Utah Developer Pulls Racial Data From Site
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Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 2, 2005
Salt Lake Tribune Eagle Mountain is a burgeoning Utah County community, full of young families, new homeowners and white people.
Lots and lots of white people.
The racial breakdown of Eagle Mountain was listed as a selling point on the Web site of home builder Bigg Homes.
The site also included this comparison among others: “Black race population percentage significantly below state average.”
“Significantly below” was in bold.
David Adams, co-owner of Bigg Homes, removed the racial information from the site after being contacted by The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday.
“We apologize if that offended anybody. It wasn’t our intention,” he said. “Frankly, it is offensive to me, too.”
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Salt Lake-area real estate agent Babs De Lay said that in general, highlighting statistics about protected groups such as racial minorities is beyond unethical.
“That is discriminatory,” said De Lay, who recently attended a conference for realtors on federal fair housing laws. “That is definitely wrong.”
The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal “To make, print, or publish … any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.”
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(Posted on December 5, 2005)