The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap

by Mehrsa Baradaran

Not only were blacks unworthy of loans, but the white clerk also blamed fickle depositors for the instability of black banks, lamenting that if only these black depositors would allow their deposits to grow, the banks would not be so burdened. He reasoned that the wage earners would often take out their deposits during the Christmas season, moralizing that this was because they lacked proper perspective and self-control.66 While his institution was diverting the scant resources of Harlem downtown, he was blaming the “unlearned” and “emotional negro” for his own poverty and lack of resources. This moral indictment of the poor by institutions complicit in their poverty is a recurring theme. In fact, privileged observers often cast the rational behavior of the economically disenfranchised as a sign of moral inferiority that explains their poverty and simultaneously justifies apathy toward them.