Rental spaces barring certain races openly

[sundaymorningstaple]

I have no idea. I didn't even see it. Nothing to do with advertising. Policy of the hosts of this site with regards to real estate.

[Lisafuller]

I see our resident troll crawled out from under his rock again. You would think that after almost three years of trolling here, he would understand that this side is hosted by a real estate company and just like car dealers, the Mercedes dealer isn't going to let a Kia salesman advertise Kias in the Mercedes showroom.

Hahaha, excellent analogy.

[Lisafuller]

I just saw an ad on . with "Chinese Race Only". I can't believe this is legal, let alone this kind of backwards third world mindset exists. It's sickening.

Unfortunately you don’t just see this in Singapore, in most countries with a dominant race there is a tendency to prefer their own race. Just human nature, not right, but human nature.

[x9200]

I was hunting for condo units for rent and there was one agent who openly refused my profile saying "Owner prefers only Chinese Tenants".
I felt this was quite discriminating and shamelessly mentioned so openly.
Is there any forum where these incidents on rentals can be flagged ?

Might be some bad experience that the owner had encounter when they rent to a particular race.

once bitten, twice shy

Yes, because one person represents everyone from a race or ethnicity. If that was so, then they would definitely have to reject Chinese tenants as well because from what I've heard from landlords, they've seen some lousy Chinese (Malaysian and Taiwanese) tenants.

A typical excuse I've heard is rejecting Indians from India because they are perceived to be a certain way. Problem is that, I've also heard of local Indians being rejected.

The "excuse" I've heard was based on culinary preferences. I guess those do not change that much between India and Singapore.
But this...

My own experience - I've been rejected even with a Malaysian Chinese wife. When I meet some of these agents face to face, I've heard things like "good profile" which I take to mean that I don't look Indian so I'm OK. I've been here long enough to know exactly what the comment means.

...sounds like some real racism.

[tiktok]

I just saw an ad on . with "Chinese Race Only". I can't believe this is legal, let alone this kind of backwards third world mindset exists. It's sickening.

Unfortunately you don’t just see this in Singapore, in most countries with a dominant race there is a tendency to prefer their own race. Just human nature, not right, but human nature.

By all means choose your friends, spouse and even business partners based on race. But the problem is when one race, particularly the dominant disadvantages other races. That's not preference, it's discrimination. "Human nature" is no excuse.

Western countries learned this is wrong after Jim Crow, apartheid, Canada"s Chinese head tax, the white Australia policy and so on. That's why a rental ad with "white race only" is not only unacceptable but illegal in most of them.

[smoulder]

I just saw an ad on . with "Chinese Race Only". I can't believe this is legal, let alone this kind of backwards third world mindset exists. It's sickening.

Unfortunately you don’t just see this in Singapore, in most countries with a dominant race there is a tendency to prefer their own race. Just human nature, not right, but human nature.

Yes true. Don't know if it's only my perception, but I feel like here there are less people who are willing to at least discuss the issue of racism which would be a start.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Personal Preference is NOT racism. Now if there was a law that said if you are a Chinese owner you could only rent out your property to an ethnic Chinese, then THAT is racism. People around the world don't seem to understand this. Please do not confuse personal preference with racism. Most people will not date or marry some one of a different ethnicity. That is not racism, that is personal preference. Some of us, on the other hand, are more open-minded and do and do it successfully, although probably the majority don't go the distance because of cultural differences among other things. There is always the old saying. "birds of a feather tend to flock together" and it's true with the vast majority of people as well.

Get over it. Learn the difference.

