Yes, I Discriminate
I got a phone call this morning from a very hostile gentleman that I'll call Mr. Felon. I received this call because I have a part-time, semi-profitable occupation as a landlord. The first words out of Mr. Felon's mouth were a question: "Do you rent to felons?" The communication being somewhat garbled, I asked him to repeat himself. He elaborated: "Do you rent to sex offenders?"
I was somewhat taken aback--the first questions are usually about the rent, the deposit, how much space, whether or not Fido is allowed and such.
So, with the clarity of someone who has figured out the appropriate response to an insult 15 minutes after the offender has left, I thank you, Mr. Felon, for making me think my position through.
Yes, I discriminate. Everybody does. From your choice of breakfast coffee, to the television shows you watch, choices are made--you discriminate against one for the other. Decisions are made thousands of times a day, and all of them discriminate for or against other options.
Do I discriminate against you? That depends--by law, I cannot discriminate in housing decisions on the basis of race, creed, national origin or sex. That's okay--that's not how I make my decisions. I make decisions on the basis of what's likely to cost me money, or cause me grief, or both.
Personally, Mr. Felon, I don't care about your past except it provides me indicators on your likely future behavior. You may have found God, reformed yourself, and grown into a beautiful, caring and productive person. People do this all the time.
Also, Mr. Felon, I don't care about what helps you Get Your Freak On, except as it involves unwilling accomplices, children, animals or disturbance to my tenants or destruction of my property.
What I want is simple--a business relationship with someone that will pay the rent on a steady and timely basis; a tenant that will live tidily and quietly in my place, obeying the rules agreed upon in the lease.
I DO care what your felony was. I don't care for thieves, rapists, child molesters, murderers, violent folks of any stripe, drug manufacturers or distributors. I want people that are legally and gainfully employed. I do not wish to rent to folks that think that paying the rent is optional; or that think that they can get over on me because I am ignorant. I do not want someone that is going to store corpses of victims in the freezer, or the closet. That tends to make me unpopular with the neighbors, as do large numbers of people, police cars, ambulances and fire trucks at all hours of the day or night.
What I'm saying, Mr. Felon, is that yes, I'm probably going to discriminate against you, even if your only crime was selling someone like me a bag of pot 20 years ago. Why? Because I don't want to lose my house when the city declares it a nuisance and confiscates it because you were selling pot there again. I also don't want protesters outside of the place picketing because there is a registered child molester in the neighborhood.
I do want to thank you, Mr. Felon, for making me rethink my criteria. From now on, I'll pay the extra eight bucks and get the criminal background report with the credit check.
...and I will discriminate.
I was somewhat taken aback--the first questions are usually about the rent, the deposit, how much space, whether or not Fido is allowed and such.
So, with the clarity of someone who has figured out the appropriate response to an insult 15 minutes after the offender has left, I thank you, Mr. Felon, for making me think my position through.
Yes, I discriminate. Everybody does. From your choice of breakfast coffee, to the television shows you watch, choices are made--you discriminate against one for the other. Decisions are made thousands of times a day, and all of them discriminate for or against other options.
Do I discriminate against you? That depends--by law, I cannot discriminate in housing decisions on the basis of race, creed, national origin or sex. That's okay--that's not how I make my decisions. I make decisions on the basis of what's likely to cost me money, or cause me grief, or both.
Personally, Mr. Felon, I don't care about your past except it provides me indicators on your likely future behavior. You may have found God, reformed yourself, and grown into a beautiful, caring and productive person. People do this all the time.
Also, Mr. Felon, I don't care about what helps you Get Your Freak On, except as it involves unwilling accomplices, children, animals or disturbance to my tenants or destruction of my property.
What I want is simple--a business relationship with someone that will pay the rent on a steady and timely basis; a tenant that will live tidily and quietly in my place, obeying the rules agreed upon in the lease.
I DO care what your felony was. I don't care for thieves, rapists, child molesters, murderers, violent folks of any stripe, drug manufacturers or distributors. I want people that are legally and gainfully employed. I do not wish to rent to folks that think that paying the rent is optional; or that think that they can get over on me because I am ignorant. I do not want someone that is going to store corpses of victims in the freezer, or the closet. That tends to make me unpopular with the neighbors, as do large numbers of people, police cars, ambulances and fire trucks at all hours of the day or night.
What I'm saying, Mr. Felon, is that yes, I'm probably going to discriminate against you, even if your only crime was selling someone like me a bag of pot 20 years ago. Why? Because I don't want to lose my house when the city declares it a nuisance and confiscates it because you were selling pot there again. I also don't want protesters outside of the place picketing because there is a registered child molester in the neighborhood.
I do want to thank you, Mr. Felon, for making me rethink my criteria. From now on, I'll pay the extra eight bucks and get the criminal background report with the credit check.
...and I will discriminate.
posted by Drunkenrantz at 10:57 AM
1 Comments:
Good for you! You have every right as property owner to discriminate in that way, because you have the right to protect your property.
On another topic, if you haven't downloaded the March 23, 2007 String Cheese Incident concert from Dobson Arena in Vail, yet, you might want to. I like all of their shows, but the second half of this one seems to be one of their best performances ever. If you don't have it, here is the link
Right now, I'm downloading their last (?) show from Red Rocks Ampetheatre last August. With dial up, that's going to take weeks.
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