American Civil Liberties Union

During our nation's prolonged economic downturn, most of us have been impacted by foreclosures, unemployment, or a significant loss of savings. These hardships, however, haven't fallen equally across the backs of all Americans – minorities have borne a disproportionate share of the burden. Minority families are twice as likely to lose their home through foreclosure during the Great Recession. And, since these households relied on home equity for a greater proportion of their household wealth, the foreclosure crisis has substantially increased the wealth gap between whites and ethnic minorities. Discrimination, not neutral market forces, explains many of these disparities. Thus, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) recently issued Ability-to-Repay rule is a welcome first step towards protecting the civil rights of all Americans, so that every individual can achieve the American dream of homeownership on a fair and level playing field.

To illustrate its cover story about the housing market’s recovery in Phoenix, last week’s Bloomberg Businessweek cover depicted four black and Latino caricatures with obscenely exaggerated features, celebrating in a house filled with cash. You might wonder why an article about a tentative economic upturn should be represented by such alarmingly racist stereotypes—as though it’s a problem that people of color to have access to credit. After intense blowback, Bloomberg Businessweek responded, asserting “Our cover illustration last week got strong reactions, which we regret. Our intention was not to incite or offend. If we had to do it over again we’d do it differently.” However, their “apology” and its focus on their “intention” misses the larger point: Reducing complex economic systems to a caricature, particularly when it is done with an agenda, obscures the real sources of inequality and unfairly blames the victim.