Say Anything Blog

That’s the rather irresponsible headline the Fargo Forum is running about minorities in North Dakota and their rates of approval on home loans.

The overly-broad, sensationalist accusation made by that headline aside the truth is that only about 1/3 of Indian loan applications in North Dakota are being denied (1/4 in Minnesota).  That hardly matches up with the “Indians denied home loans” headline.  Clearly, the vast majority of Indians who apply for home loans are getting them. 

But I guess the folks at the Forum don’t let little things like “reality” get in the way of a good race-baiting headline.

What’s more, of the loans that are denied, the majority of them have to do with credit or debt issues.  Either the applicants don’t have good enough credit to secure a loan, don’t have enough collateral, didn’t have enough of a down payment, didn’t have a good enough job history or simply didn’t fill out the application properly.  Denying loans based on these criteria is hardly racism (which is the subtle accusation made by the article/headline) but rather prudent lending decisions.

After all, has not our economy felt the sting of lenders making poor lending decisions in recent years?  We should be glad that North Dakota lenders aren’t making unwise lending decisions, Indian applicants or not.

Also, when we add into this issue the high rate of poverty and unemployment (often due to substance abuse) among Indians in North Dakota and Minnesota, these higher rates of loan denial are hardly surprising.  It is true that Indians tend to be poorer, and unemployed at greater rates, than the average population.  So it follows that they wouldn’t be as eligible for loans.

That’s not really an explanation anyone wants to hear (I’m sure a lot of people would prefer to blame some widespread racist conspiracy among North Dakota and Minnesota lenders), but it’s reality none the less.

So what we should be asking ourselves is not why these people are being denied loans, but rather why they can’t seem to obtain the level of economic success necessary to qualify for these loans.  Yet again, that’s another thing nobody likes to talk about because it has a lot to do with the government-dependency and welfare state that exists on the various Indian reservations.

But talking about that is the sort of thing that can get you banished.