endinequality is digital portal for public scholarship on structural inequality, and innovative solutions to inequality, in an effort for us all end-in-equality. endinequality is published by the Rutgers Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME). CLiME is dedicated to interdisciplinary scholarship on issues of structural inequality and place-based opportunity New Jersey and beyond.
A new type of person has emerged across the nation: “diverse” humans. If you haven’t seen many of us — I am one — in your institution, workplace or school, that’s because the effort to include “diverse” students, engineers, actors, executives or other candidates is still trying to gain traction.
Read More"Displacement through gentrification comes about because cities make deliberate tax policy decisions that favor certain elements over others," said David Troutt, one of the authors of the report and director of Rutger's Center for Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity. "A city like Newark has to exercise that same authority to protect (residents)," he added. "This is an obligation to make sure as it plans for growth, it also plans for affordability. Otherwise people disappear.”
Read MoreWhen it comes to misogyny and white supremacy, we’ve held the wrong audience accountable. For years, Harvey Weinstein’s and Donald Trump’s private audiences could be divided into two types of (often) men: his vocal supporters and his silent endorsers. The outspoken supporters — whether casual misogynists or white supremacists — are henchmen who helped take down women’s careers or allies in Congress who are themselves proponents of a white nationalist agenda. Most critics of both Weinstein and Trump consider this “base” group the real problem.
Read MoreCities may sue banks for injuries to their tax base caused by unlawful conduct against homeowners, according to the Supreme Court in a May 1st decision that was closely watched by fair housing advocates. An unusual split among the justices produced the 5-4 opinion in Bank of America v. City of Miami. The federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) ruling demonstrates that the aggregation of direct harms can produce broader consequences that may be actionable by indirect victims.
Read MoreJeena Shah is a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law in Rutgers Law School’s Constitutional Rights and International Human Rights Clinics. She recently spoke with CLiME staff member Tara Marlowe to discuss her approach to community lawyering.
Read MoreFair housing under the Mt. Laurel doctrine is resurrected in New Jersey. On January 18th, days before the inauguration of President Donald Trump would unsettle expectations of HUD’s role in supporting federal fair housing, the New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed the vitality of the state’s own constitutional requirement that all municipalities provide their “fair share” of the regional need for affordable housing. That constitutional requirement had been dead for 18 years, thanks to recalcitrance by the governor and the state regulatory body—the Council on Affordable Housing …
Read MoreThe Terrell Homes public housing project, with over 200 units situated in Newark’s Ironbound area, has again been proposed for demolition by the Newark Housing Authority, in the face of residents’ protests. The Terrell Homes is comprised of primarily black residents, who make up 10% of the 07105 zip code where the housing development sits; demolition of the units could significantly lower the proportion of black residents in the Ironbound neighborhood and therefore violate the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule.
Read MoreEquity is not just an ideal to admire. It can be defined, measured, and mapped. Visualizations are an increasingly important medium to communicate our values in a digital era. We have compiled some of the best visualizations that came our way this past year that featured measures of inequality and equity. We commend the researchers and institutions for their commitment and investment to this work.
Read MoreLast week, the New York Times reported on fundamental changes occurring to the State of Connecticut's public school financing, in response to a decade long lawsuit claiming that the state's poorest districts were producing poor outcomes. Supported by new research from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the New York Times concluded: "In the long run, over comparable time frames, states that send additional money to their lowest-income school districts see more academic improvement in those districts than states that don’t. The size of the effect was significant."
