I've said it once and I'll say it again, humanity just doesn't work.

Is it to early to bow to our future robotic overlords?

Wow. Just wow. WTF year were they living in over there, anyway?

Makes me proud to have a Wells-Fargo mortgage.

UGH!

I don't see the problem here at all. After all, they were only expressing what they believed. This is A-MER-I-CA, the place where you have the right to yell the n word all over the place, just don't yell fire.

I don't see why ANYONE would be shocked at this, just because racism went underground doesn't mean that it went away, it just got better at being behind closed doors.

American-style capitalism and free markets at work! And people say we need regulations? Only if we can stop "those people" from protecting themselves in bankruptcy, am I right? The only "reform" we need in the system is tort reform! Am I right??

/wingnut

I am never amazed at the ignorant things that people will say when they feel that nobody will call them on it. Another person's silence doesn't allow the person with the cesspool mouth to know just how stupid they look when they say things like that.

Black President or not - you cannot fix racism with politics or with legislation. You fix it one person at a time by saying, "Dude - that's not cool."

@Faust: The govt cannot keep people from making racist statements.

@PittDragon: No, but it is the perfect time to buy Old Glory Robot Insurance!

Wow.... Ignorance has taken a new level..... they didn't just run their mouths they actually knowing took action that could cause someone serious financial harm... thats disgusting...

@sanjsrik: If they were only throwing around racial slurs, you may have had a point, misguided though it may be. But there are allegations that not only were they referred to in less than civilized terms, but that they were deliberately given unstable mortgages simply because of the color of their skin; in essence, Wells Fargo was charging black customers more than they would have white customers. This is patently wrong.

Wow mud people! I haven't heard that one in a while. In fact, I've never heard anybody say that who wasn't being ironic.

Fascinating to learn that it's an actual term, used by real racists! What an intricately odd world in which we live.

This is not just a few people using racial slurs and creating a hostile office environment.

They used a person's race to DELIBERATELY put them in bad loans. That is not only ethically wrong, but illegal as hell.

Which is why we should have regulations.

@greenunicorns: I'm a 39yo white female living in TX and I had never heard that term before, even ironically. Which is kind of ironic itself.

@dreamsneverend: They can probably do something loaning practices.

@sanjsrik:

You don't see anything wrong with this? Really?

Well, this really isn't about the racial slurs, it's about the blatant discrimination. Ever hear of the Fair Housing Act?

The shareholders should sue him for making purposefully bad business decisions for his company to satisfy his own personal grudges.

@labeled: I wonder how those that were trying to minimize this previously are going to spin it now. The evidence is clear, this was bigotry at its worst.

Page 3, number 8 of Paschal's Affidavit: "I also heard MORE employees on several occasions mimic and make fun of their minority customers by using racial slurs." Page 5, number 12 of Paschal's Affidavit: "In the Annandale office [the office Paschal worked in], all the MORE loan officers were African-American, even though their two managers were White." How many white guys are gonna tell the african-americans they can't use the N-word? Racist!!! If you read the affidavits, the greed displayed by the Wells Fargo employees is the truly offensive act - deliberately pushing subprime loans on people that qualified for prime loans in order to make higher commissions ($700,000/year plus salary).

@sanjsrik: wait, sarcasm?

can't get the pdf. says download limit reached.

every time I read mud people I keep imaging a pizza the hutt typu character, except made of mud.

@xip:

Just to clarify, by "him" I mean the person or persons responsible for setting and promoting these policies.

@Auto-Erotic_GitEmSteveDave-ation: They use old peoples medications for fuel!

@sanjsrik:

Racism and other prejudices will never be gone completely. It seems humanity always has an innate need to hate something. Whether it's a different religion, different music, different clothes style. And regardless of what ANYONE says...everyone is racist or prejudiced towards some people. They might deny it up and down in public, and tell themselves they aren't...but deep inside there is just some incident waiting to cause it to flare up.

I for one, am not the least bit surprised by this.

I had a Wells-Fargo car loan for years, and hated every interaction I had with them. Every time I spoke with someone at their company, I felt I'd just gotten off the line with the typical "good ole boys" club. They will degrade, insult, and humiliate you trying to get whatever they are calling you for. (at that time it was an overdue payment b/c I was unemployed after my company went under...) I was called some very humiliating and rude names by their so-called customer service people. I often got the feeling this was the norm for their company.

They run their company like it's still 1955, and these allegations go hand-in-hand with the type of business they seem to run.

It's time for good ol' boys companies like this to go away for good. I hope they get burned on this.... badly.

@greenunicorns: Hmmm...the only "mud people" I have ever heard of are those from the original Woodstock music festival. It baffles me that this sort of discrimination still exists in this day and age and that some people believe they would be able to get off clean with using such derogatory phrases.

@JGKojak: Yea, if only there was some sort of Act to make Housing more Fair!

Someone should do something!

@Saboth:

Guys don't you remember GMAC doing the EXACT same thing to people about 5 years ago? Actually gave black people higher interest payments on car loans simply because they were black.

Come on, WHO does this surprise? Big businesses are run by whom again?

The Old Boy Network doesn't actually pride itself on being multi-racial. Some of those guys at the top are so white they could be translucent.

