Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBusinessweek Warns That Minorities May Be Buying Houses Again
By Matthew Yglesias
Posted Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013, at 10:50 AM
... this way of illustrating a cover story about the return of aggressive mortgage lending products is really something else. The idea is that we can know things are really getting out of hand since even nonwhite people can get loans these days! They ought to be ashamed ...
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/02/28/racist_businessweek_cover_bloomberg_businessweek_misfires_badly.html
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
8 replies, 1209 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (3)
ReplyReply to this post
8 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Businessweek Warns That Minorities May Be Buying Houses Again (Original Post)
struggle4progress
Mar 2013
OP
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,330 posts)1. Holy shit. That is really the cover?
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)2. Yep.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)4. Amazing window into what the Business Class thinks, huh?
ecstatic
(32,712 posts)3. unbelievable! nt
Kennah
(14,276 posts)5. It's surreal
KT2000
(20,583 posts)6. the 1% is so smug now
they don't even have to keep it behind closed doors - like Romneys 47% speech.
BREMPRO
(2,331 posts)7. no way..can't be real.. that is just tOO bLATently racist...
if it is real, wtf is wrong with their editors?? talk about tone deaf assholes.
BREMPRO
(2,331 posts)8. by god it is real, and they apologized, but really tone deaf editors....
A further update to the saga of that now-infamous Businessweek housing cover.
The actual story it illustrates is about the housing recovery in the Phoenix area and says nothing in particular about minority homeowners (though obviously Phoenix has a large Latino population). Instead it's about how housing recovery is on the one hand good for the American economy, but on the other hand we seem to already be in a new speculative phase with people talking about getting rich flipping houses, housing as a can't-lose investment, and all the rest of the mid-aughts madness. To go with the story they commissioned an illustration from a Peruvian illustrator who, in a missive that Businessweek shared with me, explains "I simply drew the family like that because those are the kind of families I know. I am Latino and grew up around plenty of mixed families."
That's understandable enough as far as it goes. Obviously, though, as Businessweek well knows someone else on the staff should have been able to see how this was going to look in the U.S. context. It's pretty clear if you read the story that there's genuinely no effort here to impugn minority homebuyers, but that's certainly how I read the image, and I think it's a very natural reading of it.