“Are you aware that when you send me a referral, you only send me Black people?” a Black Realtor® said to a white colleague. That was a wake-up call for that white person.

In 2020, the National Association of Realtors® took a hard stand against hate speech, on and off the job, for members of the Association.

Since then, they are looking long and hard about the use of personal letters that go with offers. Those so-called “love letters” can be used to cue the seller that the prospective buyer is or isn’t in a protected class for fair housing. In order not to be part of that discrimination, some companies are banning the use of any personal letters. (I wrote about this after a meeting I attended on this subject last year.)

The National Association of Realtors® is being proactive in gathering materials for the (vast majority) white member, so they can learn how to stop perpetuating discrimination in overt ways, and also because of unconscious biases.

Here is a Realtor in Tacoma, WA, telling her story of waking up to how Realtors® are part of the discrimination problem and what she, as a white woman, is doing to change that.

 

For more information, here is the National Association of Realtors® fair housing site.