Apartment complex allegedly puts up notice directed to black residents

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An apartment company in Irvine, California, has drawn well-deserved criticism after posting a flyer with specific noise restrictions for African-Americans.

“We also would like to remind our African-American residents to keep conversation volume down and reduce music levels between 10:00p.m. and 7:00a.m.,” the flyer reads. “Multiple complaints have been made regarding this issue.”

The flyer, posted in the elevators of Toscana Apartments, was posted to Instagram by a resident, who also posted a video. “This is what it means to be black in Irvine,” she says. “Generalizations.”

Her friend adds, “Blatant racism, with no regard to our personal feelings.”

“Only two are posted, and it’s just in my building,” she says. “And I’m black. WE ALL BLACK.”

However, the national company which owns Toscana Apartments, Equity Residential, has been quick to deny that the flyer was posted with official permission.

“That flyer is not real, it’s fake, it wasn’t created by us, it wasn’t posted by us,” Marty McKenna, an Equity spokesperson, told Fusion. “We don’t know where it came from…It looks like it came from the management and it did not.”

“We searched the property this morning and couldn’t find it,” McKenna said, “but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t taken down by somebody else.”

“We’re outraged about the content, it’s not something that we would ever ever do,” he added.

Equity also told Jezebel, “This flyer was not created or posted by Equity Residential. We are investigating the source. We are outraged by the content and it does not match our core values as a company.”

But not everyone believes Equity’s story, and the original Instagram user who posted the picture said,  “Why are you lying? All of the other flyers in the building have the same letter head [sic]. Smart move to cover your a** though.”

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