here for her third book, race for profit how banks and the Real Estate Industry undermined black homeownership. Sorry. She will be in discussion with professor Dorothy E Roberts from the university of pennsylvania was a socioeconomic and social justice advocate. I would like to introduce keanngayamahtta taylor. [applause] hello everyone. Thanks for coming. My talk fourth talked of sweet. Very glad to be here in philly. I begin this project began this project in 20082009 and was most about chicago. Do i need this . Mostly about chicago. And detroit. And when i move to philadelphia, i found out there was a story here. So philly has been an important part of me writing this book so im very glad to be able to actually be here and talk to you. Its a difficult book to read from. Kind of tents. But readable. So what im going to do is give a kind of narrative arc that really covers in Broad Strokes what the book is trying to do. Then the conversation between professor roberts and i hopefully will more information. To begin, last july in a now typical spasm of racist vitriol, donald trump described the city of baltimore as a quote, rat and rodent infested mess. That quote, no human being would want to live in. It was a cruel and thinly veiled code invoked to disparage the hardship in black and workingclass communities of that city. In doing so, it also conveyed a fatalistic disregard for those conditions while expressing a decided lack of ambition to actually attend to something as serious as rodent infestation. Despite president trumps rhetoric, was not evidence of africanamerican indifference to conditions in their neighborhood. But brats have always been markers of substandard housing that lives in the enclosure of residential segregation. The menace of rats and black workingclass neighborhoods in the 60s also inspired ridicule from meanspirited white conservatives in the government. It also sparked activism and even uprising. In august 1967, two weeks after riots in detroit prompted the deployment of federal troops in an american city, dozens of demonstrators burst into the chamber of house the chamber in the house of representatives, chanting, rats caused riots. [indiscernible] new the protesters that in the gallery of the hall for 20 minutes repeating the slogan, we want a rat bill. Previous attempts at passing the bill had not really been voted down, but had been ridiculed in the process. A Virginia Republican moth legislation mocked legislation saying quote, mr. Speaker, i think thats a smart thing to do is to vote this rat bill down, rat now. One of his colleagues marked it as a civil rights bill. No laughing matter. For the most visible example of the unequal Living Conditions forced onto black people in midcentury america. In the 1960s, africanamerican media regularly reported on rat attacks in the most vulnerable members of black urban households, children. A single mother complained to a chicago reporter that she stayed up most nights because of the rats. Crawling in her bed which made her nervous and the fact in her childrens bed which terrified her. Quote, they get into the bunkbeds so i set up all night. Im miserable and afraid. The infestation in black neighborhoods was profound. When africanamerican children were given a vocabulary test and asked to identify various familiar objects, more than 60 percent of the children misidentified a rat as a teddy bear. In the aftermath of riots in 1964, a city commissioned report found 100 percent of reported rat bites happened in segregated black majority neighborhoods. Housing segregation maintained through a vexing combination of white violence, Public Policy and the exclusionary practices of the private sector insured the substandard condition of black housing. By the end of the 1960s, the National Advisory commission on civil disorder known as the left no doubt that substandard housing evidence by the station was a recurring factor in the annual riots throughout the decade. At that defying segregation at the root of those conditions and as a significant source of black region black communities. The commissions findings called for historic changes to American Housing policy. A Landmark Supreme Court case, decided weeks after the passage of the Fair Housing Act in the spring of 1968 through upon the 1866 Civil Rights Act and the 13th amendment and comparing housing segregation to slavery. Arguing quote, when Racial Discrimination hurts men herdsmen into ghettos and prevents their ability to buy property on the color of their skin, it is a relic of slavery. The final piece of the battle came with the housing and urban Development Act in august 1968. The hud act was Lyndon Johnsons last greatest legislative accomplishment. It was a bill plant in collaboration with representatives from private enterprise and what was known as the kaiser commission. The businessman who participated describes the promotion of singlefamily Home Ownership for poor people as sociocommercial enterprise. Business with a conscience. Johnson would go on to describe the legislation as the magna carta are of the city. But its focused on the market and ownership insured was a bipartisan bill. For decades, federal officials relied on Public Housing to shelter for and low income people. By the end of the 1960s, Public Housing have become politically untenable with endless over its location and inhabitants. The poor suffering from a mixture of government neglect and shrinking tendency. The result of the dangerous conditions and or by residents and the constant pressure for such housing to exclude anyone other than the