Banking Below 30

WFAA-TV  
11/22/20

“In this community, it's an economic embargo. If banks were equitable, we wouldn't have a housing problem. We wouldn't have an unemployment problem. We wouldn't have a police problem."

Standing in the lot of his auto wholesaling business, in one of the highest-minority and lowest-income neighborhoods in Dallas, businessman Robert Pitre told WFAA-TV how banks redline the minority community; denying the credit needed to buy a home or fund a business.

Pitre spoke those words 32 years ago.

Today, Robert Pitre is still selling cars from the same location and still struggling to get bank loans. We went go see him.

“They underestimate what we can do as a people,” Pitre said.

In “Banking Below 30,” WFAA-TV shines a new light on the old problem of redlining; uncovering compelling evidence that the pernicious practice persists and how it blocks a new generation of Black and Hispanic Americans from fulfilling the promise of economic justice.

Our review of service-area maps -- showing where they do business and where – revealed that 20% of the roughly 100 banks in Dallas County draw service maps that include the predominantly white and higher income areas of the county and exclude – or redline -- the high minority, lower income neighborhoods.

In every case, banking regulators gave these banks passing grades on a test meant to determine how well an institution reinvests in the minority community. In other words, we found, banking regulators are complicit in the denial of credit to minority communities.

Economic injustice is a primary driver of social injustice. Addressing both problems requires all of our collective attention. Because of that, WFAA-TV published all the documentation developed in support of this story for the use of other news outlets and community groups. We’ve partnered with the oldest, Black-owned newspaper in Dallas to share work, resources and tips. And we’ve begun training seminars to teach other news outlets, around the country, how to collect the evidence of modern redlining.

In conclusion, the three stories in this submission are just the beginning for us.

The evidence we continue to gather suggests we can and must expose a systemically racist financial system, perhaps designed with good intent but perverted to continue serving the moneyed interest of banks over the long-neglected financial needs of Black and Hispanic communities and people like Robert Pitre.

“If I could be white during the day and turn back Black at night, I wouldn’t have a problem borrowing money,” Pitre said. “I could be wealthy.

LINK to content online

Here's a follow-up story (and folo) we broadcast in 2021 examining how banks, instead of lending in low-income neighborhoods, instead make massive investments there in the form of government-subsidized apartment complexes in high crime areas.

LINK 2 to content online
LINK 3 to content online

Submitted by Jason Trahan.