The Houston Chronicle is reporting on a notice found posted at a southwest Houston apartment complex warning residents to report black youths on the property. According to the Chronicle story, there is some indication that the notice may have been posted by the apartment management. The Chronicle reports however that the apartment manager denies knowledge of the notice.
Either way this is an outrageous, racist act on the part of someone. If the management of the apartment is responsible this looks to me like a violation of the Fair Housing Act.
Since the Houston City Council has never seen fit to adopt a fair housing law that is equivalent to the United States Fair Housing Act the incident cannot be investigated by the City but must be referred to HUD for investigation.
This type of racist and inflammatory official (if it turns out to be that) or unofficial notice about African-American children can lead to people taking action based on fear and racism. These prejudices lead to the type of tragic consequences we witnessed in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman last February.
A HUD investigation needs to take place quickly and this outrageous practice needs to be stopped.
via Notice at apartment complex targets young blacks – Houston Chronicle.
