[beaver fever]

"Oh, I believe it's right next to the one decreeing expectation(s) of civilized behavior vary from group to group, nation to nation, and political belief to political belief."

Well if that law exists I think it should be repealed. There is one universal law in civil society, equal justice.

Emphasis on the equal side.

Equality of justice without equality of power and access to a fair legal defense is no equality at all.

The more I hang on this thread the more sympathy I feel for Rufus. It seems to me that in 2005 being poor and white is the lowest you can be.

Rufus is considered privileged because he's a white male but he's getting the shit kicked out of him just because he wants to sell his house without having to go to court. And what happens? A rich black couple sue him for more than the value of his house.

He loses his house and they go after the mortgage insurer to get the rest of the $100,000 and if he is mortgage free they go after his estate and if that doesn't work they go after the State for compensation for a civil rights violation.

They don't even have to buy the house, they don't have to rent the house out because they don't have to buy it in the first place. They just have to go to their lawyers office and pick up a cheque.

Cost to them? The price of gas to drive to the lawyer's office to pick up the cheque.

Meanwhile Rufus spends the rest of his days eating out of a dumpster.

The fact that they have the gall and stupidity to stand in front of their "mansion" and plead discrimination is appalling. Meanwhile Rufus can't even afford to have his 30 square ft of grass cut.

If I'm wrong about this I'll eat crow but I don't think I'll have to eat crow pie anytime soon.

[Theo]

Your points seem right on.

This kind of "iscrimination" is ugly, for the most part. The white many may well be a racist. But it shouldn't be illegal for a man to choose to whom he sells his home.

And it is odd that a rich black couple is so interested in buying this poor man's home. Perhaps they "know" something, and they'll go on to sell it to a developer for $300k. The black couple should have just "let it go," and found another home. They're crybabies. And their attorneys are nasty sharks.

[DumpsterDiver]

...but he's getting the shit kicked out of him just because he wants to sell his house without having to go to court.

I don't think the article was a well written one. The following indicates that Rufus doesn't want to sell his house. It'd be nice if we had the entire story.

[Rufus] Matthews told The Associated Press that he would sell his home only to a white buyer. But he denied the house was for sale, saying a sale sign he had was for items in his yard. "The house has never been for sale," he said.