Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Morgan Stanley Sued for Racial Discrimination in Pushing Predatory Loans to Black Homeowners

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, October 15, 2012

Morgan Stanley Sued for Racial Discrimination in Pushing Predatory Loans to Black Homeowners

Click here to access article from American Civil Liberties Union.

Morgan Stanley discriminated against black homeowners and violated federal civil rights laws by providing strong incentives to a subprime lender to originate mortgages that were likely to be foreclosed on, according to a groundbreaking lawsuit filed today.

I'm not sure that the plaintiffs will win this case because I think that banking institutions discriminated more on the basis of class than race. I think that anyone who appeared to be uneducated or naive was subject to the same incentives.