poorest tenants. The hud act was a pivot away from the notion of public or state responsibility for housing. Poor and low income people. At the heart of the legislation was a low income Home Ownership plan that and to transform low income renters into homeowners. Federal officials turned to Home Ownership as a cheaper program for the cost of houses were absorbed by the programs for disciplines while the government paid subsidies necessary to keep the prices low. This meant the federal government could make payments over time as opposed to the upfront expenses necessary to develop bills and manage Public Housing. These economic concerns also fit with the growing idea that homeownership could stabilize finger and restlessness coursing through american cities. Charles h percy, a republican from illinois describe the benefits of expanding homeownership as a quote, new dawn of opportunity on which a new National Effort to bring dignity and a better life to todays slum dwellers must be based. We can democratize our cities. Give people of the ghetto a piece of action. Let them be somebody and achieve something. Richard nixon said quote, people who own their own homes dont burn their neighborhoods. Rather in pride and self interests, they turned to fixing their communities and making them little for themselves and neighbors. The terms of the new Homeownership Program were a low 200 down payment. 20 percent of income, regardless of the cost of health and Interest Rates that were capped at one percent. The conclusion of federal mortgage insurance for the first time meant in the worstcase scenario, foreclosure or abandonment, the federal government was obligated to pay back the mortgage to the lender. These terms kept the prices of homes low and manageable for low income and workingclass people. But also removed almost all of the risk for the Real Estate Industry. As one official described the program quote, its like doing business in heaven. You cant lose money. The Unprecedented Program linked federal agencies to Real Estate Brokers and Mortgage Bankers to supply the loans of housing and loans to people in neighborhoods these organizations previously excluded or redlined. With the promise of lucrative subsidies and the guarantees of mortgage insurance and the promise of profit that came with them, melted away. But these conditions open to new pathways for corrupt real estate practices. Speculators and brokers bought cheap Dilapidated Properties hoping to flip them for hire prices and sell to people who qualified for the new programs. The entirety of the program was in the hands of the real estate operatives. When Real Estate Brokers match the person with the house, then connected the prospective buyer with the mortgage lender. It consulted with hard to determine if the person qualified for the program. At no time did an individual speak with a representative of the federal government for any state agency. Not only could money be made by flipping cheap property, but progress found it easy to bribe poorly paid federal housing administrators administration appraisers to inflate the value of the houses. Thinkers made money on the frontend by securing the loan in the first place and then they made money on the backend with expensive Closing Costs associated with selling the property. Everyone made money. Except for black families that were disproportionately saddled with broken homes across the country. One homeowner describe this as quote, the outright murder of our neighborhoods in america. Aided and abetted by the federal housing administration. The mortgage industry. Insurance industry and the unscrupulous Real Estate Industry. These institutions are working together to systematically destroy whats left of americas cities. Whatever salon has been considered a natural phenomenon. Changing neighborhood. Deteriorating cities. Its an outright plan and the government, the realtors and the big money people are making a lot of money at of changing neighborhoods. Out of communities we call home. The federal governments turn to homeownership was a consummate expression of postwar racial liberalism. That view inclusion into american democracy through the vehicles of citizenship, law and freemarket capitalism as the key to unlocking equality and social mobility. As it had been for white americans through the use of the new deal and the g. I. Bill after world war ii. In narrowing their focus to access alone, racial liberals overlooked the racist practices embedded within those institutions. This was shockingly clear in the Real Estate Industry. Thanks ed played a central role in creating the urban housing crisis. Exemplified by the persistent presence of wrapped in black housing. The sudden involvement of these same privatesector forces in coming up with the policy solution was a recipe for disaster. But if rat infestation in the 1960s was evidence of racial segregation, substandard housing and a catalyst for the rebellion throughout the 1960s, then their appearance in the federally subsidized home owned by black families in the 1970s punctured the delusion that simply transforming, redlining into inclusion was in a Housing Market, built upon an edifice of Racial Discrimination, exploitative practices and segregation. In and of itself could produce an inevitable interest outcome. With minimal oversight and a steadfast sensitivity to the bottom line of the real estate and banking industry, the search for safe, sound housing floundered in foreclosures and abandonment. Consider the experience of Janice Johnson. On september 18, 1970, she bought her first home