Wealth in Black hands Is Not fraud; It Is Freedom: A Black Wealth, Black History Series
By Attorney Tina M. Patterson, Esq
President, The PuLSE Institute
As we once again recognize this February as Black History Month, we remind ourselves how important it is to continually acknowledge the historic sacrifices made by courageous Black individuals and collective movements. They actively fought the unjust systems of their day to expand opportunities for the greater access and advancement that many of us enjoy today.
Without these historic and brave actions, many of us would not be in the position to benefit from the blood, sweat, and tears endured in order to secure our higher footing. I include myself as a privileged beneficiary as a Black attorney, as the numbers show just how rare such an opportunity still is.
While Blacks in America have gained notable socioeconomic access and advancement over the past few decades, it remains a far cry from parity or even a close equitable disparity. Take the legal field of attorneys, of which I am a member. According to the American Bar Association (ABA), less than 5% of attorneys in the United States are African American, a percentage that has barely changed in decades.
Such a low percentage of African Americans in an economic demographic is a common denominator in nearly all facets of socioeconomic growth. This is not due to any intellectual deficiency or natural incompetence of African Americans, as ignorance would argue.
Rather, it is attributed to the fact that this country still suffers from the residue of historic legal exclusion of African Americans in these fields. From critical areas like employment to education—key indicators of economic advancement—Black people were legally barred and routinely excluded from acquiring such opportunities.
Most infamously, African Americans as enslaved individuals were banned from even the most basic education of reading, and habitually excluded from paid work after the declaration of freedom from slavery under the 13th Amendment.
The economic barriers following emancipation, coupled with the legally exclusive Jim Crow laws that followed, remained persistent, yet so did the spirit of freedom, which ushered in the Civil Rights Movement. Since then, more African Americans have advanced economically, attained higher degrees of education, and of particular significance, have accumulated financial wealth.
The residue of racism still lingers in the politics of money and the industry of banking. Blacks were routinely barred from conducting business affairs in traditional banks and excluded from the regular use and enjoyment of banking privileges, such as mortgages and other loans.
While the overturning of segregation laws in the mid-20th century ushered in rights previously denied at traditionally established banks, one quarter into the 21st century, we as a country are still not without discrimination and disparate treatment of African Americans in banking.
Most notably, even the privileged elite and celebrity in the Black population have not escaped such differential treatment.
Despite or even due to the fact that equitable laws ban outright express discrimination based on race, it is distressing that in the legal system today, such discrimination in banking can hold difficult to prove.
Often, financial institutions subject aggrieved customers to mandatory arbitration, which tends to keep matters private rather than allowing justice to play out in public court institutions and provide more rigorous policy debates.
However, while the facts in these types of situations, colloquially referred to as “Banking While Black” vary from case to case, the core story has a common thread: Black person has “a lot of money” that financial institutions view with skepticism and reproach when trying to access it.
This story, told by a myriad of individuals in varying social classes and different locations across the country, cannot be pure coincidence.
In fact, several cases across the country were recently documented in The North Carolina Banking Institute Legal Journal at the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in a law review article titled, “Color in Line: Discrimination Against People of Color at the Deposit Window.”
Authored by Mark B. Greenlee, a former attorney for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the article cites various cases both reported online and in active litigation of alleged discrimination reported by African Americans in routine banking activities such as opening or closing accounts, withdrawing money from accounts, or making payments to a third party, among others.
Among the legal cases cited in the law review article is Hillery v. Genisys Credit Union, No. 2:23-cv-11452 (E.D. Mich. June 20, 2023), in which I represent an African American client pursuing a federal racial discrimination claim against the credit union.
The article opined that as evidenced by social media, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) complaints, and civil rights litigation, it is clear that racial discrimination is a persistent problem as banking organizations provide deposit, check cashing, and other money services. The author also called for policy solutions over regulatory interpretation, and urged new Congressional legislation to protect every person who steps up to the deposit window from discrimination.
While it can seem like an uphill battle for the legal world and policy makers to institute real tangible change to combat continuing discrimination, this does not signal a call to throw in the towel and bow to the political norms of the day. Even though challenging such discrimination in courts of law can present risk and uncertainty, it is still an available and necessary course of action to challenge and raise the public policy debate on the issue.
Additionally, this is a time when there is a hunger for bold action, which can take the form of nontraditional, newer methods than what we’ve been accustomed to. Most importantly, it starts with owning the truth that money in Black hands is not automatically criminal, illegal, illegitimate, or wrong. Instead, it must be accepted that Black people have the right to have money, and to use and enjoy their money with full banking privileges in legitimate transactions, including withdrawing funds, approval for loans, and any other means of acquiring immediate access to capital.
We are also not without recourse in the realm of public advocacy in the digital age of ever-increasing online branding and reputation management.
With the information of and connection to the world at our fingertips, every day individuals can create the change we thirst for long before lawmakers decide to step in. As credibility and influence derive more power and attention from online followings, individuals have incredible leverage and access in calling out wrongs in banking interactions. Bringing these actions into high public visibility tends to shift the tide in the public arena and may produce quicker and more favorable results from financial institutions due to the fear of losing customers.
Finally, there remains a forceful power in collective movements fueled by conscience. A modern example is the business backlash experienced by Target, which has seen its stock decline by 27% in the past 12 months and dropped out of Fortune Magazine’s World’s Most Admired Companies All-Star list for the first time in 24 years, following the extreme controversy surrounding the elimination of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Really achieving tangible changes can seem like a difficult feat and even an oversimplistic fantasy given the current political climate and seeming lack of consensus among national Black civic and government leadership. However, hope springs eternal, and one need not look any further than this current month when we are honoring Black History. In the face of the most hostile and oppressive forces that were literally killing anyone who dared to dream of the moment we are now experiencing, many more still dared to dream bigger and challenge the legal segregation of the day in order to deliver to us a level of freedom never yet experienced.
It is up to us to continue the work to gift ourselves and the generations that follow an even greater experience of freedom.
Attorney Tina M. Patterson is a nationally recognized legal authority whose work has been cited in major law journals including the Georgetown Law Journal on Poverty Law and Policy and the North Carolina Banking Institute at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. As President of The PuLSE Institute, Patterson has hosted leading voices on racial and economic justice, including Keith Ellison, Attorney General of the State of Minnesota and Top Prosecutor in the George Floyd Murder Trial, and Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr., trusted lieutenant of Dr. King, who was recently honored with the Global Civil Rights Leadership Award at The PuLSE Institute’s Inaugural Civil Rights Leadership Dinner. Patterson is the Principal Attorney of Patterson Justice Counsel, PLLC headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Known for winning high-profile legal battles against larger entities, Attorney Patterson’s work focuses on holding agencies accountable for contractual obligations and property rights, with her cases being cited in law journals as poignant references on the intersection of race, class, and public policy.
Patterson has published prolific writings on racial and economic justice for The PuLSE Institute, which are preserved in the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library, a first-class depository that houses the papers of every governor of the State of Michigan. She was recently honored with The Institute’s Economic Justice Award in recognition of her work. With over a decade of legal expertise and prolific public commentary, her work has established her as a prominent woman in executive and legal thought leadership, including being one of the handful of Black women leading major national think tanks and among the rare 2% of Black women lawyers in the United States.
