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Law firm posts "whites only " real estate ad
June 5, 2010 - 1:11pm
Seriously:
Quote:
A complaint filed last week with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination alleges that a foreclosure notice placed in the New Bedford Standard-Times by a Newton law firm contained racist language.The legal notice, which first appeared May 17 and drew its wording directly from the property's deed, stated that ‘‘The said land shall not be sold, leased or rented to any person other than of the Caucasian race.''
The statement was removed from later editions of the paper, and both the New Bedford Standard-Times and Harmon Law have issued apologies for the ad.
From here, via hii_fashion at ontd_political. The law firm's claims it was an innocent mistake:
Quote:
Officials at Harmon Law said that the ads are generated by scanning the deeds of foreclosed properties and checked for accuracy, but that the language is not closely scrutinized due to the high number of foreclosure notices the firm processes.
Not implausible, but they've got to be more careful with stuff like this!
When was that deed issued? That language should have been illegal for decades. You telling me they are foreclosing on a house last purchases before 1964?
Either that, or the language was never removed (though it would of course be unenforceable). Still, you'd think it would make sense to remove it!
In Vancouver there were many neighbourhoods with those kinds of covenants. They were designed to keep Asians from moving into the european areas.
The moral of the story is that they need better proof readers.
The Wychwood Park neighbourhood in Toronto had similair language written into its leasing contracts right up to the 60s. Blacks and Jews were not allowed to buy property.
Well, it's pretty clear that this is hangover that propagated because people were not paying attention. But,really, you OUGHT to pay attention to this stuff.
Apart from being intrinsically disgusting in substance, it an interesting comment on the "professionalism" of lawyers (well these specific lawyers) -- I wonder if they charged the full rate for their services?
That probably explains it. Nobody read it and it would have passed spell check.
True. I can see how it got past them. But at the same time, being in the business, they must have come across a good number of old deeds (and not so old deeds) that have those kind of clauses in them. So surely they should have realized it could happen. Wouldn't it make sense for them to check for that sort of thing? Guess they will now!
The important thing is that nowadays people are more attuned to the existence of racism and so are more vigilant when this sort of thing arises.