Ad. - "no coloured"

Victor

I'd love to know what this "misprint" (maybe it was meant to say "no coulered painting - magnolia only"???) was or was it "printed in error" (the message was intended by the advertiser, but wouldn't normally be printed by the paper). Now maybe there is an innocent answer, but to be honest, it escapes me.

There was a case in Australia where a landlord advertised a property and the ad. included the words "no Asians", however this was largely due to the landlord's near impenetrable accent when he phoned the newspaper to place the ad. - it was meant to say "no agents".

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/2670775?view=Eircomnet

Ad for house which stated 'no coloured' was 'misprint'
From:ireland.com
Thursday, 4th March, 2004

The Equality Authority has confirmed it is looking into the placing of an accommodation advertisement in a Galway newspaper this week which stated "no coloured".

The advertisement was last night condemned by an anti-racist group which claimed there was a discrimination problem in the private rented sector in the Galway area.

The advertisement for a house in Knocknacarra was placed by City Property Services and appeared in Tuesday's Connacht Sentinel. It read: "4 Bedroom House, no coloured, Fully furnished."

Equality Authority chief executive, Mr Niall Crowley said last night the advert should be re-advertised immediately "in a manner which doesn't communicate any intention to discriminate. That is the key action required by the company.

"We will be looking into the matter and, if it is covered by the legislation, we will seek appropriate action from both the property company and the newspaper in relation to the legislation."

Mr Michael Fahey of City Property Services in Galway described the use of the words "no coloured" as "a misprint". He said it was not the fault of the newspaper and added: "It is a misprint. The advertisement was submitted by us. A mistake happened, but I do not know where."

He said he had "many coloured people in different properties".

The newspaper apologised for the advertisement. In a statement, Mr David O'Brien, the general manager of the Connacht Tribune group, which includes the Sentinel, said the advertisement had been "printed in error". "We accept that the advertisement should not have been published. It does not reflect the attitudes and values of the Connacht Sentinel. We apologise for any offence that this advertisement may have caused."

Mr Peter Butler of Galway One World group called on the property company to print an immediate apology, but said he wasn't surprised.He said there were several cases where houses were "already let" when non-white people applied. Some of those turned down later asked friends to check the houses, only to discover they were still available.

"This is the very ugly side of racism and discrimination in Galway. "It is commonplace. Non-white people feel accommodation is not available to them unless they can get around this invisible barrier."

Imposter

It's very common (there's more than a few every week) here in Austria to see accomodation advertisements that say Austrians only (occasionally Austrian-females only). And it's never a misprint. Don't know if there's much that can be done about it either.

The brand of racism they have here seems to be more in the open and in a way people know where they stand a little more. In Ireland racism exists but the victims don't know for sure that they are victims, as in the case of accom, a racist landlord can just give the place to an Irish person, or a female or whatever even though he hasn't officially advertised his racism.

seamus

What's the difference between this and an ad saying "females only"? I've seen plenty of them and no-one seems to give out.

FWIW, I'd accept that it's probably a misprint, it's a bit of a random placing, but I'm intrigued to know what they were actually trying to say. If you know it's a misprint, then surely you should know what it should have said

Syth

It's a very curious case. If it was a misprint then whta really were they tring to say. Usually misprints involved a letter or so. But if it wasn't a misprint, the landlord's an idiot. He would know for certainty that the Equality authority would be all over him like a ton of brinks.

As for the female only ads, you're right they are sexist. It's impling that all us men are perverts who'll take the first opertunity to go into a woman's bedroom and have our wicked way with her. Next ad I see for that i'm going to sue!

Victor

Originally posted by Syth
As for the female only ads, you're right they are sexist. It's impling that all us men are perverts who'll take the first opertunity to go into a woman's bedroom and have our wicked way with her. Next ad I see for that i'm going to sue!

Not sure if you would be very successful as limited discrimination is allowed for small accommodation rentals (under 6(?) people), so I'm not sure if the ad. actually broke the Equal Status Act, but is it certainly improper.

