Newspaper ad

alleepally

Don't know if anyone saw the news tonight but there was a report both on TV3 and RTE regarding an advertisement that appeared in the Connaught Tribune for an apartment to rent. The wording in the ad included "no coloureds". The reports rightly picked up the discrimantory nature of the ad and there was an interview with someone from the newspaper who was very apologetic.

Watching it I couldn't help but think of the number of ads that I've seen in many newspapers for accomodation which include the phrase "no EHB" (no Eastern Health Board). Discimination also but never see a news report about that.

Anyone else see the report and think the same?

Agent Smith

saw the report on rte.....


disgracefull imo

Supercell

Reading any accomodation ad , makes me wonder about double standards here.

Yes saying "no coloured's is frankly discusting, however, is it really any different from saying "female" , "non smoker" , "no couples" etc etc etc...??

Try reading the ad's on daft.ie , pretty much every ad discriminates agains one group or another.

I suppose everyone posting has their own reasons for only wanting people that fit into their own niche of acceptability, frankly don't see how this is different, even though i stress that i find it deplorable to use this as a reason for exclusion.

ixoy

Eh non-smoker is one that's quite fair I think! Specifying gender makes sense - some women might feel threatened by a man or not want to have to worry about UST. Couples bring a en extra suitcase of emotional baggage with them. However, specifying skin color is something quite quite different....

Ro: maaan!

Originally posted by Longfield
Yes saying "no coloured's is frankly discusting, however, is it really any different from saying "female" , "non smoker" , "no couples" etc etc etc...??

It's exactly the same. Apart from the smoking one. But any hint of racism and people just get stupid about it. Sure it's better than just saying nothing, and letting them waste their time by going along and just not getting it.

Supercell

Well ixoy, its interesting that you can find justification for the others but not the coloured one, especially find the "emotional baggage" one interesting.

Your "women might feel threatened" ?? assumes that all landlords that stipulate this are cowering females, its still discriminatory, i wouldn't harm a fly unless in self protection, yet i'm not able to apply for some places..sorry it just doesnt hold water.

Suppose this all reminds me of flat hunting about a year ago, thre were some ads that said because i was a smoker and male that i couldn't even apply there, i pay my rent without fail, i am not noisy...in fact would consider myself the ideal tenant..yet i was discriminated against.

All discrimination is wrong , its hypocritical that the "coloured" discrimination gets more press than other discrimination imho.

Supercell

Originally posted by Ro: maaan!
It's exactly the same. Apart from the smoking one. But any hint of racism and people just get stupid about it. Sure it's better than just saying nothing, and letting them waste their time by going along and just not getting it.

Yep, about the only one i could see as being reasonable is the smoking one..stains walls, fire hazard etc..but thats about the ONLY discrimation thats justifiable in accommodation advertisements prolly.

ixoy

Originally posted by Longfield
Yep, about the only one i could see as being reasonable is the smoking one..stains walls, fire hazard etc..but thats about the ONLY discrimation thats justifiable in accommodation advertisements prolly.

Yes but the others can have some defense. Whether or not it's justifiable is a different matter - and frankly I'm surprised some of those ads haven't also been tested under the Equality Act. Actually, is there an ad which has ever said "Men only"?

sunbeam

Originally posted by ixoy
Yes but the others can have some defense. Whether or not it's justifiable is a different matter - and frankly I'm surprised some of those ads haven't also been tested under the Equality Act. Actually, is there an ad which has ever said "Men only"?

I've seen a few 'male wanted to share house' ads in my time renting though they were less numerous than the female ones.

Quatre Mains

Originally posted by Longfield
Yes saying "no coloured's is frankly discusting, however, is it really any different from saying "female" , "non smoker" , "no couples" etc etc etc...??

Try reading the ad's on daft.ie , pretty much every ad discriminates agains one group or another.

I suppose everyone posting has their own reasons for only wanting people that fit into their own niche of acceptability

- If its a matter of sharing a house/apartment rather than renting out an actual property then that person has every right make as many stipulations as they like IMO. If I rented out a room in my house, I would have "male" , "non smoker" , "no couples" as 3 requirements. Why should I have to live with a female smoker who refuses to watch the football (or the Sopranos when there's Sex and the City repeats on at the same time:rolleyes: ) and whose boyfriend is virtually living in the house rent-free? I think being upfront in your ad about what type of person you are willing to share with saves both the advertiser and roomseeker a lot of crap. At the end of the day, you need to be 100% relaxed in your own home - being PC
doesn't come into the equation.

(one reason for the no EHB thing I guess is because people don't want to share a house with someone out of work, because they'll be at home a lot more of the time).

Neil

gucci

what i thought was awful poxy was the news papers claims that it could have been a typo,yet they couldnt explain wat it was supppose to have been ,perhaps a reference to the painted walls in the house(this was on the rte report on news2 lasnite!)
sounds like a child trying to explain how they broke something

Genghis

Originally posted by gucci
what i thought was awful poxy was the news papers claims that it could have been a typo,yet they couldnt explain wat it was supppose to have been ,perhaps a reference to the painted walls in the house(this was on the rte report on news2 lasnite!)
sounds like a child trying to explain how they broke something

Yeah, I found that a bit unbelievable too. Either one of their staff never checked the ad before it went out (and the non-PC term originated with their client), or worse again, one of their staff took a client brief and thought it would be okay to use that term.

