When Will We Grow Up?
By Jim Palmer Jr.

In our politically charged society, discrimination in many forms continues to be at the forefront of the daily news cycle.  Realtors® have taken giant steps to be sure that this does not happen in our industry, including enforcing our Code of Ethics that prohibits discrimination of any kind.  Realtors® also promote Fair Housing opportunities and continually educate our own members in advocating for Fair Housing ideals.  Realtors teach and promote that it is unethical and illegal to discriminate against any person because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin in the sale or rental of housing, in any advertising, in financing, obtaining brokerage services or blockbusting activities.   

In our local market, watch dog groups such as Spokane’s Fair Housing Alliance continue to monitor Realtor® activities by sending random testers into the marketplace posing as real tenant applicants or property buyers.  When they find potential violators they log complaints against offenders and pursue that complaint until they are satisfied that the respondent is compliant and educated or punished somehow.

Despite such efforts to educate, recent undercover operations in the state of New York discovered many possible violations among Realtors®, which is disheartening to those of us trying hard to eliminate any hint of discrimination.  Joe Ventrone of the NAR said, “This story is a teachable moment for real estate agents.  It underscores the need for more intense training of agents.”

When I read that article it made me wonder why we have to educate people on how to be nice and how to love one another?  When will we ever grow up and treat people as equals despite differences?  I realize that we all like to hang out with our own kind, whether because of culture or belief but that natural tendency doesn’t mean we should think less of others or treat them differently or unfairly.  As an example in nature just look in a fish tank where the guppies swim with the guppies the other schools of fish are delineated by groups as well, but they all still somehow live harmoniously as a whole.

I don’t know if we will ever shed that need to hang out with like-minded people, but my wish for the New Year is that we can all take an inward look at the “man in the mirror”and change (if need be) into something more kind, more forgiving, more tolerant and more grown up.