Regarding the Austrian situation, EU law allows businesses to discriminate against customers from outside their home country if it is for the purposes of preventiing fraud - hence phone companies don't permit new Irish residents to have bill accounts for their phones.

Syth

Not sure if you would be very successful as limited discrimination is allowed for small accommodation rentals

Would that apply in the case of the 'no coloured' ad? If a woman was sharing a room and had to find a new roommate, that's understandable. But does this small accomadation exception apply to just gender? It's also sorta self-defeating as the vast majority of accomadation was designed for 6 or less people.

Zombrex

Originally posted by seamus
What's the difference between this and an ad saying "females only"?

If it is a woman looking to live with another woman, then I can kind understand ... on the other hand if it is a landlord looking to only have girls because they are "cleaner" (not at all true in my experience) then that is totally out of order.

Originally posted by seamus
I've seen plenty of them and no-one seems to give out.

A - who is "no-one" ... you mean the Equal Authority? I think you have to bring a case to them.

B - Didn't you just give out :rolleyes:

seamus

Originally posted by Wicknight
A - who is "no-one" ... you mean the Equal Authority? I think you have to bring a case to them.

If there was a case brought, I'm pretty sure we'd all hear about it, since landlords would be too scared to make such statements in ads any longer.

B - Didn't you just give out :rolleyes:

No, I pointed out an obvious hypocracy :rolleyes:. I have no problem with "females only" in an ad. God knows if I was female, I'd put all men in the "dirty, smelly, annoying" category too.

Imposter

Originally posted by Victor
Regarding the Austrian situation, EU law allows businesses to discriminate against customers from outside their home country if it is for the purposes of preventiing fraud

In the case of a landlord advertising accomodation how does that hold up? If that's the case you are saying that an ad in Ireland saying "Irish only" is ok but one saying "no blacks/asians" is not!

seamus

Originally posted by Imposter
In the case of a landlord advertising accomodation how does that hold up? If that's the case you are saying that an ad in Ireland saying "Irish only" is ok but one saying "no blacks/asians" is not!

That sounds about right. You can see where the idea comes from. If you're only allowing natives to pay with a cheque, for example, you can argue that it's an anti-fraud measure, since it may be more widespread for non-natives to spoof details, or even cheques.
It does seem ridiculous though. Basically saying discrimination is ok so long as you discriminate against everyone. Mad logic.

dr_manhattan

Having seen the ad in the paper, it does look like a misprint: as was said here, the landlord, if racist, would know better than to put it in the ad.

And that's the problem really, cos making laws against racism really does nothing - as a mate of mine said once

"right wing skinheads are not the problem: it's the people who feel they're 'average' and discriminate on a day-to-day basis that are the problem. In many ways I've much more respect for a skinhead than the 'I'm not a racist but..' brigade"

...thing is, every anti-hate law that's made just creates a way to get around it. If someone is determined to think less of anyone because of what they precieve them to be, then they WILL do it, and the law can't stop them. Often laws that give stiffer penalties for 'hate crimes' cause worse problems than they fix.

But I have to say, those 'females only' ads that assume that women are cleaner than men, damn they're annoying. Can't say I'd ever seriously complain about them, but it's really depressing when you're stuck for somewhere to live - "I'm clean, damn youuuuuu"

;-)

Walter Ego

I'm coloured.
In the winter I'm a sort of pasty pinkish colour and in the summer I sometimes have dark freckles. Is this what they mean?

dr_manhattan

"I'm coloured.
In the winter I'm a sort of pasty pinkish colour and in the summer I sometimes have dark freckles. Is this what they mean?"

Hey hey, someone's been reading those motivational anti racism posters down at their local community centre ;-)

Well done, yes we all are coloured if you want to look at it that way.

seamus

I prefer to say black then coloured. "Coloured" implies that it's different, that is, it implies that white is normal or "blank canvas", whereas coloured is not normal.

Just my 2c