In a blog entry at ColorLines, editor Kai Wright plaintively asks why it's so hard to get people to focus on the economic crisis. He condemns conflicts between police and Occupy Wall Street protesters because it obscures the goal of the demonstration. While acknowledging that Occupy Wall Street has morphed into a stronger protest against the wrongs of corporate America over the last few weeks, the voices of the poor still need to be heard.

I’m glad to see this post stirring lots of smart conversation. I do want to make sure I'm clear about one thing: The more people standing up and demanding economic equity and financial sector accountability the better -- in the streets, as lobbyists, as elected officials, wherever. So the Occupy Wall Street movement is a welcome development. As I write below, I believe its overall message is deeply, urgently important. But I also believe the details matter, and I hope that they will come to matter within this movement. The current economic crisis didn't just happen; it resulted from specific choices of both policymakers and financial sector players, and a great many of those choices involved preying upon the communities left most vulnerable by an unjust, rigged economy. That means that any effort to fix the problem, whether it stems from policymakers or reform movements of all stripes, must also explicitly deal with these realities.

There are now mounds of evidence that financial players, backed by big banks, targeted black neighborhoods with a wide range of predatory lending products -- and that they continue to do so. They did not target black people exclusively, but it's plain that they targeted black people with unique intensity. As a result, black America is now facing a uniquely acute economic crisis. That's not only a problem for black neighborhoods; it also means the broader country cannot sustainably recover. Our politics must honestly address these facts in order to create meaningful change.

Read Kai Wright's entire blog entry at ColorLines.

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