I bet that never happened.
Could it have happened? Sure, had a lot of crazy flagrant racist convos with older folks…. If this was a guy, I’d say odds are lower this happened as they know there are legal ramifications… with this seller being female I’d say odds are higher it may have happened.
It could also be a completely manufactured story.
The articles continued referencing of the buyers jobs shows the motivation of the paper.
Fair housing act makes it illegal to refuse to sell to anyone base on race, so what the buyers do for a living is utterly irrelevant, and any agent would know that a buyer refusing to sell because of race is illegal and would inform the seller of this if they give that reason to them.
So, could it have happened as reported.. sure, but I highly doubt the story as reported