Equality and Liberty

By James H. Carr, Chief Business Officer for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition

The January 20, 2012 New York Times article titled “Blacks Face Bias in Bankruptcy, Study Suggests” reports on a soon-to-be-released study showing significant disparities in the treatment of white versus black clients facing bankruptcy. The study’s reported results are disturbing but neither surprising nor unexpected. African Americans continue to face major obstacles to succeeding economically in America. A preponderance of data and studies demonstrate blacks continue to face unfair barriers across the opportunity spectrum, from securing employment for which they are qualified and receiving equal pay and promotions, to accessing mainstream banking products, including safe and affordable mortgage credit. Now, it’s been documented that blacks also face bias in restructuring debt after a personal financial crisis.

The irony of this situation is, of course, that blacks are more likely to face financial crises directly as a result of multiple barriers they face accessing opportunities based solely on their race. The study is reported to have found that African Americans are twice as likely to be steered toward higher cost and less sustainable Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings, versus lower cost and more effective Chapter 11 filings, even when the financial characteristics of the clients are identical. This result parallels, for example, the propensity of blacks to have been steered toward high cost and unsustainable subprime mortgage loans during the years leading up to the recent foreclosure crisis. Research from the Center for Responsible Lending showed that in 2004 African Americans were more likely to receive subprime loans than white borrowers, even when risk factors such as credit scores were taken into consideration. Not only did that excessive peddling of reckless mortgage products to blacks result in their having experienced foreclosures at a disproportionately higher rate than white borrowers, but also, blacks are over-represented in the ranks of the long-term unemployed which has also grown as a result of the financial crisis.

by Jeremy Leaming

While some lawmakers and politicians are working to end a few of the nation’s inequalities, like the one centering on the right of gays and lesbians to wed, others are keeping up the ignoble work of trying to hobble or defeat efforts to advance equality.

For example, in many of the states where marriage equality is advancing, special interest groups have mounted, or in the midst of doing so, campaigns to ensure that government recognition of marriage belongs exclusively to men and women.

After Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire enacted marriage equality legislation, social conservatives promised to gather enough signatures to place the newly gained civil liberty before the voters. N.J. Gov. Chris Christie has endorsed placing civil liberties before the voters when he vetoed a bill allowing lesbians and gays to wed. (Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker took issue with Christie’s tactic, saying equal rights should never be placed before the whims of the majority.)

Religious right groups are also promising to topple the effort by Maryland to allow same-sex marriage. The Maryland Marriage Alliance, which calls itself a an “interfaith coalition dedicated” to keeping marriage an exclusive institution, has promised to launch a petition movement to place the law before voters, provided it passes the Maryland Senate and is signed by Gov. Martin O’Malley, both highly likely. The Maryland Senate passed a similar measure last year, and O’Malley (pictured) has said he would sign the new measure. The governor has also upped his involvement this time around – he’s sponsoring the equality legislation that is moving through the legislature.

Following the approval last week by the Md. House of Delegates, O’Malley applauded the outcome, saying the chamber had “voted for human dignity.”

The marriage alliance, a gathering of primarily evangelical Christian groups, issued a press statement decrying the House’s vote as undermining the exclusive definition of marriage and noting, “thankfully,” that the state “allows for a referendum process by a people’s vote, and we are committed, if needed, to bring this issue to the vote of the people of Maryland.”

Like the law enacted last year in New York, the Maryland marriage equality measure includes a provision granting an exemption for houses of worship to refuse to marry lesbians and gays. The Maryland Senate is expected, The Washington Post reports, to promptly take up the equality bill. The newspaper says the senate’s Judicial Proceedings Committee and the full chamber “quickly could approve the bill” with the possibility of sending it to O’Malley by week’s end. The state is moving quickly to become the eighth one to allow lesbians and gays to wed, joining Washington, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Iowa. The District of Columbia also recognizes same-sex marriage.