We continuously hear stories of our Indian friends being discriminated against while looking to rent homes.
Many owners and agents cite previous bad experiences with or stereotypes of the racial group to reject potential tenants.
Although it may seem obvious that this is an act of racial discrimination, some still do not see it as such.
This is what happened to David.
David’s story
David and his family were looking for a house to rent in Penang when he encountered an owner who was racially selective about her tenants and an agent who racially stereotyped David and his family.
In a conversation with the agent, David was told hat the owner requested only Chinese or Malay tenants, to which he replied, “No worries. A lot of Chinese owners are racist. It’s their loss.”
Unable to accept being called racist, the agent then sent a 2 minutes 14 seconds voice recording defending the owner’s preference.
Justifying racial discrimination?
She first talked about her father’s previous lousy experience leasing his house to a small Indian family.
“They looked kind but didn’t pay the rent on time. We didn’t receive any payment for 3 months, so we visited them once to ask about it,” said the agent.
According to her, when the family left, they purposely broke things in the house, such as the plaster ceiling and piping.
“That’s why people are scared. If this weren’t the case, we’d have rented it out already,” she added.
She then talked about how Indians are ‘kaki mabuk’ or drunks. This will disturb the neighbours, especially if they cause a ruckus and get into fights while drunk.
“The location has a lot of Chinese; we are afraid they are unaccepting of Indians,” the agent said.
In her closing remark, she asked David not to misunderstand and label Chinese owners as racist.
“You must understand the reason [they have these preferences],” she concluded.
Unlearning stereotypes
While it is understandable and not wrong to have fear or trust issues towards a particular group of people from previous bad experiences with them, it is not right of us to uphold these existing perceptions and apply them to everyone.
Instead, we should be more aware of and willing to unlearn the stereotypes we might have of certain racial groups, such as the owner and agent’s stereotypes of Indians not paying rent on time, being ‘kaki mabuk’ and having tendencies to get into fights.
Watch the full video below:
We hope David and his family will be able to find a place to rent soon!
Also read: M’sian Shares How Homestay Cancelled Booking Because They “Just Rent To Chinese & Malay”