Does Wells Fargo employ people with the same demographics it was discriminating against for loans? If so, how are they being treated at work?

I can't reach the .pdf, so sorry if this was covered.

@xip: Um, they did it to MAKE more money, not because it made them less.

PDF no longer available... anyone have a mirror site?

Where were these offices located? I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea that an entire office in a huge bank was not staffed by a single person who was not white.

Or if there were people of other races in that office what an insane and dehumanizing office environment.

You expect to see that kind of systematic behavior in some skeezy storefront loan company or payday used car dealer but not at a major bank.

@sanjsrik:

I can't speak for everyone, but I have a problem with this. My problem isn't with the use of racial slurs... it's with active discrimination based on race. It's not just wrong, it's illegal.

Most large companies see everything in one color: green. It's surprising to me that a company this large would cause itself legal trouble and potentially cost themselves business over racism by a higher-up.

Well, I guess this takes the wind out of the haters' "they shouldn't have taken out a mortgage they couldn't afford" sails, huh?

can no longer be downloaded :( anybody have it want to re upload it to somewhere else?

@sanjsrik: Really? You don't see a problem with valuing one color of human being less than another?

Holy shit, let me say that I have a huge problem with this. I have a problem with just about every aspect of it, including the racial slurs.

No, it doesn't surprise me, but hell yes I have a definite problem with it. I'm surprised it's OK with you.

Or... wait, did your mom and dad get on the news for getting turned down at Wal-Mart's cake decorating counter?

although racism is the priority of this article, i think the real moral is to show that EVERYONE should shop around for the best deal. i'm sure plenty of mortgage brokers shoehorned white people into subprime mortgages when they could have qualified for better too. nobody can take for granted that their mortgage broker is working for their best interests. mortgage brokers do NOT have a fiduciary duty to do what's best for the client, so they sell what pays them the most, and that's a lousy rate

@sanjsrik:

I don't think it would work that way. If WF was simply trying to make money, they would have put more than just black people in subprimes. The story implies that they were only doing this to black people, which makes me think that money wasn't the objective. Also, if WF offered people subprime loans when those people were qualified for better, the people could have just gone to other mortgage companies that aren't racist and gotten better rates there. This would have caused them to lose legitimate business. And finally, it is illegal for a business to discriminate based on race like this. Breaking the law is almost always a bad business decision but especially when it's purpose is to satisfy racism.

@sanjsrik: Just because something happens doesn't mean one can't be shocked, or outraged, or fed up with it.

Link fixed.

@dreamsneverend: This was WAY MORE tahn just a few racist statements, you know that, don't you?

@Porcelina: Did I say overlords? I meant "protectors." Merry Christmas!

@labeled: The present.

(I wanted to say 2009 but you said 'were' and I can't see the pdf to read which years they said this happened in.)

Download Limit Reached

@bohemian:

Even if the whole office was white, I am having a hard time believing that none of the white people in the office had a big enough issue with this to prevent it from happening or blow a whistle. I would like to think that this only happened on a limited basis between a middle-manager and a couple of other employees. If an upper-level manager sanctioned this and a whole office was involved, it's pretty shameful.

I'm a white girl and I'm extremely offended at the "mud people" thing. Like, WTF is a mud person anyway? MLK is turning over in his grave right now.

Can we get an angry mob going, please? I've got some pitchforks...

@ophmarketing:

No, I think that argument is still valid.

I've been a Consumerist lurker for a very long time and think this site is a fantastic tool for consumers. I simply couldn't resist writing when I saw the name Beth Jacobson in this article.
I used to work in the same branch (less than 10 employees) as Beth in Baltimore in 2005-2006 and am very familiar with her. Though I can't speak specifically to Beth's tactics, I can attest to the fact that the majority of the loan officers I worked with were honest and ethical people.
I was only aware of 1 instance of fraud/dishonesty during my tenure with Wells Fargo. A loan officer photocopied a rent check to make it seem like there was additional income from her client. However, that employee was promptly fired. Our manager during this time was also honest and very hard working. He stressed the importance of helping our clients and creating relationships with other real estate professionals.
Never were we told, directly or indirectly, to target a specific demographic. In fact, the leads given to the new loan officers were simply Call Lists which had potential clients' names and loan amounts. There was no way to know who they were soliciting (based on race).
I never heard of the bounties she describes and can't imagine they existed in such a small office without the rest of us having heard about it. In fact, our manager stressed community service. We often sponsored church organizations, school Easter Egg hunts, etc. However, the events we sponsored were 95% white (and that was because of our location...).
I can only make an educated guess that Mrs. Jacobsen is testifying to these tactics from experience and to get her own ass out of the fire. To give you an idea of her credibility, in the article she states "I used to joke that "I'll pay for your kids to go to private school if you give me clients." This is a very serious RESPA violation and should land her ass in jail.
Just as in any other profession, you will find scum who will take advantage of their position to make a quick buck and you will find hard-working honest professionals. She mentions in the article that she made $700k in one year. Would you leave a job making that kind of money unless there were shady circumstances surrounding your departure?

@redkamel: or that episode from The Tick with the creatures made of dirt.

"We're Filth! We're Filth! We come from filth we're going to filth!"