I don't think it is the discrimination per se that is the problem (after all, selecting a tenant is precisely a process of discrimination), it is the rawness of seeing it explicitly stated in an ad. All the same, I wonder which is more offensive to a non-national - to read somehting like this in a newspaper, or to repeatedly apply and be repeatedly rejected. Given that you can do somehting about the printing of an ad, I'd say the real problem must be what goes on after the application.

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

Tommy Vercetti

Originally posted by smiaras
I highly doubt that someone would be stupid enough to say that they didn't want coloured people.

stupid or honest?

I believe that's exactly what they meant and the paper didn't check or didn't care.

Landlords discriminate against anyone and everyone, I don't see what all the fuss is about, if the media are so concerned about racism, they can start reporting real incidents that happen every day in this country

echomadman

People are missing the point that it's the landlords house, surely he can stipulate anything he wants when it comes to new tenants, It may be a prejudice, but surely he has his reasons, I can think of numerous reasons I wouldn't want to let african guys/women rent a house I owned.
That said, I can say the same for whole swathes of society, how would you phrase the Ad in a satisfactorily PC manner?

ixoy

Originally posted by echomadman
I can think of numerous reasons I wouldn't want to let african guys/women rent a house I owned.

Interesting - care to share these numerous reasons?

ford fiesta

It was an ad from a housing letting agency not the landlord himself and it was a 4- bedroomed house, not an apartment

Mercury_Tilt

This post has been deleted.

echomadman

Well the odour for one, African cuisine imparts a very pungent smell to a premises thats hard to get rid of.
From personal experience (I live in ennis, I know loads of african guys and have been in their houses) you rent a house to one guy/gal and it becomes a stopping point for all his/her buddies as they meander around the country.
There are others but i cba voicing them as i dont want to be fending of people calling me a racist bastard all day.

Now fair enough its a very sweeping statement to say "no coloureds" but fffs, he owns the place, its his decision who he lets the place out to, its not like he said no niggers. people need to cop on, the racism card is being played far too often, it'll engender a "boy who cried wolf" attitude if it continues and then the proliferation of more serious racism will slip under the radar.

Raphael

Originally posted by echomadman
fffs, he owns the place

whats the 3rd f for?

Genghis

Originally posted by echomadman
its not like he said no niggers.

cause that would be politically incorrect?

seamus

Originally posted by Genghis
cause that would be politically incorrect?

Lol, but let's ignore political correctness here. Political correctness is a virus of modern society. It's there to protect humourless morons who are upset about who they are and can't poke fun at themselves.

Rant aside.....

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=discrimination
Most usefully: " Treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality or prejudice.
I don't see how this differs from saying, no men, over 25's only. Just because one form of discrimination is accepted and another isn't, doesn't make the latter more wrong.

The landlord's house, the landlord's rules tbh. I can see two reasons for not being very happy to allow blacks/coloureds/whatever-you-want-to-call-them-to-segregate-them: Language Barrier. If I was a landlord, and someone had awful trouble understanding me every time I rang them, and vice-versa, it'd be a complete pain in the arse.
Instability. Let's be honest here. There's no reason why an Irish person is any less likely to bolt than a foreigner, but a lot of people are still rascist to some degree, and would have a fear that the guy would leave without paying rent, or after leaving the place in a mess, without a hope in hell of ever tracing him down, or that he may move in, and bring his wife and 12 kids with him, and destroy the place.

The above two points are purely tarring everyone in one group of people with the same brush, but as much as people complain about it, it's happening everywhere. Renting, loans, education, insurance, people just pretend it's not there, even though they do it themselves, every single day. That's not to say "Everybody's doing it, so it must be ok", but to open your eyes to it, instead of getting outraged and attacking the minor discrimination. It's a general culture of discrimination that needs to be attacked. Don't fight the symptoms, fight the disease.

echomadman

whats the 3rd f for?

emphasis

Victor

Originally posted by echomadman
People are missing the point that it's the landlords house, surely he can stipulate anything he wants when it comes to new tenants

Fair enough if the landlord is living there, another matter if the landlord is engaged in a purely commercial transaction. Except for some exceptions, discrimination on any of the stated grounds under the Equal Status Act is illegal.

I susp-ect some landlords say "No Rent Allowance" and "No EHB" is in part because they aren't declaring the income.

Originally posted by echomadman
African cuisine imparts a very pungent smell to a premises thats hard to get rid of.

Interesting. What kind of African cuisine? I hear boiled maize is quite popular as a staple in some areas of Zambia, Zimbabwe and SA. Is boiled maize really that smelly?

Originally posted by echomadman
you rent a house to one guy/gal and it becomes a stopping point for all his/her buddies as they meander around the country.

Ever had a house guest yourself? When you rent out a house, it is no longer yours to say who comes and goes.

Crash

Originally posted by Raphael
whats the 3rd f for?

its for Pedantic.


Now think about that one for a while.

billy the squid

In order to process rent allowance payment the landlord has to be registered with the local council. If the landlord does not want to pay tax on the income generated by his renting of a property he cannot take on rent alowance people.

More a matter for the revenue commissioners than for the equality authority

Hobbes

Originally posted by echomadman
Well the odour for one,

Heh. Odours.

Did you know to Asians Irish people can smell like sour milk. All based on what you eat but you don't notice the smell between people who eat the same stuff.