Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

techinasia.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 238 posts

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#91

Post by sithadmin »

orbital-decay wrote: post #47
franciscop wrote: post #20

This is one of the few instances that I've seen open discrimination agains white western people in Japan. In my journey for renting a place, after a couple of visits and getting a "no because he's a gaikokujin (foreigner)" I asked the agent to disclose it firstly. He did, but tactfully: he is a foreigner who is learning Japanese and came to the university in Japan and is hired by traditional company X and blabla. Sti…

Might it be because of the additional legal requirements for a landlord in case of foreign tenants? Or it's really because they don't like non-Japanese?

Combination of xenophobia as well as perceived liability issues related to early lease termination. There's a perception that foreigners will renege on the rental contract and simply leave the country early without consequences. In certain fields of expat work, the reputation isn't entirely undeserved.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#92

Post by thowerui23423 »

Is this a Singapore thing ?

There was a video trending on Reddit where a Korean streamer going around SG in normal summer dress was accosted by some rando woman telling her to cover up, else the "indians will rape you".

Quite frankly, reading the propaganda coming out of Western outlets over the course of my whole life (and for 400+ years of occidental "anti-pagan" hate and lies), I'm so tired as to be not even elicit a reaction.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#93

Post by mr90210 »

lettergram wrote: post #30

Every time I hear “America is racist” I remind people the world is far more racist - see story above. This is common practice everywhere. Europe, Asia, etc. they discriminate for different reasons and in different ways, but they all do it and it’s almost always overt. That’s the culture in the region, imo it’s not “wrong”. People self-select and who am I to discriminate against their culture? They do it for their rea…

Brazilians in Portugal go through this all the time, in spite of most of them looking just like the fellow Portugueses.

So, it’s no a skin issue by no mean.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#94

Post by rowanG077 »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #69
rowanG077 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because someone who has a stolen food from a store once is a bad tenant? Or someone who once forget to pay a credit card bill is bad tenant? Landlords should simply not be allowed to deny a potential tenant unless they can't pay. You don't play games with living essentials.

You've obviously never been in the position of being elderly, living in a country where pension funds got dilapidated by politicians (no matter how much you paid into it), needing money and your only source of income being a flat you're renting. My dad had one squatter, who was a respectable 60 years old lady: she just stopped paying and the legal and justice system is so shit that it took more than a year to get her…

So the legal system needs to be fixed. Putting the power of sheltering people into the hands of landlords is ridiculous. The government wouldn't decide who lives in your property. You can always choose to not rent it of course, or rent it to a friend. But if you want rent it and you have someone willing to take it you can't say no.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#95

Post by Bedon292 »

rowanG077 wrote: post #51
yardie wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too bad there isn't a service that could look into the historical background of prospective tenants to gain references, criminal, credit, job and salary information. Completely objective and mostly without inherent prejudices. We may even call it something like "a background check". Just spitballing ideas!

Because someone who has a stolen food from a store once is a bad tenant? Or someone who once forget to pay a credit card bill is bad tenant? Landlords should simply not be allowed to deny a potential tenant unless they can't pay. You don't play games with living essentials.

Does forgetting to pay a credit card bill once do anything to credit checks? I don't know if I got lucky, or what. I forgot one once when I thought I had put it on auto pay. It was late enough that the next bill was what made me realize but it never showed up on my credit report.

How would you have perspective tenants prove they can pay reliably? A pay stub alone cannot tell if the person is reliable. They could have any number of other factors contributing to not being able to pay.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#96

Post by lostgame »

_8j50 wrote: post #74
lettergram wrote: post #30

Every time I hear “America is racist” I remind people the world is far more racist - see story above. This is common practice everywhere. Europe, Asia, etc. they discriminate for different reasons and in different ways, but they all do it and it’s almost always overt. That’s the culture in the region, imo it’s not “wrong”. People self-select and who am I to discriminate against their culture? They do it for their rea…

It is a different kind of racism though. Every single country has racist people and they are hardly ever a minority. However, being looked down upon or discriminated against is one thing. Having to fear for your life and safety because they will hurt you just because of what you look like biologically is a different issue. Take the infamous Japan for example, if you live there long enough as any non-white minority yo…

This is an important comment.

The USA is certainly the most racist first world country I’ve been to. (I’ve visited Canada, England, Denmark, USA)

The incarceration statistics for African Americans vs. white people alone tell you all you need to know.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#97

Post by unpopularopp »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #54
yardie wrote: post #26

It's so strange to see how racism and discrimination is carried out in other countries. Even more so when that country is a highly developed like Singapore. Being from the US where housing is highly protected, due mostly to decades of racial discrimination, I'm just thinking "holy shit they'd be eaten alive with the lawsuits coming their way for so blatantly putting it out there." Also, > 99.co is now tackling this b…

Racism is relative.... I live in a former socialist country (with red stars, government owning the means of production and also a dictator), and things like affirmative action and prefered minority hiring would be seen as totally racist here.

>Racism is relative.

>things like affirmative action and prefered minority hiring would be seen as totally racist here

No they aren't

Whole Central Europe from Poland to Hungary through Ukraine and the Balkan and racist against Roma people. Pretty much everyone hates them. Most governments and the EU have special programs to help Roma people to get jobs because they are discriminated everywhere.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#98

Post by latexr »

starkd wrote: post #85
bhupy wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, minority here, and I wouldn't feel comfortable living anywhere except the US, Canada, the UK, and maybe ANZ. The Anglo-world in general is far more welcoming to people of color than anywhere else. I'm sure I could be comfortable wherever I am in the world, but it would be extremely difficult for me to thrive and see myself in a position of leadership (either in the private sector or the government) anywhere outs…

I think we have a biological tendency to be somewhat racist, but among every person that I've met who could be classed as being marginally racist, usually they do not really mean the things they say. Nearly every one of them will create an exception once they have a reasonable conversation with someone from another race. I say, marginally racist, because I have never met a full-fledged racist (in U.S. here). Peronall…

> Nearly every one of them will create an exception once they have a reasonable conversation with someone from another race.

Daryl Davis¹, through conversation, convinced a number of Klansmen to leave and denounce the KKK. See “Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America”².

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daryl_Davis

² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidental_Courtesy:_Daryl_Dav...

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#99

Post by slybot »

I have experienced similar discrimination while ago. It clearly shows some streotypes against certain nationalities. If it is not a quota issue then first thing comes to mind is food. I know it sucks but in an open market, as a property owner the landlord is free to choose the tenant and needs to be respected.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#100

Post by spywaregorilla »

starkd wrote: post #85
bhupy wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, minority here, and I wouldn't feel comfortable living anywhere except the US, Canada, the UK, and maybe ANZ. The Anglo-world in general is far more welcoming to people of color than anywhere else. I'm sure I could be comfortable wherever I am in the world, but it would be extremely difficult for me to thrive and see myself in a position of leadership (either in the private sector or the government) anywhere outs…

I think we have a biological tendency to be somewhat racist, but among every person that I've met who could be classed as being marginally racist, usually they do not really mean the things they say. Nearly every one of them will create an exception once they have a reasonable conversation with someone from another race. I say, marginally racist, because I have never met a full-fledged racist (in U.S. here). Peronall…

> Nearly every one of them will create an exception once they have a reasonable conversation with someone from another race.

An exception like "oh well you're one of the good ones"?

> I have never met a full-fledged racist (in U.S. here). Peronally, I think they are a very small insular group, if they exist at all.

Talk to old people if you want some disappointment then.

Post reply on HN