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by teakettle42 1405 days ago
I don’t think it would actually be nice if the burden of proof rested on the accused. This example isn’t a study of systemic bias, and is both individually and statistically meaningless.

It would be nice, however, if the paper of record didn’t call out a home appraiser, by name, in front of a national audience, with no evidence, as being a racist.
1 comments
dontreact 1405 days ago
I think you’ve totally ignored

A) the historical evidence about discrimination at every level in the housing system

B) the study from the brookings institute showing bias with housing appraisal

I’m also not claiming all of the burden of proof should lie with the accused.

What I am saying is given the anecdotes, lawsuits, and retrospective analysis, I think it’s fair to put more pressure on the system to help with investigating the issue more systematically.

Getting the type of statistical evidence you are talking about is expensive and I think there are enough indications that 0% of the cost seems like too low of a cost to expect a huge industry to cover.

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teakettle42 1405 days ago
I haven’t ignored any of that; I simply don’t believe that it is ethical to use the state’s monopoly on violence to punish individual actors (including said industry) without due process.

If you want the state to fund systematic investigation of systemic crimes, then fine.

> I’m also not claiming all of the burden of proof should lie with the accused.

None of the burden of proof should lie with the accused.

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dontreact 1404 days ago
There isn't really always a clean separation between private and state actors when it comes to housing (i.e. Fannie Mae has appraisers https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/learning-center/applicati...)

So I think we are probably aligned that Government Sponsored Enterprises should be spending some time looking into this given the (weaker) evidence that's already there.

If systemic issues with appraisal are found there, it seems fair to me that there should be some regulation and/or state-sponsored investigation of whether the same systemic issues are happening with purely private appraisal.

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