In Letitia James Case, Some Black Women See Their Own Family Sacrifices

The New York Times ^ | Oct. 25, 2025, 3:00 a.m. ET | Troy Closson and Jeffery C. Mays

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The federal indictment of New York’s attorney general centers on a home she purchased for a relative. It is an act that rings deeply familiar to many.

To some Black families, it was an intimately familiar arrangement.

A woman whose parents fled a life of sharecropping in the South was among the first in her family to achieve a prestigious career. She extended her help to relatives who had less, even buying a home for a grandniece in need of stability.

The house sits at the center of the indictment of Letitia James, the New York attorney general, by the Justice Department. She was accused of misrepresenting the purpose of the property, a $137,000 home in Norfolk, Va., when she purchased it in 2020.

The prosecutor who secured the indictment, a Trump loyalist who once served as his defense attorney, said that the charges chronicle “intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust.” Ms. James faces the possibility of decades in prison if convicted. On Friday, she pleaded not guilty to those charges in federal court in Norfolk, Va.

But in some ways, the basic contours of the case illuminate another story about the experience of Black women in America, a story that rang familiar to a small contingent of influential Black women leaders who began privately rallying around Ms. James in the hours after her indictment.

Millions of U.S. adults provide care for relatives and friends, and many more pitch in to help loved ones by providing money, housing, child care and other needs in moments of hardship. It is often a defining practice for Black women, academics and economists say.

Across the country, working women have increasingly emerged as the breadwinners for their immediate households over the last half-century. Black women in particular,...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

So "Some Black Women" are entitled to file fraudulent loan documents because Black Privilege.

Check.

[kiryandil]

The propaganda class is out over its skis on this one...

[rexthecat]

I appreciate the post but is there a workaround to see NY Times articles? Their pay wall blocks me from reading the story.

[NorthMountain]

To some Black families, it was an intimately familiar arrangement.

Wow.

The author wants us to believe that fraud is an "intimately familiar arrangement" to black families.

How racist is that?

[kiryandil]

Ms. James faces the possibility of decades in prison if convicted.

Jemima James also faces the certainty of decades of looking like a ghettopotamus.

[kiryandil]

They’re handicapped, according Supreme Court Seat Two.

[MileHi]

I’m dizzy from the spin.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

An enormous amount of derivative bullshit is being spewed about this matter. She signed under a declaration acknowledging a penalty of perjury for the submission of untrue information. It's not conditioned on specific dollar amounts of benefit or on being kind to widows, orphans, and distressed family members - it is conditioned on the truth of the information being submitted. She will be shown to be guilty as charged; the only remaining question is whether jury nullification will make an appearance. On that I am not sure.

[No name given]

Very.

[Judge Bean]

To some white families, it seems racist to grant a pass to a black woman because the color of her skin.

[Rummyfan]

OFFS.

[Rummyfan]

James’ parents were sharecroppers?!

[ridesthemiles]

SHE ALSO REPORTED ONLY $1350 OF RENT IN 5 YEARS On HER TAX RETURNS

[Old Yeller]

Nobody knowsss the troubles ah’ve seen.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

#12: "James’ parents were sharecroppers?!"

That's a typo. Tish's parents were sharegrifters.

[frank ballenger]

Future....

James: You get me some more crack by tonight or I’ll have you shivved in your cell.

[cgbg]

Nothing says “black women” like good old fashioned mortgage fraud.

That was the point of the article apparently.

[kiryandil]

😂😂😂

[Wuli]

Her “philanthropic intent” towards her family is not her problem. Her problem is how she represented the transactions, falsely, and obtained better financial benefit by that falsehood. Small or large, it’s about fraud, not how “nice she was toward helping her family”. Her intentions did not entitle her to benefit by fraud.

[mcenedo]

A woman whose parents fled a life of sharecropping in the South ...

I should have stopped right there.

What would you expect from the NYSlime? The woman is practically a saint and the career criminals she provides for just "need guidance".