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These platforms can be overrun by a majority of discriminatory ads. I remember using Craigslist about a decade ago to rent housing in Virginia. Over half the ad

These platforms can be overrun by a majority of discriminatory ads. I remember using Craigslist about a decade ago to rent housing in Virginia. Over half the ads easily contained some kind of gender, age, family or religious discrimination (interestingly enough I never saw an ad that explicitly listed race, I suspect that is because explicit racial discrimination is so taboo people used more implicit means of discrimination).

bilbo0s 8y ago
>interestingly enough I never saw an ad that explicitly listed race... ??? That must've just been Virginia? Where I lived in Houston, they listed unacceptable races all the time. (I suppose they didn't have to though, it was always the same two races listed.)
- Consultant32452 8y ago
  Sorry, but I'm curious. I'm guessing white and ???.
  - scrumbledober 8y ago
    I'm guessing white was not one of the UNacceptable races. Being that it was in Texas I think it's fairly obvious which two races they were referring to, but it's not something I'd like to type out.
- briandear 8y ago
  > Where I lived in Houston, they listed unacceptable races all the time. Definitely going to need a citation for this. I grew up in Houston and never saw an add specifying "unacceptable races" -- perhaps 50+ years ago maybe. My parents were in the rental business and we spent a lot of time looking at (and placing) ads -- never was race listed on an ad that I've ever seen for as long as I can remember (since the mid 1980s.) That doesn't mean it didn't happen, but there'll need to be some proof that the practice was widespread or common if you're to come on a forum and essentially libel a city as racist.
  - BaronVonSteuben 8y ago
    > there'll need to some proof that ... a city [is] racist Not anymore. An accusation these days is the proof that a person/place/thing is racist. But if that's not enough, just look at how many people in Houston politically disagree with me. That's enough proof that they are racist because anyone who disagrees with me can't possibly have a different, valid perspective. The only possibility is that they are racist and evil and just want to hurt people. Therefore, Houston is racist. If that's still not enough, as a person of some color, I feel like Houston is racist, and that is definitely enough proof.
  - bilbo0s 8y ago
    Woah. Calm down guy. The original comment was saying that, in Virginia, ...CRAIGSLIST... would not openly mention the desired or unacceptable races for rentals. My only point was that, again, CRAIGSLIST ads certainly did have desired or unacceptable races listed in Houston. The fact is it's happened in Houston Craigslist, just as it's happened in Craigslist in lots of other places in the nation. There was a class action, as well as several individual lawsuits, filed. My memory is hazy, but I believe Craigslist prevailed in all of this on the fact that they were acting only as a provider of publishing services and not a publisher themselves??? (Not really sure about Craigslist winning, but I seem to remember that they did. In any case, it's easily Google-able if you're really that curious as to whether or not all of this really happened.) In other words, the comment is about Craigslist. Houston and Virginia are incidental to the story of what was happening, all across the nation, on Craigslist at the time. Also, come on man, I lived in Houston. For a long time. A time period that, coincidentally, saw me doing a lot of renting. (And using Craigslist to do so, because that's what you did in those days.) Houston Craigslist was certainly not magically immune to this issue. I was there. I saw it. Further, the fact that there were lawsuits all around the nation makes me feel confident in saying that this was very likely not a problem limited to Houston. I'll take at face value your assertion that YOUR parents didn't post discriminatory ads. That said, the point of fact that discriminatory ads were placed on Craigslist on a systemic and nationwide scale was not in question in any of these lawsuits. The only question was, "Was Craigslist responsible?" Put another way, even the government, courts, and lawyers all across the US agree that racist ads were placed in Craigslist all across the nation. All parties accepted that as fact based on the evidence. They simply disagree on who was responsible. So I'm not really sure why you're trying to say that racist ads never appeared in Houston like they did everyplace else? My sense is that you believe what you're saying, so my head is telling me that you must not have lived in the social strata of people who had to check Craigslist for cheap apartments or new roommates.

bilbo0s 8y ago

>interestingly enough I never saw an ad that explicitly listed race... ??? That must've just been Virginia? Where I lived in Houston, they listed unacceptable races all the time. (I suppose they didn't have to though, it was always the same two races listed.)

Consultant32452 8y ago
Sorry, but I'm curious. I'm guessing white and ???.
- scrumbledober 8y ago
  I'm guessing white was not one of the UNacceptable races. Being that it was in Texas I think it's fairly obvious which two races they were referring to, but it's not something I'd like to type out.
briandear 8y ago
> Where I lived in Houston, they listed unacceptable races all the time. Definitely going to need a citation for this. I grew up in Houston and never saw an add specifying "unacceptable races" -- perhaps 50+ years ago maybe. My parents were in the rental business and we spent a lot of time looking at (and placing) ads -- never was race listed on an ad that I've ever seen for as long as I can remember (since the mid 1980s.) That doesn't mean it didn't happen, but there'll need to be some proof that the practice was widespread or common if you're to come on a forum and essentially libel a city as racist.
- BaronVonSteuben 8y ago
  > there'll need to some proof that ... a city [is] racist Not anymore. An accusation these days is the proof that a person/place/thing is racist. But if that's not enough, just look at how many people in Houston politically disagree with me. That's enough proof that they are racist because anyone who disagrees with me can't possibly have a different, valid perspective. The only possibility is that they are racist and evil and just want to hurt people. Therefore, Houston is racist. If that's still not enough, as a person of some color, I feel like Houston is racist, and that is definitely enough proof.
- bilbo0s 8y ago
  Woah. Calm down guy. The original comment was saying that, in Virginia, ...CRAIGSLIST... would not openly mention the desired or unacceptable races for rentals. My only point was that, again, CRAIGSLIST ads certainly did have desired or unacceptable races listed in Houston. The fact is it's happened in Houston Craigslist, just as it's happened in Craigslist in lots of other places in the nation. There was a class action, as well as several individual lawsuits, filed. My memory is hazy, but I believe Craigslist prevailed in all of this on the fact that they were acting only as a provider of publishing services and not a publisher themselves??? (Not really sure about Craigslist winning, but I seem to remember that they did. In any case, it's easily Google-able if you're really that curious as to whether or not all of this really happened.) In other words, the comment is about Craigslist. Houston and Virginia are incidental to the story of what was happening, all across the nation, on Craigslist at the time. Also, come on man, I lived in Houston. For a long time. A time period that, coincidentally, saw me doing a lot of renting. (And using Craigslist to do so, because that's what you did in those days.) Houston Craigslist was certainly not magically immune to this issue. I was there. I saw it. Further, the fact that there were lawsuits all around the nation makes me feel confident in saying that this was very likely not a problem limited to Houston. I'll take at face value your assertion that YOUR parents didn't post discriminatory ads. That said, the point of fact that discriminatory ads were placed on Craigslist on a systemic and nationwide scale was not in question in any of these lawsuits. The only question was, "Was Craigslist responsible?" Put another way, even the government, courts, and lawyers all across the US agree that racist ads were placed in Craigslist all across the nation. All parties accepted that as fact based on the evidence. They simply disagree on who was responsible. So I'm not really sure why you're trying to say that racist ads never appeared in Houston like they did everyplace else? My sense is that you believe what you're saying, so my head is telling me that you must not have lived in the social strata of people who had to check Craigslist for cheap apartments or new roommates.