Corcoran's Brooklyn Heights Office Accused of Bias
The National Fair Housing Alliance has released a rather damning report of the sales practices of Corcoran’s Brooklyn Heights office. The anti-housing discrimination group set up a sting operation in which more qualified blacks and less qualified whites went to the office posing as home buyers. The report alleges that agents in the office engaged…
The National Fair Housing Alliance has released a rather damning report of the sales practices of Corcoran’s Brooklyn Heights office. The anti-housing discrimination group set up a sting operation in which more qualified blacks and less qualified whites went to the office posing as home buyers. The report alleges that agents in the office engaged in two sorts of unsavory practices: Steering, by which prospective buyers were urged to look at neighborhoods based on the color of their skin, and selective disclosure of information. It’s unclear from the article how widespread this alleged activity was or how conscious or subconcious it was (though the anecdote given is fairly blatant). Have any readers had experiences that would support any of these allegations?
Report Alleges Bias by a Real Estate Giant [NY Times]
poster2.18 bad-sty thats a new one
Anon 5:50, NFHA does not have a obligation to show the “positive” actions at Corcoran. Once they show discriminatory behavior it is up to Corcoran to show the opposite.
NFHA better back up their rhetoric. They have to prove that particular agents gave mediocre service only to African American customers. Just because this may have been the ‘pattern’ with one white testing couple and one black testing couple doesn’t mean much. I’m sure these agents have given the same mediocre service to plenty of white customers, and the same solid service to African Americans. I also hope they point out the positive behaviors they saw. Painting only a negative picture weakens their argument…It’s simply not possible that all their experiences were bad.
To BLACK MAN IN PARK SLOPE. I think you are making a very valid point as seen in your neighborhood (which now has a white majority) at this subway station:
http://tinyurl.com/fqxca
The “two price” system (which i was not aware of) is just as bad as the real estate agent’s discriminatory practices.
the “two price” system is based upon the same mentality that affords white people favor in many situations including real estate. they assume that the white buyer is more qualified with more money so they get special treatment when its time to buy a house the same assumption applies when a white person comes to the black neighborhood for goods, people assume they’re white so they have the money to pay and screw them over. ah well.
black man in “prime” park slope @454 it seems as though you’re trying to justify the behavior. you make a good point that its not corcoran’s fault that there is discrimination overall but it is their fault that they’re contributing to it. yea okay they’re trying to connect people and make money more reason not to care what color someone’s skin if a potential buyer has the money to do business. the point here is that they’re discounting people before even knowing that fact because they’re black. if the argument was that they were turning their nose up at people in a certain income bracket who wanted to live in BK Heights then MAYBE just MAYBE there can be a point made but they clearly stated that they sent more qualified candidates who were black and less qualified whites and the whites were given favor. if its about the almighty dollar then your skin color can be purple and you should get top notch treatment because you can pay the price. there’s no way someone who isn’t as qualified gets a mapped out tour of brooklyn pointing out all the great schools and the black person with more money gets looked down upon.
Not totally on topic but related: What do people think of the “two-price” system that exists in many of these “changing” neighborhoods whereby white residents are charged more for many goods and services than non-white residents are?
It’s impossible to behave exactly the same way with every customer. Some customers don’t need a map because they already live in Brooklyn. Other customers come from out of town so a map is required. Does that mean each customer should get a map regardless of their knowledge of the borough? You see how ridiculous this can get…You can also see how innocent behavior can be misconstrued as unfair or unequal treatment. I’d like to see more specific evidence from NFHA, not just broad generalities and one particular example.