[rant] My biggest beef here is mandated by law and it IS racist (they say it's pragmatic and I don't argue that, but pragmatic or not, it is still based on racism) I'm talking about the HDB ethnic allocation policy where it doesn't matter how much money you make you can only live in a flat where there is a allocation for a minority race to live in based on the ethnic demographic of the citizens of this country. That, my friends, IS RACISM. But while I abhor that policy, I do understand the pragmatic reason for doing so even though it rubs my fur the wrong way. When I decided to buy a resale flat in 1999, I had a difficult time staying in the general area and getting a flat suitable for my needs. Ultimately, the one I found was in an older estate where the owner bought it new (1989-before the ethnic racist policy). That estate was basically almost 100% Chinese (Taoists) and they were starting to age. Lot's of Chinese wanted to buy from these Chinese owners but couldn't. My previous owner was having a hard time selling and frankly it was perfect for my needs so I offered him a rather large "non-refundable holding deposit" (5x the normal amount). It was enough to get him to sell to me at valuation only. I've been here ever since (21 years now). But that policy is racist in implementation. You cannot live where you want even if the property is available unless your block has a open allocation for your race. Try buying if your family is Other & Indian. The two smallest minorities. Virtually nothing available. [/rant]

[sundaymorningstaple]

Oh, and another thing. Even if you rent out your flat to foreigners, they too, will fall under the ethnic limitations. Therefore, we don't know factually, when reading an advertisement if it is the owners preference or the allocations for the minorities has been fully used up in that particular block as they are allocated not by estate but by block. If 24% of the block is already inhabited by MIOs then a Chinese owner can only rent to another ethnic Chinese. Now, obviously, there are subsets there as mentioned, eg. Indo Chinese, M'sian Chinese, Taiwanese, PRC. All have their strong points, a lot have a lot of bad habits. But again, while the flat might be open to an ethnic Chinese, personal preference of the owner might not want a PRC or Indo Chinese, but would take in a M'sian Chinese quickly. Main reason is there is little difference culturally between M'sian & Sg Chinese and in fact mostly the families are scattered across both countries already.

[smoulder]

SMS, given the amount of casual racism that passes off as "humor" here, I think it's fair to say that what you are trying to varnish by calling preference, is generally some racist Chinese guy who hates Indians in general (whether Malaysian or Singaporean and of course from India). You may disagree, but this is my assessment /opinion.

I'm speaking specifically about Indians, because from what I can see, the brunt of racism in this country and it's neighbor up north has been borne by the Indian ethnicity in general.

[sundaymorningstaple]

I tend to agree with you, but there are others who also suffer but not on this board as it's a English speaking board. The PRC Chinese also have the exact same problem as those from the Subcontinent and it's surrounding countries but for different reasons. Malaysia is a horse of a different colour altogether. Oh, and it's not varnish at all. Interestingly enough, the most common inter-ethnic marriages here are between Indians & Chinese. Sure Chinese guys are racist. Indians men come here and marry the educated Chinese girls. This also probably leads on to the penchant of local Indians who feel like they are being looked down upon by the Indian Nationals who come here. 'tis a complex web, methinks and we are all probably right and wrong to some extent.

[x9200]

If, for example one likes Caucasian girls more than any other, yes, that's the preference. If one doesn't like (prefer) Malay girls for the only reason of being Malay, that's racism.

Same with renting. One may prefer to rent to Chinese, because for example, she is Chinese and shares the same culture and expect ease of communication. This is not a racism. But if this person does not want to rent to Malays just because they are Malays, this racism.

It does not matter whether this is individual or institutionalized.

[tiktok]

@x9200 just to be clear. If you are talking about a room in shared accommodation, yes that is a preference, albeit one of possibly a narrow mind. Otherwise to give preference to a Chinese couple/family/person to rent an entire home, purely based on their race, that's racism.

[x9200]

@x9200 just to be clear. If you are talking about a room in shared accommodation, yes that is a preference, albeit one of possibly a narrow mind. Otherwise to give preference to a Chinese couple/family/person to rent an entire home, purely based on their race, that's racism.

Yes, something like that. But it's about the motives, not the scenarios. Motives for racism is discrimination based purely on race. If you belong to that race such person will treat you as someone of inferior type.

For me preference is more over the line of being different without assigning any quasi-objective values. I prefer Indian food but this does not mean I think Chinese food is worse.

[smoulder]

So quite often, the way it is worded is "no Indians /PRCs please". Slight difference between that and saying "Chinese preferred".

[tiktok]

Hmm examining motive definitely makes sense for stand up comics. But when an Indian family is shut out from renting because the landlord prefers Chinese, not sure if his motive is relevant.