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Economic Recovery, 100 Percent Guaranteed: A Letter from the President and Executive Director, Rinku Sen

In his recent press conference, President Obama was asked how the stimulus would affect Black homeowners who had suffered so much from the mortgage crisis. His response-these communities had been disproportionately hit and would receive a disproportionate amount of relief-was better than it could have been, yet not what it should have been. On the plus side, the President acknowledged that there was a special case here. But he also gave the impression that sending temporary relief to Black families would bring about their recovery. He didn't mention the need to prevent the targeting of communities of color in the first place. Nor what made Black families so vulnerable to exploitation. Nor the real length of time it will take to rebuild their lost wealth. In a deeply racialized housing industry, this "rising tide" approach is too general to drive a fully inclusive recovery, a point we make in our new report on Race and Recession.

Every day, I confront the societal inertia that prevents us from getting to the targeted changes we need to guarantee economic recovery for 100 percent of U.S. residents. In business, government or media, we've found endless ways to replace a straightforward race analysis with proxies and euphemisms (disadvantaged communities, low-income families, vulnerable populations). As a result, we've replaced the vision of racial justice with some vague nautical image, and we never have to deal directly with race and how it shapes our economy. Addressing diversity is the best the country has been able to do.  [read more]