Given the numerous financial hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are going to need to apply for credit in the coming months. How will you know if you are being treated fairly during the loan process?

It is often hard to determine whether you have faced credit discrimination, because other people’s credit score, financial history, and other factors used to determine interest rates are private information, so it is difficult to compare someone else’s loan terms with your own. However, there are some clues to look for.

According to a recent brochure issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), there are some signs that should alert a person to watch for discriminatory lending terms. Look for the following:

1. You are treated differently in person than you were on the telephone.
2. You are discouraged from applying for credit.
3. You hear the lender make negative comments about race, national origin or other protected characteristics.
4. You are refused credit even though you believe you are qualified for it.
5. You are offered credit with a higher interest rate, even though you believe you are qualified for a lower rate.
6. You are denied credit without being given a reason or being told how to find out why.
7. You feel pushed or pressured to obtain credit.

The CFPB’s brochure also offers general tips:

• Do your research. A loan is a significant financial decision. Just like you wouldn’t buy a house or car without researching options carefully, do not get a loan without doing the same. Shop around, learn about different kinds of financial products, and research current interest rates for your area.

• Know your credit history. Be sure there are no mistakes or missing items in your credit reports. You can obtain a free credit report once yearly from each of the three largest credit-reporting agencies using this link.
• Ask questions. Do not focus only on your monthly payment. Be sure you understand the rates and fees you will pay over the long run, whether you can pay the loan off early without a penalty, and all other terms of the loan.
• Stay in control. Your lender should not make you feel rushed or unnecessarily delay action on your application.
• Do not sign until you are satisfied the particular credit product works for you.

The full brochure can be found here.

If you believe you have faced discrimination by any Iowa City credit issuer, please do report the discrimination to the Office of Equity and Human Rights at 319-356-5015. Please feel free to also fill out an online complaint form to report the discrimination.

Replying to the U.S. Census ensures support over the next ten years for our schools, hospitals, community service organizations, workers, businesses, and city services.

The U.S. Census is still accepting self-response. Response from residents of Johnson County has been lower than expected. Especially considering the massive loss of tax revenue, local and state services will depend more heavily upon federal funding than before the COVID-19 pandemic, and that means people living here need to be counted.

There are three ways to reply to the Census:

• Visit my2020census.gov (Responses online can be completed in 13 different languages)
• Complete the U.S. Census form received in the mail
• Call the Census 844-330-2020 to respond in many languages and accessibility needs.

The Census Bureau has prepared guides and instructions in 59 languages online.

When employers begin to recall workers, who were laid-off or furloughed during the COVID-19 pandemic, it will be important to avoid actual or perceived discrimination during the process.

Because employees may be under significant financial stress, the process of recalling them will be closely watched for fairness.

 Therefore, the first suggestion for avoiding actual or perceived discrimination is transparency.

If there is a collective bargaining agreement, or if there are regulations, state emergency orders, or other obligations already in place, they must be followed. If not, employers must craft and implement a clear, reasonable, and fair policy.

At the least, the policy should consider:

1. How recall decisions will be made—are there some divisions or departments that are more essential to operations than others? Are there some job classifications or groups of competencies that are crucial to recall before others?
2. Notice requirements, including employer and employee responsibilities. How will the recall notice be communicated? How much time does each employee have to respond to the recall notice?
3. What is the impact of the furlough on the employee’s benefits, including accruals? 
4. How long do recall rights last? What happens in special circumstances—for example, the recalled employee is hospitalized with COVID-19 at the time of their recall?
5. What happens to employees that cannot be recalled? Do they receive severance? Accrual payout?

Remember that the answers to these questions must be based upon facts, skills, job classifications, and other objective criteria, not personal characteristics. When avoiding personal characteristics, also avoid the appearance of relying on personal attributes.

The perception of fairness may be more important to an employer’s future than actual legal compliance. Employees need to feel valued, especially during times of uncertainty. Transparency, objective criteria with reasonable factual support, and a clear and non-discriminatory policy will assist both employers and employees as people return to work. More information can be found in this article.

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

The term Asian Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent, as well as several Pacific island groups—Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Week began in 1979, and was reauthorized yearly by Congress until 1990, when the week was expanded to the month of May. In 1992, Congress made the designation permanent.

May was chosen for two reason. First, the first Japanese person to emigrate to the United States entered this country on May 7, 1843. Second, the transcontinental railroad was completed on May 10, 1869. The majority of workers on the railroad were immigrants from China.

The National Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month website, hosted by the Library of Congress, can be found here. The site contains many informative resources available from the Library of Congress and other federal agencies. At the May 5, 2020 City Council meeting, the City proclaimed May as Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in Iowa City.

