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Anna Klenkar

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Misinfo Monday - NAR Bans Hate Speech

December 4, 2020

The National Association of Realtors has had enough. After receiving a shocking number of reports of agents using hate speech against protected classes, they've changed their code of ethics.

Am I surprised so many agents are behaving this way? No. I know the industry I'm in, its history and some of the people it attracts.

Am I bummed? By the hate speech, yes, but I'm actually optimistic for my industry's future. I'm seeing brokerages and organizations nationwide start to take ownership of our past (and current) failings. Maybe some things will actually change.

xo

Anna


What's the Deal?

The National Association of Realtors, or NAR, officially changed its code of ethics this week to prohibit ANY AND ALL hate speech by a licensed agent towards or about a protected class. Prior to this change, a realtor was only held to his or her conduct within the confines of a transaction. 

This change makes sense for a few reasons:

1. We are independent contractors whose product is ourselves, so there is no real on-the-job/off-the-job distinction.  

2. Because of this year's pandemic, agents are posting more of these things online where they can easily be seen and reported.

3. As NAR acknowledged, agents have long been on the wrong side of history when it comes to racial equity. 

And it isn't coming from nowhere; in November an NY agent was fired by a prominent firm after a video of him screaming slurs at/accosting women and tearing up yard signs went viral. Articles have been coming out all year about racism within brokerages (firing an agent and then making disparaging comments about her, in email, based on her race) and within the community (a pattern of refusing to rent to non-white tenants). We are not killin' it as an industry right now. 


Of course, there was some pushback from the "FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!!!" crowd, but NAR has a right to penalize members of its private, licensed club. Your boss can fire you if you swear at him; your freedom of speech doesn't stop that.

NAR also released a video explaining the move, saying they have received a staggering number of complaints about hate speech posted by realtors online. I've personally been horrified by some of the callous, hateful things I've seen agents post about renters, poor people, and people of color.

And even if you want to argue that agents should only be bound by their behavior "on the job," we are always on the job; that's what being a CEO/independent contractor/business owner means. How would NAR be able to isolate which complaints count? Were you with a client when you were tweeting that? Did you SAY any of this to your buyer?


Why Does This Matter?

The greater context here is an industry needs to face its past and the horrific things it has done. I've talked about this before (i.e. redlining) and it will come up again as we try to fix these structural problems. 

But the sudden, massive uptick in hate speech itself is, to me, also representative of a more current issue. This year's violent political rhetoric emboldened some people who had, in the past, stayed quiet about their feelings of white/wealthy superiority. 

Realtors as a group are less educated and more white than the country as a whole. Most are taught to act focus on "making deals" and "getting into flow," to put their individual moneymaking goals at the forefront, everything else be damned. And while yes, this Gary Vee-esque attitude has positives, I think we're now seeing some of the downsides. And I'm glad that NAR, along with some individual brokerages, are taking some kind of stand. 


Further Reading/Watching

For more, please check out the links below.

NAR Website - NAR Board of Directors Approves New Personal Conduct Policy Addressing Discrimination (press release)

The Real Deal - NAR amends code of ethics to ban public hate speech (article)

In Misinfo Monday Tags NAR, realtors, racism, hate speech

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