by Terry O'Neal-Cox MD

Created on: March 14, 2009

NAACP weighs in on Sub-prime Disaster

The United States, like the rest of the world, is in the grip of the current Global economic crisis. It is difficult, if not impossible, to turn on either the television or the radio and not hear a related story. Understandably, the "Monday morning quarterbacks" are still pointing fingers at whom they think should bear the blame, solely or in part, for the crisis. The truth of the matter is, historically, the economy, like everything else, is cyclical. How we in society choose to behave collectively, and individually, will determine the severity of the cycles; over reaction to one increases the severity of the consequences in the other. Two words come to mind; "equilibrium and homeostasis".

I was listening to a NPR station when I heard, not much to my surprise, that the NAACP is orchestrating a class action law suit on the behalf of Black people; because, they believe that White banking and mortgaging institutions unfairly singled out Blacks for "sub-prime" mortgages. In this economy, the NAACP is concerned about a large number of Black Americans facing housing foreclosure. I was not surprised because, in 2007 the NAACP made the same claim. I am sure that the NAACP, after extensive due diligence, have enough evidence that will substantiate their claim. And, no doubt, the NAACP believes that this is a noble fight. However, I am wondering (a) if the members of NAACP, in their quest to fight this noble battle, are taking aim at the wrong target, and (b) how much thought have they given to the consequences of winning the fight. Remember the old idiom? "The road to hell is paved with good intentions".

I cannot, and will not, argue against the NAACP's findings; so the findings, as the premise for their argument, are accepted as truth. The conclusion of skin color as the reason is a bit more difficult to accept. Keeping the word homeostasis in mind, I am sure that there are sufficient findings to defend the lending practices of the institutions. But those findings are not to be explored here because I am not defending the lenders' practices. I am just not sure if the lenders should be the target. It appears to me that the REASON(s) why the lenders should even have sub-prime lending as an option should be the target.

First, there is a system that is set up to arbitrarily rate citizens' credit worthiness with total disregard for extenuating circumstances. A thief can ruin the credit rating of an upstanding citizen; a delinquent spouse

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