• cowfodder@lemmy.world
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    27 days ago

    Reminder that credit scores were invented to keep black people from being able to finance things.

    • Thunderbird4@lemmy.world
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      27 days ago

      Not that there isn’t bias in the credit scoring system, but I don’t think anyone was having any trouble keeping black people from financing things before. Before credit scores, credit worthiness was just up to the opinion of the bank manager, who had latitude to be as racist as he pleased. Practices like redlining actually became a lot more difficult with standardized credit scoring criteria. Again, it’s not perfect, but it’s about as close to a fair system as we’ve ever gotten.

    • pdxfed@lemmy.world
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      27 days ago

      I did not know that, though I would have assumed any scoring/ranking system that doesn’t take into account realities of history would systematically disadvantage minorities. Who/where did it come from? Chicago redlining? The good old South?