Many are concerned about the future of banking for African Americans and where they keep their money considering the impending debt limit crisis that threatens America’s fiscal status globally and the failure of SVB, Signature, and First Republic banks.

In March, SVB was the first to fail as rising interest rates lowered the value of the bank’s holdings.

After a tumultuous weekend after SVB’s demise, Signature Bank ultimately shut down due to an overwhelming demand for withdrawals.

With their demise, America avoided the largest bank failure since 2008, when Lehman Brothers’ collapse triggered the Great Recession.

After this month’s seizure of First Republic by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), financial experts have officially declared a banking crisis.

And just as the adage goes, “When America catches a cold, Black people get pneumonia,” Black-owned banks could be unintentional victims of the United States’ current banking crisis.

Dominic Mjarten, CEO of Optus Bank, a Black-owned bank formed by Black leaders in 1921, expressed great worry to Yahoo News about the impact on the community bank system.

Not necessarily a crisis for Wall Street, but a major problem for Main Street, he said.

The FDIC reported that, of the more than 5,000 U.S. banks, just 25 are Black owned.
Based on experience, Mjarten explains, “When we have any hiccups, or any challenges in our financial system, underserved communities feel the impact first and recover last.”

Mjarten said Optus Bank is feeling the pressure since consumers are nervous about their money and are switching banks.

In effect, the funds have already left the areas Optus supports.

“It’s migrating over to larger institutions that are not as equipped to serve some of the smaller, underserved parts of our economy that we are,” Mjarten said.

Forbes adds that the failure of banks, especially Silicon Valley Bank, which dealt with roughly half of all U.S. technology firms funded by venture capitalists, will have immediate and long-term effects on the Black entrepreneurial environment.

“Even though Black entrepreneurs receive less than 0.5% of all venture dollars invested in the U.S., the fallout from SVB could have greater consequences for them,” Forbes wrote.

Experts agree that Black business owners to be competitive in a wide range of industries, they need access to capital.

But, Teri Williams, president of the Black-owned OneUnited Bank, told the Washington Informer that African Americans shouldn’t lose any sleep.

“If you go to our website at OneUnited.com/FDIC, you’ll see a great article on this point,” Williams said.

“If you have $250,000 or less in the bank, you can sleep well because your money is safe,” Williams exclaimed. “If you have a joint account, it’s insured up to $500,000.”

She noted that the FDIC insures all deposits up to $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for joint accounts. Further, “if you have more than one bank account, you can look for ways to increase FDIC coverage,” she stated.

“In the case of the banks that failed, they are very different institutions,” Williams explained.

“The average deposit at Silicon Valley Bank was $4 million. They had deposits of up to $500 million. There really was a lack of appreciation for the need to have multiple bank accounts or talking to your banker about whether you have FDIC insurance.

“If you like your bank, there are ways to get additional coverage. The FDIC insurance protects 90 percent of our community, so we don’t have to worry about failures. You are protected.”

This week, President Joe Biden proclaimed that the nation’s banks are safe.

“Americans can have confidence that the banking system is safe. Your deposits are safe.

The taxpayer will bear no losses,” the president declared. “Managers of these banks will be fired. Investors in these banks will not be protected.”

Williams offered further distinction from the 2008 collapse to the latest failures.

She said Black-owned banks wouldn’t be allowed to manage the way others have. “We are regulated, some would say over-regulated, so this is not our problem,” Williams posited.

“This also isn’t 2008, when we had a mortgage crisis. There isn’t a mortgage crisis today. If you own your home today, it’s probably worth more than when you bought it.

“In 2008, people paid more than their homes were worth, banks have tremendous capital today, and we are better regulated and managed than anything you saw in 2008

The post How the recent banking collapses might affect Black financial institutions appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Although Black women make up 7.7% of the total U.S. population, we have the highest rates of obesity in the country. Sixty percent of Black women live with obesity, which means we have higher risks for heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers related to the condition. The urgency for addressing obesity amongst Black women cannot be understated: As the obesity epidemic grows, the health of Black women is increasingly at risk and so is our ability to work, care for ourselves, and participate in society.

It’s not enough to acknowledge obesity for what it is, a silent killer upending Black women’s lives. Acknowledgement must be tied to immediate and impactful action. To truly stem the tide of this crisis, we must dismantle the discriminatory healthcare policies that deny access for millions of Black women to the full range of lifesaving obesity care, including FDA approved medications.

The science clearly shows that Black women are unavoidably exposed to the societal factors that lead to obesity. Yet as a society, we’re ignoring the evidence. The data say the lived experiences of Black women – disproportionate rates of poverty, gender bias, racism, and lack of access to healthcare – lead to higher rates of obesity. The American Medical Association (AMA) not only recognizes obesity as a complex, chronic disease, but they point out that racial and ethnic disparities are a major factor in the prevalence of obesity.

If the science is clear, then why has there been no effective solution to slowing the rates of obesity among Black women? The short answer is that national obesity policy is underpinned by outdated and punitive perceptions of the disease, resulting in discriminatory care and insurance coverage schemes that deny millions of Black women from accessing FDA-approved medication and treatment.

For decades, treatment for obesity has largely focused on recommending a regimen of diet and exercise, fueled by the myth that obesity is simply a behavioral issue that can be remedied through lifestyle changes and “self-control.” For years we have left the doctor’s office with vague instructions to lose weight and eat healthy, made to feel weak as we battle this debilitating disease on our own. But science has come a long way in the past twenty years, and we now realize there’s a lot more at play that, until now, we have not been able to control. Scientific breakthroughs have even proven that diet and exercise alone can be insufficient for treating obesity. Obesity is a disease, and it must be treated as such.

But access to its treatments are hard to come by. Medicare does not cover anti-obesity medications, nor do most Medicaid and Affordable Care Act plans. These programs are still driven by disproven notions that obesity is a behavioral issue, and not a chronic disease. As a result, patients reliant on these and other programs – including millions of Black women – are denied access to the full range of care, which includes FDA approved obesity medications. These policies were created two decades ago, when our understanding of obesity was primitive and incomplete.

The CDC recently reported that nearly 42% of American adults have obesity, yet nothing has changed for obesity care coverage since the AMA’s declaration that obesity is a chronic disease a decade ago.

It’s time to modernize our federal, state, and private healthcare programs based on science, address this disease seriously with coverage for comprehensive care, and ensure all Black women have access to treatment and care. The time for action is now!

Dr. Donna Christensen is the first female medical doctor to serve in Congress and serves on the Medical Advisory Board of Choose Healthy Life. Debra Fraser-Howze is the founder and President of Choose Healthy Life, a non-profit organization that addresses health equity through the Black church. Shavon Arline-Bradley is the President and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women.

The post OP-ED: Why Are We Leaving Black Women’s Health Behind? appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here