We may live in a modern age, yet some biases and outdated ways of thinking remain stubbornly stuck in the past. Racism remains rampant in many parts of the world, and even America is seeing an alarming rise in discriminatory attitudes, with figures like Donald Trump often cited as emboldening such behavior. Against this backdrop, it is sadly not surprising that some landlords may secretly harbor racist biases. A TikTok user named @storieswithjonmosslol recently shared his own troubling experience while searching for a new apartment in Scottsdale, Arizona.
He explained that three months ago, he submitted an application to rent a property both by email and by physical letter, but he never received a response from the landlord. Notably, in his email, he included his profile picture, which showed his own face. Suspecting that racism might have played a role in the silence, he decided to run an experiment.
This time, instead of using his own image, he used a photo of a white man named Brian. This was not just a random person. Brian had previously left a comment on one of the TikTok user’s videos claiming that racism did not exist, saying, “Show me where I can get hired but you can’t. Show me where I can live, but you can’t.” Taking that statement as a kind of challenge, the TikTok user used Brian’s face and reapplied for the same apartment.
The results were startling. He sent the new application at 11:05 a.m., and by 12:00 p.m., less than an hour later, he received a reply from the same Arizona landlord. The landlord asked for identification and bank statements, but even before receiving them, said that the apartment was available and that he could move in. This made it clear that the unit had been vacant all along and strongly suggested that the only reason his earlier application was ignored was because of his skin color.
When the TikTok was shared on Reddit, users were outraged by what they saw as blatant discrimination. One commenter remarked, “Sounds like those dumbasses are so racist they hate money.” Some encouraged him to report the incident, though others pointed out that proving racial discrimination in housing is notoriously difficult because landlords can easily claim they had other reasons for ignoring an application.
One Redditor, familiar with the area, added historical context by saying, “This is how Scottsdale came to be. Anyone from Arizona knows that the north and east side of the city is incredibly racist and has a very long history of redlining Black and brown people to the south and west side of the city.”
