While the primary focus of the incident in McKinney, TX has been calling for the termination of now resigned Corporal Eric Casebolt, Twitter launched an impromptu campaign to identify the two women confirmed to have made racist comments by at least two eyewitnesses that led to the fight and the police being called in the first place. The video begins with an adult white woman and what appears to be a much younger African American girl locked in a fight, with each holding the others hair attempting to throw punches. A group of black teens initially act as observers but eventually try to separate the two. Another woman, now known as Tracey-Carver Allbritton, at first seems to be trying to break up the fight, but quickly decides to start throwing punches to the top of the younger girls head. After a few seconds the fight is broken up and both parties go their separate ways.
That video led activists on Twitter to ask who were the two women and why hadn't they been arrested, or at least questioned for their role in the fight. At this point they seemed to have slipped under the radar. It didn't take long for that video to be matched up with a Facebook profile linking Ms. Allbritton directly to the incident, and to her apparent employer listed on the account, Bank of America.
.@bankofamerica Is this your employee Tracey Carver-Allbritton attacking a child & using racial slurs?#McKinneyPolice pic.twitter.com/VUTNFBJ1XU — DallasforChange (@DallasforChange) June 8, 2015
.@bankofamerica Is this your employee Tracey Carver-Allbritton attacking a child & using racial slurs?#McKinneyPolice pic.twitter.com/VUTNFBJ1XU
The tweet sent by Dallas Communities Organizing for Change, an organization who fights for racial justice and police reform, spread like wild fire and eventually forced financial behomoth Bank of America to conduct an investigation of its own to determine whether or not Ms. Allbritton actually did work for them. Contrary to what is listed on her Facebook profile, Bank of America released a statement online confirming that in fact she didn't work for them, but that she did work for one of their vendors.
We've concluded our investigation and the woman identified is not a Bank of America employee but works with a vendor company (1/2) — Bank of America (@BofA_News) June 9, 2015
We've concluded our investigation and the woman identified is not a Bank of America employee but works with a vendor company (1/2)
That vendor company is CoreLogic Inc, a major financial data and analytics firm closely aligned with Bank of America. CoreLogic has been providing various financial and home loan information services to Bank of America since at least 2011, which is around the time the U.S. Department of Justice settled a $335 million suit for racially discriminating against African Americans and Latinos in home mortgage lending. While CoreLogic Inc. seems not to be directly responsible for the decision on whether or not to issue home mortgage loans or other financial products to individuals, they provide a comprehensive lender profile and all necessary information needed to make the decision. This includes providing services such as credit profiles, credit reports, home mortgage default services, and analytics on multifamily leasing among others.
According to a statement given to the Dallas Morning News, “CoreLogic does not condone violence, discrimination or harassment and takes conduct that is inconsistent with our values and expectations very seriously. As a result of these pending allegations, we have placed the employee in question on administrative leave while further investigations take place." Several calls to confirm if this was actually the case have yet to be answered by CoreLogic Inc.
This is seen as preliminary good news by some, but the question still remains as to what her role exactly is with the financial data firm, whether or not she has direct decision making authority over the issuance of loans, and if so, how many African Americans and Latino's may have been denied based on her personal racial bias.
Sat Jun 13, 2015 at 11:29 AM PT: BBC News has confirmed that Tracey Carver-Allbritton has been placed on administrative leave for involvement with the pool party incident. She is considered management by the company, but is not executive management and does not make decisions regarding loans according to a close family friend. The McKinney Police are also investigating whether any crimes were committed during the altercation. No announcements have been made at this time.
845