John Lewis: On May 9, 1961, 21-year-old John Lewis, a civil rights activist, was severely beaten by a mob at the Greyhound bus terminal in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

A few days earlier, Lewis and 12 Freedom Riders -- seven black and six white -- had left Washington, D.C., on a Greyhound bus headed to New Orleans. They sat interracially on the bus, planning to test a Supreme Court ruling that made segregation in interstate transportation illegal.

The Freedom Riders rode safely through Virginia and North Carolina, but experienced violence when they stopped at the bus station in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and tried to enter the white waiting room together.

John Lewis and two other Riders were brutally attacked before a white police officer, who had been present the entire time, finally intervened. The Freedom Riders responded with nonviolence and decided not to press charges, continuing their protest ride further south, where they experienced continued violence from white mobs in Alabama.

Nearly 47 years later, Rock Hill Mayor Doug Echols apologized to John Lewis, by then a United States Congressman representing Georgia. In 2009, one of his attackers, former Klansman Elwin Wilson, also apologized. "I don't hold the town any more responsible than those men who beat us," Congressman Lewis has said about the community of Rock Hill, "and I saw those men as victims of the same system of segregation and hatred."

Linda Brown Smith: On May 17, 1954, the US Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education. Actually, a suite of consolidated cases, Brown was the first step in dismantling the US system of segregated schools.

The Court declared state laws mandating segregation unconstitutional and ordered states to integrate schools “with all deliberate speed.” That phrase, however, led to decades of resistance, especially in the South, where some school districts even closed rather than integrate.

Almost 25 years after the original decision, Linda Brown Smith, whose father was the named plaintiff in the Brown case, joined a suit reopening Brown and alleging that “open enrollment” in the Topeka, Kansas schools was a pretext for continuing segregation. That suit continued in various incarnations until, in 1999, an astonishing 45 years after Brown, the Topeka public schools finally earned “unified status,” meeting standards set by the court for racial balance.

Last year, the Office of Equity and Human Rights recognized the 65th anniversary of the Brown decision with Inclusive Teaching awards, keynoted by Dr. Cheryl Brown Henderson, sister of Linda Brown Smith. Iowa is one of 17 states in which it was unlawful to segregate schools prior to Brown. In 1868, Iowa was the first state to outlaw segregation in its schools, due to the case Clark v. Board of Directors (of the Muscatine schools).

World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development is held annually on May 21.

First declared in 2002 by the United Nations General Assembly, this day focuses on culture as a way to enhance prosperity, sustainable development, and peace. By drawing upon the creative potential of diverse cultures, we can better achieve sustainable development across the globe.

There are three main areas of focus for the Day: intercultural dialogue, inter-religious dialogue, and the relationship of culture to development policy.

Equitable exchange of dialogue is the prerequisite for constructing social cohesion and reconciliation among peoples.

Inter-religious dialogue, which is a subcategory of intercultural dialogue, includes cultural exchange between people of different religions, spiritual and humanistic traditions, in order to promote understanding, challenge stereotypes, foster respect, and reduce conflict.

Finally, development and culture are intertwined. In order to successfully promote sustainable development, cultural diversity must inform policy decisions. These three areas of focus provide the foundation of World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.

Search lists of “Best Independent Bookstores,” and there is a good chance Prairie Lights will appear. To find Marcus Books, however, one has to search “Best Black Bookstores.”

Marcus Books is a San Francisco institution. It is the oldest Black-owned bookstore in the United States, and a piece of living history. After surviving FBI surveillance in the 70’s, neighborhood gentrification, online competition (Marcus does not have an online store), and inevitable racism, Marcus Books may succumb to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A black bookstore is not only about the exchange of merchandise,” Jasmine Johnson, whose grandparents founded Marcus Books, told the Guardian newspaper. The disappearance of Marcus Books – which first opened in San Francisco in 1960 – and other black-centric bookstores would be devastating for the larger black community, she says. “We’re really about congregating around the diversity of black living and thinking. Surviving under economic duress is nothing new to us, but this is something totally different.”

Marcus Books’ struggles highlight the disparity in resources for Black businesses. City Lights, another San Francisco landmark, is also an independent bookstore. When City Lights created a GoFundMe campaign to raise $300,000 in order to stay open, its goal was met in days, and has been exceeded by nearly $200,000 in continuing donations.

Marcus Books has had a GoFundMe page up for over five weeks, asking for  $200,000 in support. It has raised just over half of that goal. Johnson believes this is because fundraising by Black bookstores is seen as catering to a niche interest.

“It’s pretty deeply connected to what happens when you qualify anything with black. … The publishing industry has had a history of framing us as a ‘diversity section’," The Guardian reports. “In an industry where black authors frequently receive less attention and promotion than their white counterparts, bookstores such as Marcus Books play an important role. Malcolm X was among the shop’s customers, and over the years, prominent black authors such as Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison held events at the bookstore – often before they experienced crossover success and were struggling to book events elsewhere.”

The full article in The Guardian is available here.

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