he he he
(pic from here)
Never drive when drunk, and never post when tired. I’m good about the first, and usually good about the second, but when the fatigue shows no sign of going away, I’m willing to step in and do what I have to do.
In this case, I saw this post by Jeff at 8 Asians. In the post, he talks about a White Realtor telling his brother-in-law that the Asians are ruining everything in real estate by providing kickbacks to buyers. Jeff then talks about how Asian people also do good things by buying houses in good areas and stabilizing the market. I posted the following:
Kickbacks are highly, highly unethical. They poison the market. In this case, I agree 100% with the White realtor, and it’s unfortunate that our people do this. I’m also sorry to see that this poor behavior among Asian people isn’t limited to Oregon.
Jeff, I’m sure you’re not in the industry (or you would’ve mentioned this), but I hope your brother-in-law understands how kickbacks hurt everyone and contribute to our dis-empowerment as people. Simply saying that Asians buy places in good areas does nothing to tarnish the stain of bad behavior. It would be like excusing Kenneth Lay or Bernie Madoff just because they gave money to charity.
I understand that we come from cultures that encourage kickbacks or incentives. In Japan, for example, big banks will guarantee safety for their big clients by reimbursing them after large losses. It’s totally illegal, even by Japanese law, but they do it anyway because they want to save face with their clients. In the end, the poor and middle class Japanese people get screwed because they absorb all the risk of these unethical bankers.
The bottom line is that it’s illegal, the same way kickbacks are against a Realtor’s code of conduct. It’s bad behavior, it’s dishonest, and there’s no way to logically and publicly justify it, which is why those who do it have to sneak around rather than open up about their behavior.
As you all know, I’ve had my own recent brush with other people’s ethics. I kept hearing, “Who cares if there was no hate crime? The fact is that there have been hate crimes.” Or “Even if we’re supporting a lie, we’re achieving something good.” Or this one: “I attended the rally just support my people. I don’t care whether or not it’s a lie–after all, I didn’t organize it.” The ironic thing is that I’ve heard the same kind of nonsense from Asian Realtors regarding kickbacks: “Who cares if it’s unethical? We have to do this to stay in business.” Or “It may be unethical, but at least I’m making money. This ethical code is intended to prevent rich realtors from abusing it, and I’m not rich.” Or “it’s not unethical if no one else knows.” Or “I’m only going to do it this time.”
It ticks me off because it’s part of the reason why we Asian people have problems with empowerment in this society. When trust breaks down, what is left? With neither trust nor any community-based impetus to act ethically, you have to always look over your shoulder to make sure your Asian brother or sister doesn’t rob you blind. You have to check and double check every claim or statement because no one cares enough to do the morally right thing. Without character as a community goal, you have few heroes.
Ethics are sometimes gray–this is the very first thing they teach us in mortgage broker school. For example, Jeff mentions the reduced commissions for a double end–this might be totally ethical if a buyer and seller know each other and propose a lower commission since the Realtor doesn’t have to find the buyer. But for something like an offered kickback–which is what the White Realtor was talking about–it’s totally unethical. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
I’m no moralizer or preacher. I think I’m pretty lax in interpreting ethical issues–I’m a liberal, and yes, I would steal the medicine. I also don’t care enough to notify the authorities about these crooks, and in terms of self-reflection, I’m sure we’ve all done things that we aren’t proud of. But the clear difference between what is said and what is done is disgusting. I know a churchgoing Bible thumper from Hong Kong who pulls these dirty tactics all the time. He knows it’s wrong, and yet he does it anyway. Out of one side of his mouth, he tells everyone how we all should accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, and out of the other, he concocts his crooked deals. The sad irony is that he mostly cheats his fellow churchgoing Christians who trust him–some of whom, I’m sure, are very good people. Thou shalt not steal, but thou shalt allow thy neighbor to steal from thou. I feel like showering after being in the same room as this dirtbag.
I posted when tired, and I’m still tired. When I wake up tomorrow, this will still be a problem in our community. What can we do to fix it?
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A good post Byron, and I agree with you that there’s definitely some sticky issues involved with the ethics of money, Asian Americans, and culture. Bribes / kick-backs are definitely wrong, but I believe another issue you could have touched on in your post is that racism (both institutional and personal) also is a strong factor in people’s decision making.
For example, why do many Asian Americans deal only with Asian American real estate agents?
Because of a lack of a trust (that’s often justified) in non-Asian real estate agents who frequently steer Asian Americans to only houses in “minority neighborhoods” or don’t work hard on their behalf to get them the best deal. It’s the same issue with the immigrant generations of Asian Americans who stash huge amounts of money in their house instead of the bank – because American financial institutions up until recently had a history of racist behavior toward non-whites, including denial of loans and other services. I’m not saying that racism is a free pass to behave unethically or be unethical, I’m just pointing out that it’s a factor in many people behaving in that way.
Hopefully when our community begins addressing issues of racism (both institutional and personal), it will give people incentives to not engage in unethical behaviors. If people can trust that institutions and all real estate agents (not just Asians) are working on their behalf, they won’t feel the need for kick-backs or other unethical practices.
But yeah… personal integrity is a difficult for thing for all of us to manage. I think a lot of times, I myself fall short because I’m getting older, I don’t want to engage in conflict, or I’m cynical about racism, or I’m just plain lazy. But I think when we acknowledge our own personal shortcomings, it’s often a healthy part of the process toward becoming better people. To borrow a spiritual analogy, one can’t be truly transformed until one has truly repented.
BTW, that Christian sleazebag you mentioned makes me sick. Reminds me of “prosperity gospel” folks who fleece people’s hopes to get rich.
Gar,
What’s up, man?
“For example, why do many Asian Americans deal only with Asian American real estate agents?”
Hahaha…you know, I wish people wouldn’t look at the race of their agents and brokers. It would definitely make my life easier. It would definitely help towards integration.
That being said, I think people gravitate towards people who look like them. My old boss at my old company wanted to hire Hispanic loan officers because he wanted a piece of the growing Hispanic population. It’s usually the law of sales–people gravitate towards people like them. If we hired more Democratic LO’s, we’d get more Democratic customers. More African American LO’s=more African American customers. More car racing LO’s=more car racing customers. I think many times it’s affinity as much as racism.
For Asian people, it even breaks down along lines of ethnicity, which excludes people of other Asian ethnicities.
I also see what you’re saying about White salespeople, and I don’t know how to answer this. When I went to buy a car several years ago, all the White salesmen ran in the other direction. I finally got a Chinese salesman to help me, and as we were testdriving, he told me that he often got “stuck” with Chinese customers because they were more cautious about buying, and the White salespeople didn’t want to deal with it. People aren’t supposed to discriminate, but after seeing patterns, they eventually do.
For me, it’s a struggle. While Jeff correctly identifies unethical behavior by salespeople, there’s also a lot of unethical behavior among Asian customers too. You wouldn’t believe some of the dirty stuff I’ve seen. Sure, it dies down after a generation or two in this country, but aside from letting these cultural behaviors die through simply being here, how can we fix problems right now? This is a relevant question, especially given the Asian American reliance on immigration.
As for the church dude, I have no idea how successful his investing business is, but he makes serious dough as an engineer with a PhD. I think part of how he cheats these people comes from the fact that people see that he’s living large. Kinda like Bernie Madoff and all his houses and cars. That’s probably how the “prosperity gospel” people appeal to the common folk too. It’s sad.