Tag Archives: racism

California Bows Before CAI Racism!

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This one is so amazing it’s not even amazing! I would even go so far as to call the California Legislature racist!

Assembly Member Donald Wagner introduced a bill to make the state’s Open Meetings law apply to the boards of Homeowners Associations. The CAI and its minions of lawyers and lobbyists descended on the Legislature like flies on a carcass. Only one member of the Housing Committee voted in favor of allowing homeowners to know what their boards were doing.

California has many homeowners whose English-speaking skills are limited. Under current California law, you’re not even allowed to bring an interpreter or representative to a board meeting.

There are lots of reasons not to live in California. This is just another of them.

(link to story on vote against openness)

https://ad68.asmrc.org/press-release/16196

 

Madonna’s HOA problems

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Madonna may decide her uppity New York co-op neighbors aren’t worth the rent. She’s suing because the co-op board doesn’t want Madonna’s kids or domestic help staying there when she isn’t physically in the building.

In the story linked below, I don’t read that she’s suing for racial discrimination, but I’d bet my last dollar that’s going to be a central point of her lawsuit. Some white folks just don’t like it when people of color are around. That’s how the whole HOA movement got started in the first place. Don’t believe me? Go look in the title history of your property deed!

Gosh, when is racism ever going to go away? Isn’t it time, folks?

(link to story on Madonna suing her co-op)

 

 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/celebrity/madonna-sues-nyc-apartment-for-allegedly-barring-her-kids-or-staff-from-staying-there-while-shes-away-report/ar-BBrihNu?li=BBnb7Kz

Madonna‘s claims her Upper West Side co-op in New York City has barred her children and staff from living in the residence while she is not there, according to a lawsuit obtained by Page Six.

The pop star – who has been traveling the world on her Rebel Heart tour – alleges that Harperley Hall “illegally changed her original proprietary lease in April 2014 to say that her children and domestic help cannot live in the unit unless she herself is ‘in residence’ at the time,” according to Page Six.

Her lease at Harperley Hall prevents anyone younger than 16 from living in her apartment without an adult older than 21 also present, according to Page Six.

In her suit, Madonna, 57, said that her career requires her to travel extensively, and that she owns several residences around the world, thus creating an impossible situation, according to Page Six.

Madonna’s four children are all under the age of 21, and only one, Lourdes, 19, is older than 16.

Meanwhile, the singer is currently in the middle of a months-long custody dispute with ex-husband Guy Ritchie over their 15-year-old son, Rocco.

 

More HOA Racism?

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It seems like all the weird stuff happens in Vegas.

People in the Spring Valley Homeowners Association are outraged after someone sent out letters, supposedly from the HOA’s law firm asking owners not to rent or sell their homes to Blacks, Orientals, Jews.

Obviously, such a letter wasn’t sent out by an HOA. It’s just an idiot sending out a hate letter meant to provoke.

On the other hand, that’s nearly identical to the verbiage in tens of millions of real estate deeds in HOAs all across America. It’s nearly impossible to get that old language taken out of property records. Our history haunts us, doesn’t it?

(link to KNTV story about racist letter)

 

HOA Racism Remains

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In my book, Neighbors At War, I delve deeply into this nation’s history of the enforcement of racially restrictive covenants in millions of property deeds across the country. Yes, we’ve made a ton of progress in the last five decades in wiping out housing discrimination. But in little spots around the country the old mindset remains. Every time I see one of these stories pop up I consider it a national shame that a few people still live in the racist past.

A black man in Texas is in court trying to rent a home in an all-white property owners association. A covenant in the Clearwater Bay POA mandated that homeowners never rent or sell to “anyone of African descent.”

As I write these words I’m looking at an amazing anthropology article in the current issue of National Geographic. The article is about the recent discovery of a new species of bi-pedal hominid in a cave near Johannesburg, South Africa.  No matter what your religious or political beliefs are, every human being on the face of this planet is “of African descent.” The black man in that Texas POA should hire a few expert witness anthropologists for his federal discrimination case. They’ll be able to prove in court that not a single member of that Association qualifies for home ownership under its own covenants.

We are all black. And yes, black lives matter.

(link to KSLA story on Texas discrimination case)

(link to National Geographic story on Homo naledi, a new species on the human family tree)

 

 

 

More Segregation In This Economy

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There’s a fascinating article in the Washington Post about how the foreclosure crisis is leading to increased segregation in American neighborhoods. The article is worth reading, even though it doesn’t directly target Homeowners Associations.

 

There are interesting implications, though. The big irony is that the modern homeowner association movement started in 1964 shortly after the Civil Rights Act was passed. White homeowners and developers recoiled at the thought of minorities moving into white neighborhoods and made sure subtle racial controls were woven into the HOA system.

 

The recent mortgage crisis hit HOAs especially hard with foreclosures being done both by mortgage companies and HOA boards. And there’s no question that many ‘private governments’ have used their ‘secret rules and powers’ to come down harshly on minorities. Keep that in mind as you read the Washington Post story, linked below.

 

(link to story on increased segregation)