in philadelphia with the mortgage guaranteed by the federal housing administration. By previous standards, johnson was a typical buyer. A black single mother on welfare living with her eightyearold son in a decaying apartment. In a building that had recently been condemned by city officials. In northeast philadelphia. Now facing eviction, johnson needed to quickly find a new place to live what her mother told her of an apartment for rent in the same neighborhood. Johnson called the landlord in anticipation but her hopes were dashed when he told her he couldnt enter the apartment because she was a welfare recipient. The landlord quickly pivoted from offering a rental to suggesting janice buy a house in the same neighborhood. Within weeks, she purchased a home and came to realize that her home was not the fulfillment of the American Dream but it was the beginning of an american nightmare. Within days of moving in, the sewer line broke, spewing wastewater all over the basement floor. The electricity was sporadic and haphazard. There were holes and other irregularities. The compromised structure of the house was not the worst of it. Johnsons son edward woke up to find a rat in his bed. Jenna saw rats including in the kitchen and bathroom. It harbored nests that regularly entered the house. She called to complain of its condition. He said send workman out on occasion. Soon after, the Real Estate Agent reminded her the problems were now her own. They were what he described as homeowners business. For johnson, the new terms of her and thousands of women like her to find new homes were predatory inclusion. Predatory inclusion into the Real Estate Market was evident when black buyers were granted access to conventional real estate practices and mortgage financing. But on more expensive and comparatively unequal terms. The disproportionate conditions of poverty and dilapidation produced years of public and private institution neglect. Became evidence of why black buyers should be considered risky and best treated differently within the Housing Market for black buyers were also vulnerable to predatory practices because of the ways segregation persisted. Making them vulnerable to Price Inflation and exploitative banking and real estate practices when it came to securing housing. More generally, predatory inclusion describe the ways africanamericans were welcomed into institutions and practices from which they had formerly been excluded because there were new ways in which they could be extracted from or financially exploited. Measurable and dangerous Housing Conditions in the existing urban market led people to walk away from homes they had recently purchased. And the numbers of foreclosures and insurance payments began to rise. By the end of 1973, 10 percent of section 235 homes, one of the Homeownership Programs. Went into foreclosure. Along with tens of thousands more and other low income Homeownership Programs. In may 1974, had wasnt the addition of 78,000 singlefamily homes that have been foreclosed upon. With tens of thousands more in a default status which meant they were months away from going into foreclosure. It showed federal appraisers were taking bribes and inflating the value of dilapidated homes by 34 times their actual worth. Mortgage bankers were accused of accepting bribes to ignore inconsistencies in paperwork in order to authorize loans for these homes. Newspaper reports hundreds of federal indictments identified local officials, appraisers, Real Estate Agents and mortgage lenders as all involved in the swindle. These were not only scandals but crimes that had been committed against poor and workingclass black people. In cities like philadelphia, detroit, seattle, columbia, south carolina. Mortgage bankers and real estate officials were arrested for conspiracy to commit fraud. By 1974, 28 hud officials have been indicted for their role in the housing scandal along with other mortgage and Real Estate Brokers. The fbi had 1930 open investigations into fraud in the hud Homeownership Program. Instead of focusing on the corrupt practices of the privatesector forces at the heart of these programs, policymakers scrutinized the homemaking skills and housekeeping abilities of black women. The racist discourse of unfit black mothers, marshaling the perceived domestic dysfunction in black households. Guaranteed these in which the decline of the programs to be attributed to the apparent ineptitude of black led households. Elected officials, media and members of the public were more than willing to listen. Even if hundreds of white men were arrested for criminal acts of fraud and corruption within the hud Homeownership Program, george romney, the former governor of michigan and the secretary of hard in the 70s insisted quote, housing by itself cannot solve the problem of people. Particularly those people he added quote, who may be suffering from bad habits, lawlessness, laziness, unemployment, inadequate education, low working skills. Poor motivation and the negative self image. And romneys last active secretary, impose a National Moratorium on all subsidized housing programs. Right in the midst of the end of the long economic boom of the postwar period and the onset of the economic depression. Next and use the hud crisis to prove it toward a new section 8 Housing Voucher Program but fully divested the federal government from low income homeownership in more generally, the discriminatory best practices of the industry made it resistant to change in adhering to their housing legislation. The be be 90 named [indiscernible]. Selling dilapidated