Mind Your Language

I just had a conversation with an agent that left a nasty taste in my mouth.

I know that there is racism in this world, but I like to pretend that there isn’t. We all like to pretend. Don't come out and tell me to my face that my nationality and race matter when I'm looking for a place to live. You’ve got to sugar coat it. Have some kind of tact, some kind of decency, some kind of professionalism.

I had this guy's number in my phone from the last time i was looking for a condo apt.
I sent him an sms with my specifications.

He calls while I'm watching Mind Your Language on YouTube and eating Chili con Carne over brown rice.


First he says, you're a foreigner, right? Then he asks what country I’m from. Not in the mood for that question, I ask him if it makes a difference. He says “yes, to the homeowners.” I let him know that I don't appreciate that. He says its the way it is.

He pushes further with my reality check. Landlords expect that foreigners won't rent for long so that’s a problem. Yeah but you didn’t just ask me whether I’m a foreigner. You asked my nationality. He says again that it matters to the owners. Then, he tells me that in my budget I "cannot live amongst whites"

WHAT?
Then he says that "whites" means "foreigners," Then I say that I live in a place where there are foreigners (I name the place) and he says “yes but those are Africans”

LOL!

you 8@#$@#^ idiot
Now, you've really pissed me off !

I tell him that I've got brown skin and have nothing against living with people who have brown skin. I tell him that I don't think I want to rent from someone who cares about such things. I tell him that I'm an American and ask him what reputation we have.
i.e. if you tell the owner I'm American, what are they going to assume about me?

I notice that many folks here equate being American with being white. Havn’t they ever heard of any famous African Americans? Don’t they see them in the bootleg films they sell like hotcakes at the farmer’s markets for three dollars. If I say I'm American they respond with "yeah but where were you born, or where are your parents from". I think to myself, havn’t they ever heard of the generations of colored folks who helped build the Great US of A?

A few years ago I heard about the reputation that Arabs have in the hotel industry here (they have “special rates” for them).
I ask the agent, “What will they assume about me if you tell them I'm American?” He then says he doesn’t want to “go into all that.” Let him ‘find me an apartment then after that we can go for a drink and talk about all that.’

We end the conversation with him saying that he just wants to help me find a place.
I say yeah well maybe and hang up.

Then i decide i dont' want his help.
Other agents have helped in the past without being so blatant about the racism

I sms him:

"There is a way to speak to people which avoids directly offending them. You are obviously doing fine speaking to people without concern for that, so I don’t think you will care if I decline your assistance. I thank you for replying but no need for further follow up"

he replies by sms:
Thank you for not wasting my time

I reply by sms:
you are QUITE welcome, Raj

His name is Raj
Indian!
Half of them are 10 times as brown as I am!
and they are victims of racism here too!


But i guess its just a game some folks are willing to play

Disgusting

disgusting taste left in my mouth
not the chili con carne
the world con racism
Meanwhile back “at home”…

Mounting evidence, provided by the Urban Institute in its 2000 Housing Discrimination Study and reaffirmed by the National Fair Housing Alliance along with other researchers, demonstrates that African-Americans and Hispanics encounter some form of discrimination in approximately 20 percent of their initial visits to a real estate sales or rental agent, and that at least 3 million instances of unlawful discrimination occur each year. Yet funding for fair housing enforcement has been steadily reduced in recent years, and there is little discussion of these problems outside the fair housing advocacy community.

And back in KL, I’ll wait to hear from all the other agents I contacted.
Maybe they will have a style that is easier to stomach.

And I will be happy to live amongst the Africans and Chinese and Arabs and Malays in my current area. No problem, who needs to live amongst the "Whites", paying ridiculous amounts of money for rent. Let them have their extravagance. I'll have my extravagance in the hereafter, God willing.