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A landlord in Richmond, Va., was recorded unleashing a racist rant full of derogatory comments to his tenant after she requested repairs on her home, according to local station WWBT.
“You’re just another dumb ass n****r I got to go to court with and I go to court every damn day with them,” property owner Dean Parsons reportedly said in the recording obtained by the station.
But according to single mother, Winter Whittaker, who lives at the property and pays $850 in monthly rent, requests she was making for decent living conditions were reasonable. But she only got partial fixes to the issues and kept having to complain to Parsons.
“Rodents, fleas…It would leak constantly, in my bedroom, in my living room…The hole inside the house, it was leaking from the gutters. That was the final straw for me,” she explained. “He was like, ‘if you don’t like it, move.’ I was like ‘ok, it’s easy for you to say move.’ ”
Whittaker told reporters that the racist rant wasn’t the first bad encounter she’s had with her landlord.
“I moved here and then five days later, he called me the first ‘B word’…For five months, I continuously was abused with the ‘B word’ every time I called him about a complaint. He was like ‘You complain too much. You can get the hell out of my house,’” she said
She says she feared for her life after the rant, especially since her landlord (Dean Parsons) has keys to the home she shares with her two children.
Whittaker’s attorney Helen Hardiman said that in this case, Virginia’s Fair Housing laws were possibly being deliberately violated.
“Certain demographics of people are targeted by certain landlords who know that they can take advantage of these types of tenants,” said Hardiman, who specializes in housing discrimination and says Parsons owns a multitude of housing units.
Whittaker and Parsons did go to court and reached a settlement, according to the station, but no lawsuit was found and he was never found liable for wrongdoing. Multiple attempts by a WWBT reporter to contact him went unanswered.
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