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

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111–120 of 238 posts

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

#111
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does curry smell even linger? I don't even consider it a bad smell but its not like it's going to permeate the walls like smoking. Funny he was fine with the Chinese in that case, who are more likely to cook chitlins at some point which can smell strong and bad for a week.

Lived in an apartment complex and a neighbor was indian. That smell traveled through the whole building. I honestly think it passed through walls much easier than weed. It was bad.

Bad for you maybe, I love the smell of curry being made. I hate the smell of meat being cooked on bbq but hey this is a free country right and everyone is allowed to cook their own food.

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

#112
post #57

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…

Just because other countries may have it worse doesn't mean that we're doing well. Look at our prison demographics -- black men are over-represented by a factor of two.

And they are even more over represented in the NBA.

Could there be other explanations for that than racism?

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

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard it said once, about how prevalent and deep racism runs in various societies, that - Americans are racist - Europeans wrote their thesis on racism - Asians wrote the original sources on racism that the Europeans cite in their thesis

As far as I recall, institutional racism in western European colonial powers seems to predate extensive interaction with societies in Asia, and typically stems from the colonization of Africa and subsequent slave trade which depended on a dehumanization, initially at the hands of Portugal. There’s a loose argument in this editorial [1], although not the one I’ve seen before. [1] https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Racism isn't just limited to the ones that are accepted as races in the modern day USA (Latino, Black, White, Middle Eastern, Indian, Asian, Pacific Islander). And dehumanization and slavery has happened in many more places and times that the Atlantic Slave Trade. Whilst the current main racism problems in the US all stem from this and colonialism, everywhere in the world has their own unique problems as well.

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

#114

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…

I think people who immigrate from countries where they're the majority to countries where they're a minority encounter racism/ethnicism/colorism for the first time and assume their new country is racist. However, they overlook or underappreciate the racism in their original country because it rarely if ever impacted them. In several cases, they may even imply that racism in their country is okay, because it's their country of origin and want to maintain its "purity." But, I definitely agree that countries like the US, UK, or Canada are less racist than average, but seem more racist because it's overemphasized in media.

Also, as an aside mini-rant, I'm not keen on the concept of race, because it's a very fuzzy and nondescript concept compared to ethnicity or color. Race isn't a meaningful term and is mistakenly used to describe nationalities, religions, ethnicities, or other communities inappropriately.

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

#115
post #10

Was surprised to see “Singapore”, expected “Bay Area.” When I left my last rental after buying a house, my elderly white landlord asked me to help him put the property on Craigslist. When I did so and mentioned the Cupertino school district, he asked me to remove that part because “it would attract too many Indian families with kids” to avoid the curry smell. He had no issue with other Asian ethnicities, the previous…

Is it legal to mandate, as a landlord, not cooking with curry? Or requiring a cleaning surcharge if one does so without e.g. properly ventilating, washing one’s hands and using odor absorbers?

For what it's worth, I specifically remember that a rental contract I once signed in London (Southwark, in a council housing building) mentioned that it was specifically forbidden to cook curry. I laughed at the provision back then, not fully understanding why it's there, but of course now this all makes sense.

I always thought of it probably not being enforceable anyway.

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

#116
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

They exist. I once helped a needy young man in Seattle by taking him to get some food. The lady at the checkout counter was black, and oh, man did he spout some shit. It turned out he was a legit neonazi. I actually picked his brain for quite a while to get an idea of the “why” behind things. Anyway, this experience is the reason I roll my eyes when someone calls ____ a nazi. There are legit nazis in the world, and t…

I don't deny they exist, but they have been marginalized in society. They don't hold any significant power in terms of holding people back.

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

#117
In many parts of Canada, you have reverse racism where the - nationally speaking - minorities in certain cities (Richmond and Brampton especially) own the majority of properties. It's not uncommon to see Craigslist or Kijiji rental ads stating "Indian only" or "Chinese only" and refusing rentals to other races.

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

#118
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of "overt": South African Racism vs. American Racism https://youtu.be/XUuLDkDSJKg Gist of his answer is south African Racism is "blacks can't live here", US Racism is "well you could live here, but your loan was denied, sorry"

It's illegal to deny loans on the basis of race. Your race is also not a factor in your credit score.

[deleted]

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

#119

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…

I almost prefer overt racism to what happens in the USA.

My friend had gotten married was looking to buy a house, and his wife having a lot of trouble driving out to a location only to hear it was off the market. So he decided the he would take some of the burden from his wife, and visit places after work himself.

Fortubately, he didn't coordinate this well enough so he ended up going to some off the same places as her.

Guess what? In the morning, his Hispanic wife would be told the house was aleady sold or the seller was no longer offering it.

That same day in the afternoon, he the White husband would get a tour and be told he could buy anytime.

Racism is alive and well, if it weren't the color of my friends face he wouldn't have a house today. Funny enough his white neighbors spontaneously moved after he arrived with his Hispanic wife, and now the entire neighborhood is more multicultural.

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

#120
post #85
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…

Racism is often subtle and insidious. I'll never forget asking my grandma what she thought of Obama when he was running for president the first time. She said "I like his ideas, but he just doesn't... LOOK right."

The dog whistle version of this, which you heard public figures using on TV, was "he doesn't look presidential."

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