Hud.gov

http://www.hud.gov/faqs/faqfairhousing.cfm


There are many people who are unfair in the world, some treat people differently for many different reasons. Some are in more important aspects of life than others. And some are just silly in why they act the way that they do sometimes. The website hud.gov shows a perfect example of this current happening. Hud.gov is the website for the governments U.S. Department for Housing and Urban Development. And what this site is all about is finding houses and places to live for all people no matter their race or gender or sexual preference. There is a commercial that the website shows that is very shocking, and opens eyes every time that someone sees it. In the commercial there is a white male sitting at a desk talking on the telephone. He seems to be a telemarketer, but that is beside the point. Anyways, this man is talking on the phone to what seems to be a landlord for an apartment building nearby where he is. He calls the woman and first he speaks in a Latino, or Spanish accent, he tells the woman on the phone that he is looking to rent out an apartment that she owns. She realizes that the man is of Spanish decent and denies the man. Next, he is shown speaking in a Arab voice, saying his name is Kumar. He asks the lady about the same apartment and once again she denies him saying that it is already leased out. After that he calls back in an African American voice saying his name is Tyrone Washington. And once again he asks about the apartment on Front Street. The lady once again says no to him and claims it is already vacated. He also calls and says that he is handicapped, and guess what? He is denied again. Finally at the end he calls and says that his name is Graham Wellington, seeming to be a very high class, white male. He asks about the same apartment again, and this time the woman says that the apartment is available. This is not right in more ways than one.
This commercial I believe relates to the Abercrombie and Fitch article. It is some what of a stretch, but after I read the article again it came to me that this site and this article were common. The article talks about unfair hiring laws, and how the company has rules that they abide by. Also the article talks about how there are no black models anywhere in the company, saying that all of the black workers are used in stock rooms, behind the scene types of workers. The company showed unfairness towards people of color, proving that they were treated unfairly because of the color of their skin. Much like the article the commercial is showing unfairness to people of color. The woman on the phone will not allow a person of color to rent out one of her apartments. So, she just like in the article is showing that people of color are not treated fairly because they are non-white.
The first time I saw this commercial it had an impact on me. It impacted me because I knew that this was really how the world is, and how people are treated even now. It showed that people of color are not equal to whites, and that even now people are discriminated against even if they mean no trouble, they are associated with that ethnic group and are treated differently because of it.