In a word, yes!

Let’s face it, we are all faced with a common dilemma; how far can we go in what we say, what we write, and who we refuse to work with. The current mood and sentiment of the country has allowed a good amount of hatred and racism, which as always been with us, to bubble to the surface and become more prevalent.

The events of the past 18 or so months has escalated the conversation, as we witnessed more and more examples of hatred and racism show themselves in the mainstream media, social media, in rallies and protests. Interspersed through all of those platforms, we have seen Realtors acting in such a way that clearly demonstrated their racism and hatred of a person or persons.

The 1.5 million Realtors in the US joined the organization at some point and signed on to our principles and beliefs, and affirmed that they will uphold our laws, rules, and standards on how we interact with buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants. But our own body of rules (NAR By-Laws and the Code of Ethics} does not prescribe our activities out in public; in our towns, communities, developments, etc. Thus many of the examples of hatred and racism that we saw in the spring and summer of 2020 did not fall under our body of rules, even Article 10 of the Code of Ethics Our Fair Housing article).

In the spring and summer of 2020, the NAR Professional Standards Committee (I was a member then) and the NAR Interpretations and Policies Advisory Board (I was also a member), wrote the new Realtor Standard of Practice, SOP 10-5. We now had the body of rules to require Realtors to act in a professional, anti-discriminatory manner in public, in their marketing, and in their actions out in the world.

I grew up in a home with family members that survived the depression, saw the hatred and atrocities of WWII and then in Southeast Asia, and heard many comments for grandparents, uncles and others about certain races, colors and nationalities of people. I heard all that as a child and young adult, yet when I became an adult on my own, I realized that was then, this is now. We can all make that choice.