Part 1 of a 5-part Series…

Yes, WE can. Y’all remember that, right?

Bet you’re probably wondering who “we” is now, right?

When the Black folks down south and in spots around the nation pulled up on the electoral train’s Caboose during the 2008 nationals, President Obama was catapulted into the White House.

Black don’t vote. They do if they’ve got a vested interest in it. Sometimes.

With ACORN sufficiently defunded, the heart of the 1965 Voting Rights Act sufficiently carved out of it, and some typical low-classed low-hanging fruit with gun … President Barack Obama won in 2008 and won again in 2012.

But they couldn’t take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’…

In the meantime, here is what happened when No. 44, President Barack H. Obama Jr. went into office and went right to work on January 21-22, 2009, without even taking the customary three to six-month break and vacation that other presidents take when they are fresh off the trails.

Here are excerpts from his summary response to the housing and lending crisis as it stood in 2009.

Note: Keep in mind that predatory lending was worse in the Black or African-American communities than it was in the Spanish (Hispanic and Latino) communities. LULAC and some other core pro-Latino national agencies stepped up to the plate and fought back.

Also, keep in mind that Reagan in the 1980s and Clinton in the 1990s made it easy for white lending companies to what they call, “niggerize,” Black people during the housing crisis by relaxing the rules and legislation on disclosures. No longer did the lenders have to inform you up front what they were doing, you had to figure out for yourself that you were being ripped off or else. The only disclosures they were required to have were the ones that protected the lenders and brokers in the event of a foreclosure.

And here’s one you may have found hard to believe then, but not any  more: They hedged bets on Wall Street that YOU, Mr and Ms Black Homeowner, would lose that home in 2-3 years and they could keep your money, the house, the land, and “flip” it over to someone else and do the same thing over again. And they did just that.

The only thing the homebuyers got that was close to a disclosure was what is called a TIL, a truth-in-lending statement; and a legally required Promissory Note. Yes, you could have gotten a lawyer to look over the loan docs, but what would have been the point?

He who has the gold makes the rules, right? If everybody else goes for it, so must you.

Here’s another one most people did not know about: Title policies.

Lawyers were getting 10x the value of those title policies and splitting the money with the title companies to the tune of upwards of 60-90 percent of the take to get you to buy a title policy, one of which you had no choice – the Lender’s Policy. If you were fooled enough into buying Owner’s Title Policy, d’oh! You would never have needed one because the Lender doesn’t close title on properties that you are going to have ownership issues down the road. That’s why the back title searches are for a minimum of 40 years.

Well, since that national screw-up on the part of banks playing “let’s screw over the Negroes” footsies with brokers on Wall Street, the Spanish communities have been in mostly full recovery. They have recovered their homes, their land, and now even circumstantially and substantially own a HUMONGOUS piece of Bank of America as reparations for their sins. They own so much of it, the world is now calling it “Banco Americano.” For reals.

LULAC and the other grassroots organizations repped for the Spanish communities and they did the dang thang.

So … what the hayell happened with Black homeowners who were scourged and drudged during this housing crises? Did Black people even HAVE a housing crisis or an issue with predatory lending like the Hispanic community did? Did the homebuyers just throw in the towel and walk away?

Did their state legislators and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), as well as the NAACP put “a bug” in President Obama’s ears and tell him to “forget them Negroes”? Or was it something else all together?

Let’s take a look at what President Obama said in March of 2009, a mere two months, more or less, into his first term as President.

PART 2