Posted on 01/29/2014 1:19:34 PM PST by massmike
In totalitarian regimes, it is best not to be too garrulous. Anything you say — no matter how innocuous — can and might be used against you. An example from the repressive dystopia known as Taxachusetts:
The seemingly innocent question posed by a Boston rental agent to Gladys Linder when they were searching for an apartment was “Where are you from?”
“Venezuela,” she answered.
Gladys and her husband went on to find an apartment a month later without further incident. But she found the question about her national origin insulting and upsetting.
This is Massachusetts, and you know what came next.
Stokel filed a complaint with the Boston Fair Housing Commission, claiming that rental agent’s question was discriminatory and caused her to suffer fear, anxiety and sleeplessness over a three-year period.
Seriously?
Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 151B and the Boston Fair Housing Commission Regulations make it illegal for any licensed real estate broker “to cause to be made any written or oral inquiry or record concerning . . . national origin.”
Although this was the agent’s first discrimination complaint and there was no discriminatory impact on the tenants at all, the Commission found that the question itself was unlawful and issued one of the largest penalties I have seen in recent years — $10,000 in emotional distress damages, plus $44,000 in attorney’s fees and costs and a $7,500 civil penalty against the broker — a whopping $61,500 in total liability for this single question, not to mention the tens of thousands the agent had to pay for defense legal fees.
The ruling can be found here: Linder v. Boston Fair Housing Commission, Mass. Appeals Court (Dec. 17, 2013).
Like Islam, Nazism, and Soviet communism, political correctness is a lunatic ideology that allows zero tolerance for what it defines as thought crimes. Given that we live in a society run by adherents to this malignant creed, it is best when talking to those you don’t know well enough to trust to keep all communication down to single syllables, or if possible, noncommittal grunts.
Asking “Where Are You From?” Results In $60,000 Rental Discrimination Penalty
Another sh*tbag “immigrant”. This isn’t the days of Ellis Island anymore. We are importing our enemies.
I’ve had massachusetts real estate agents ask me what type of housing I was looking for and in what area of town. I found these questions insulting and upsetting and I suffered extreme emotional distress. Where is my money??
Geez... you can’t even be conversational anymore?
MAKE SURE THIS STAYS PUBLIC!
So everyone knows NOT TO talk to these ‘venezualans’ and risk $thousands to defend yourself for telling (ordering?) them to “have a nice day”
Now that I think of it, I remember ALL my real estate agenst asking me where I lived !
Prove you didn’t, sucka’s!
WHERE’S MY MONEY
Did they have any actual recorded proof that the agent asked them that question?
Does a Massachusetts statute override the agent’s first amendment rights to ask innocent questions of clients?
I guess I’ll add Massachusetts to the list of states that I refuse to ever visit.
At the last company where I worked, a Fortune 500 operation, they had a 10-15 page document that essentially told us what we could and could not discuss at work. No jokes, nothing about race, only work related topics. While it was the most professional-seeming place I’ve ever worked, it was cold. Almost nobody associated with anyone else after work. Very few conversations that were not work related. If somebody was going to say something personal they’d stand up, stretch and look around and then whisper it. (The wife and I are going fishing this weekend.)
What if you had a bumper sticker that reads: “Where are you from?”
and in subscript says “By the national associaition of geneology”
Probably fine worthy by the control freaks,...
“Gladys and her husband went on to find an apartment a month later without further incident. But she found the question about her national origin insulting and upsetting.”
why?
Tea party Flash mobs in mall just walking around asking “Where are you from?” to the air....
Seems like an appropriate response.
why?
...because there's no money in NOT being "offended"?
Unconstitutional. I know it is about what real estate agents can and can’t say because they are licensed, but you don’t give up your first amendment rights to get a license to simply sell homes.
I’d like to see the ACLU take up this case, all the way to the supreme court.
The problem isn’t the woman complaining. The problem is the Commission. There are all sorts of crazy and unreasonable people out there. The Commission should have protected the agent from such a person, rather than side with their lunacy.
Next it’ll be an offense to expect them to actually PAY FOR the house!
I don’t see anywere in that where the agent asked her nationality.
“Where are you from?” can mean “What US city are you from?”
But of course you have no defense in today’s PC mad world. If you are White or a business owner, you are wrong.
“Prove you didn’t, sucka’s!”
Great point. What happens when it’s your word against theirs? Nevermind, I already know the answer.
Three years ago???? WTF?!!?
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