Mechanics and Farmers Bank

From Paul C. Clark at The Rhino Times:

On July 24, 2012, Quick and school board members Sandra Alexander, Carlvena Foster and Deena Hayes, the four black board members, wrote Guilford County School Superintendent Mo Green and recently appointed Guilford County Schools Chief Financial Officer Angie Henry, asking the school system to deposit money in the Greensboro branch of Durham-based Mechanics and Farmers Bank, which they said was black owned.

Were it not for the Rev. Quick’s reputation for piety, you might think he was joking. After all, he was a professional comedian before he was ordained a minister.

But it was no joke. All four black members of the school board – more than a third of its members, none of whom have any banking expertise – were attempting to make investment banking decisions for the school system, which has a budget of $677 million for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

Some things just shouldn’t be done by amateurs without training. Brain surgery, skydiving and investment banking leap to mind. But that didn’t stop the four school board members from trying to decide where Guilford County Schools should keep “its” money – in reality, the money of county, state and federal taxpayers.

Paul Clark is a social retard who never heard of Jim Crow. By demeaning the efforts of black school board members, he is regarding them as second-class citizens, worthy of mockery and derision for merely speaking up for their constituents.

From the letter:

We believe that African-American-owned and operated financial institutions should be given the same opportunity to provide banking services to the school district that other banks are afforded,” the letter continues. “According to the District’s website, ‘GCS is deeply committed to furthering the involvement of minority and women-owned businesses in school construction and renovation as well as other services and operational areas.’

From Henry‘s emailed response:

While a financial institution with one or even a few locations would not be able to meet the needs of the district as a central depository, we will continue to review investment options available to GCS and appreciate your request to include Mechanics and Farmers Bank in that consideration.

From Clark:

According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), as of March 31, 2012, Wells Fargo had assets totaling more than $1.2 trillion, and Mechanics and Farmers Bank had assets totaling $295 million.

So, GCS funds are deposited with a TBTF bank. Except for some small school operated accounts, the rest is invested in the stock market, which is suffering record low volume due to having been completely gamed by high frequency trading. Presumably, the deposited funds are protected by the FDIC, which is severely underfunded and completely unable to respond to a financial crisis.

Given the circumstances, investing with Mechanics and Farmers probably doesn’t expose the funds to any greater risk. The idea certainly doesn’t deserve to be pilloried with racism by Clark.

Of course, Charles Davenport, Jr., editor of The Greensboro Guardian, couldn’t resist the urge to pile on:

Alexander told Clark, “A member of the African-American community, a leader in the African-American community, had approached me and had approached other African-American members prior to my being on the board.”

Some of us recoiled upon reading Alexander’s remark because, in one sentence, she used the term “African-American” three times. Perhaps someone should inform Miss Alexander that the “Anglo-American community” couldn’t care less about racial distinctions, and that many members of the “Anglo-American community” are deeply suspicious of individuals—regardless of whether they hail from the “African-American community” or the “Anglo-American community”—who demonstrate, through words and deeds, a fetish for all things racial.

Davenport is a social retard who also never heard of Jim Crow. His disgust of the very term “African-American” is freely admitted. And yet he is disingenuous when he claims ‘the “Anglo-American community” couldn’t care less about racial distinctions.’ I fall into this group and care very much about racial distinctions. But whereas Davenport and Clark seek to keep them in chains, I seek to redress grievances African Americans feel for having been the victims of racial discrimination.

Davenport closes:

Since Miss Alexander is concerned exclusively with the “African-American community,” she may be interested to know that only 16% of black fourth-graders are proficient readers; among eighth-graders, the figure is 14%. (See NAEP results from 2011.) Miss Alexander and her fellow “African-American” board members should forget about the district’s banking practices, and devote a few hours every week to tutoring illiterate “African-American” kids. “The Anglo-American community” would appreciate it; black kids who can neither read nor write would appreciate it even more.

Whereas Clark mocks, Davenport scolds. One is as representative of Jim Crow tactics as the other. Both are considered reprehensible by the socially enlightened. All of us together have made great strides in ending such terrible treatment. We may always have the social retards with us, and therefore a responsibility to refute the hatred borne of their intolerance.