I generally enjoy reading the articles here and I appreciate your efforts. I just fail to understand the reason to choose to include this article (Warning: This ad may offend you) as the headline piece for this week’s publication. I’m not certain, but it seems to me from the opening paragraphs that the writer seems to imply that we do not need to be mindful about “racial insensitivity” or “racial stereotypes”…? Is this the position that we want to embrace as an industry that is comprised of many different individuals of many different backgrounds?
Should we not take an approach that is mindful of free speech and our democratic principles while still seeking to root out prejudice and intolerance?
The writer seems to imply (again if I understood it correctly) that just like her ad should be allowed and accepted, so too should all other ads/logos/costumes/etc… Why is that so? It is not a zero-sum game.
Her holiday ad sounds wonderful and she should certainly keep placing it if she wants… but that doesn’t mean that everything else is acceptable. And it’s certainly no reason to mock the Canadian masses, as the first paragraph so clearly does!
As a Realtor, I can’t for the life of me understand how the editorial board chose and decided upon this piece. Truly nothing to do with real estate. I suggest sending out a follow-up. If not an outright apology then at the very least an explanation or clarification of the writer’s position and the reason REM decided this was worth sharing.
Strange, indeed.
Yehuda Gelberger
Sales representative
Re/Max Realtron Realty Inc., Brokerage
Toronto
