Selling a house

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  • #9940

    Cheryl A.
    Member

    We live in a predominatly white area and are selling our house. We have been told by MANY people that we must remove all black-oriented art, including family photographs, if we want to sell (to anyone non-black). Please help me understand why this is so.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Cheryl A., Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Age : 40, City : Midlothian, State : VA, Country : United States, Occupation : physician, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 
    #15910

    Rhiannon
    Member

    I don’t have an answer for you, but I want you to know I think that’s horrible! If I were selling a house, and someone told me to remove all traces of Jewishness from my home, I would be furious. I can’t believe there are white people who are still that uncomfortable with African Americans.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Rhiannon, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Jewish, Age : 29, City : Eden Prairie, State : MN, Country : United States, Occupation : Professor, Social class : Middle class, 
    #38734

    Floyd L.
    Member

    One realtor I’ve known for years confirms that many whites refuse to knowingly buy a house from blacks if the whites intend to live in the house versus holding it as an investment. He noted that this attitude is less rampant today than several years ago. I know of one black family who claims to have lost a sale when an anxious potential white buyer visited the property and realized that the owner was black. The prospective buyer apparently refused to even enter the house. The number of whites who hold this attitude is likely a large subset of the many whites who refuse to live next door to or on the same street as blacks, who refuse to patronize black-owned businesses or who refuse to work for a black. (Several white nursing assistants responding to newspsper advertisement I placed over the years for home companions to a home bound relative rejected the job, saying they could not work for a black, even though the pay and working conditions were excellent). One suspects that for these people, the idea of buying a house from, living next to, patronizing a business of, or working for someone to whom they’ve been led to feel superior is just too undermining and creates too many personal conflicts.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Floyd L., Gender : M, Age : 59, City : Memphis, State : TN, Country : United States, 
    #32919

    SR28454
    Participant

    This sounds ludicrous. I wouldn’t touch a thing. Who told you that? The Realtor? Get a new Realtor. Did black folks tell you that? Maybe they just don’t have enough faith in the number of white non-racists. Did white folks tell you that? Maybe it’s their own racism showing through. Be proud of who you are. By stripping your home of evidence that it’s inhabited by a black family, you’d be contributing to a nasty cycle. I’m guessing that’s the last thing you’d want to be part of.

    User Detail :  

    Name : SR28454, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 22, City : Austin, State : TX, Country : United States, Occupation : student, 
    #34214

    Augustine23604
    Participant

    I don’t know who thought this up, but I have never heard of this before. The art in our home, and our family portraits, reflect that we are white and European. (For what it’s worth, my parents have a lovely portrait of a black man with a child, possibly his grandchild, sitting in a chair with a banjo. I picked this out myself.) If we were black, our tastes would reflect just as much pride in being African American. Anyone who can’t understand pride in one’s culture and be able to respect that when viewing a house for sale is just not very intelligent or even practical. And if a white person would simply disdain buying a black family’s home (or vice versa) – shame on them.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Augustine23604, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 39, City : Columbia, State : SC, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    #36762

    Lena22855
    Participant

    Don’t change a thing. Many people would be pleased to buy a house that has good multicultural karma!

    User Detail :  

    Name : Lena22855, Gender : F, City : New Orleans, State : LA, Country : United States, 
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