Wendell Pierce speaks onstage on May 11, 2024, in New York City. | Source: Bennett Raglin / Getty
Apparently, money and notoriety aren’t even enough to shield Black people from housing discrimination, even when a famous Black person is trying to rent a place.
Veteran actor Wendell Pierce, a Black man, revealed via X on Monday that he was recently denied an apartment rental by a white landlord who allegedly denied The Wire actor’s application to rent an apartment.
“For those of you who don’t understand my righteous anger; I’m on 2 TV series, ELSBETH and RAISING KANAN. I’m filming SUPERMAN. Two years ago, I finished the fourth season of JACK RYAN. Last year I finished a run on Broadway in DEATH OF A SALESMAN,” Pierce tweeted. “Even with my proof of employment, bank statements and real estate holdings, a white apartment owner DENIED my application to rent the apartment…..in Harlem, of all places. Racism and bigots are real. There are those who will do anything to destroy life’s journey for Black folks. When you deny our personal experiences, you are as vile and despicable.”
For the record, even if Pierce had never acted in a single film, TV show or play, it would still be wrong for a landlord to deny him a rental place if he has provided the necessary proof that he can afford it. Still, it’s wild that the guy who played Detective Bunk Moreland in The Wire, trombonist Antoine Batiste in Treme, attorney Robert Zane in Suits, and a really mean self-loathing Black Supreme Court justice named Clarence Thomas (you might have heard of him) in Confirmation can’t go apartment hunting without running into an anti-Black landlord who, apparently, doesn’t want negroes in his building.
Of course, Wendall didn’t mention the landlord or property by name—and one can expect that a lot of (white) people are going to assume he’s clout-chasing for relevancy or whatever—and he doesn’t even appear to want his experience focused on. Instead, he appeared to want to draw attention to another story regarding racial discrimination—one where perpetually aggrieved white people are whining about being discriminated against by Black women who created a fund for Black women.
We have reported extensively on the white-tearsy debacle surrounding the Fearless Fund, a venture capital firm owned and operated by Arian Simone and Ayana Parsons, who offer grants reserved for businesses owned by Black women and women of color. On Monday, federal appeals court judges appointed by Donald Trump, for the second time, overturned a ruling from a lower court that allowed the Fearless Fund to proceed with its charitable operations while cases are pending in which fragile white people are suing the firm because they’re feeling left out as they always do when they’re not included in Black people’s business.
The Fearless Fund is a private entity founded and run by Black women who use private funds to help the underserved Black woman entrepreneurs in our communities. They should be able to do whatever they want with those funds in this so-called free country, but since white people are often hardwired to center themselves in everything, white plaintiffs are suing the firm because it doesn’t offer grants to the most overwhelmingly represented demographic in corporate America.
Also, a Black man can’t get a place to rent despite his prestigious status.
This is America.
SEE ALSO:
Op-Ed: Why We Can’t Afford To Ignore Housing This Election
The Projects: A Brief History Of Public Housing In America