Read MoreThe presidential election that was too vulgar for us to write about, with accusations too inarticulate to describe policies, and an intimidating atmosphere of racist, nativist and sexist extremism inflaming every imaginable social division, finally received the emotional outcome it created. Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in a historic upset destined to be known as the ultimate political demand for change. For those dedicated to working against structural inequality, this may be the transformative change we …
Read MoreThis past September, CLiME began this series on housing issues in Newark by reporting on a demonstration at City Hall, part of the National Tenants Day of Action. I met many organizers and tenants from the Terrell Homes, who have been fighting to preserve the residences of over 200 families in this public housing development located in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood. Terrell first made headlines in 2014 as the tenants fought against talks of demolition. Now the Newark Housing Authority …
Read MoreThis election is giving me high blood pressure, and I don’t mean the man in the Great Pumpkin outfit who is running for president. No, my friends, it is the folks on “my side” who bring me despair. The blue-hairs and kids that can afford to work in politics and policy are of the same breed and dependent on the same hierarchy that they claim to be against. Case in point: in a moment of panic I recently volunteered at a local political organization. They told me that they needed to hire five part-time workers at $10 per hour.
Read More“Given the right resources and opportunity, people can bring about a change in their lives,” community organizer and social worker Jack Farrell explains to me. For over 40 years, Farrell has served as a bridge between community members and policymakers to address issues of trauma and violence in Northern New Jersey. His career started with substance abuse recovery– “and I see violence in the same way,” Farrell explains, “it’s a learned behavior.”
Read MoreFifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote “Why We Can’t Wait“ to dispel the notion that African Americans should be content to proceed on an incremental course toward full equality under the law and in the wider society. King observed, “Three hundred years of humiliation, abuse and deprivation cannot be expected to find voice in a whisper.” Yet waiting and whispering, rather than raising their voices for genuine inclusion, is what many seem to expect of the children and grandchildren of King’s generation even today.
Read MoreWhen President Obama visited the Rutgers Law School on November 2nd, it represented the startling achievement of two dream-like goals. First was the sheer specter of the occasion—seeing our president suddenly in our home, flanked by new flags and the familiar bars that adorn our atrium’s spiral stairs. Second was the occasion itself: to meet in a roundtable with formerly incarcerated persons and then to deliver a speech intended to reverse—by executive order—one of the single greatest public policy failures in American history.
Read MoreIn this season of anniversaries, no two are more stark in their parallels than Ferguson a year after the shooting of Michael Brown and New Orleans 10 years after Hurricane Katrina killed 1,800 and displaced thousands. Both involve the senseless loss of black lives and the public horror at revelations long known in many isolated communities. Each said a lot about race relations in a country where the “postracial” election of the first black president suggested that we were too far beyond Katrina to produce Ferguson. Each also speaks of structural inequality and the idea of disappearance.
Read MoreIt is tempting to look for signs of America’s direction in the late June ritual of reading the U.S. Supreme Court’s most momentous decisions of the term. Last week’s rulings in support of marriage equality, fair housing and Obamacare would suggest that on fundamental issues of daily life — the equal status of all love, the idea of housing as a link to life chances and the opening of access to healthcare for millions — the United States just took a giant step toward updating the constitutional principle of liberty with dignity.
Read MoreThe death of Freddie Gray, a 25 year-old black man, in the custody of Baltimore police appeared to be just another suspicious death of an unarmed black person in what had become a litany. It followed the deaths of Walter Scott in South Carolina, and before him Eric Davis in Mississippi and before him Akai Gurley, John Crawford, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown and Eric Garner going back to last summer. The country was not numb to acts of apparent police brutality anymore—far from it. But we had begun to study and protest its occurrences with the conviction of …
Read MoreThe young man in front of me in municipal court, calmly reiterated his previous statement: “I’d rather take 10 days in jail right now, than go home and come back for a few more hours of court in a week. I’d rather you take my freedom away for 10 full days, than retain a public defender free of charge, and get my paper work in order.” That was the response I got from a defendant in traffic court in Newark, New Jersey on an otherwise normal afternoon. This was a simple case: A polite and generally pleasant young man was pulled over and charged with driving on a suspended license.
Read MoreWhen I tried to engage a friend in a conversation about the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, my friend wearily waved his hand for me to stop. “Can’t do it,” he said politely. “It happens so often I’m inured to the pain. If I think too long about it I might just …” His voice trailed off. My friend is a black man. He is raising a black man. His response is one of three that tended to follow Saturday’s tragic news. You can either protect yourself by neutralizing your rage, as he did. You can defend your community and …
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