Craigslist, Second Life and the law – disability, society and openness.
I see via tech.meme and outlined over on law.com that the net community is struggling with issues of discrimination with a law suit that’s been filed against the popular online classifieds site, Craigslist. To fill you in from law.com:
Google, Amazon.com, AOL and Yahoo are helping defend online peer Craigslist against a lawsuit that would hold the Web site liable for discriminatory housing ads that appeared on its site.
The lawsuit against Craigslist was filed by Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
The committee argues that Craigslist has violated the Fair Housing Act by letting its users post ads in which they discriminate in seeking tenants, asking, for instance, for a “gay Latino” or a “clean, godly Christian male.” The lawsuit cites about 120 ads from July to October 2005.
Now I live in Australia and so don’t know about this “Fair Housing Act” spoken about, but it made me ask myself how I would feel if an ad appeared asking for a tenant that had a disability. Which, if you’ve just tuned in, I do.
I think the answer is, I’d feel bloody good.
Face it, no matter how much they protest they don’t, people discriminate. While I’m no aficionado on equal opportunity – far from it, I’m just your normal guy with a disability – here in Australia it seems the question is whether the discrimination is ‘fair’ in the circumstance (whatever that really means – ‘fair’ discrimination).
I mean, how do newspaper classifieds get on? They have personal columns; Guy seeks Guy for … Girl seeks Guy for … etc. I guess it’s to do with the ‘Act’ they operate under. Anyway, I digress.
Given my previous musings about the new spirit of openness that seems to be appearing on the net around all things web 2,0, I wonder if what’s happening on Craigslist with this lawsuit isn’t just one of those old rocks getting beaten against by a new wave in a growing ocean.
I mean isn’t openness better in that at least we know where we stand?
Rather than a negative, I see what’s happening on Craigslist as a positive indicator of society. It is an indication of acceptance of and an expressed desire for people to be included by other people. It’s saying to the people being offered tenancy ‘you’re wanted‘ in society.
The reverse also applies and is also seen, in the negative light, in access to the built environment – when I can’t get in a shop to spend my money, when transport isn’t accessible to everybody, society is saying ‘you’re not wanted‘.
Regardless of an ‘Act’ or any real or perceived discrimination, or an argument over a written law, we should be looking what it says about the spirit of the society we live in. Inclusion should be celebrated.
Notions of what society says about inclusion really stood out to me in Second Life (SL). You’ve got all sorts of weird looking people in there, but everyone I’ve met seems to get along and be accepting. I wonder if it’s because, much like Star Trek, most avatars are based around a walking human form.
When I first entered SL I went looking for a place to buy a wheelchair. In fact, the only efforts I’ve made to build anything in SL are to attempt to build a wheelchair that I can sit in. So far all I’ve managed is rubber looking hollow wheels.
Alright, so you can fly in SL, but my point is when I see in ‘First Life’, classifieds everywhere advertising a tenancy for a person with a disability I’ll really believe we are beginning to live anti-discrimination rather than just talk and make laws about it.
In the mean time, I’m backing openness.
[tags]openness, web 2.0, craigslist, google, discrimination, disability, inclusion, accecptance, society, yahoo, aol, amazon.com, second life[/tags]
Bloody hell mate – you have hit a ton of issues right between the eyes!!
Very powerful, very lifekludger!
I wonder if the geeks at gnomedex might have time to kludge together a wheelchair for you in second life?? Or maybe you could inspire a competition to create a range of chairs – quiet wheels for conference presentations to that snazzy all-terrain number shown on rocketboom…
Keep on challenging us, start the conversations, change the language, change the culture.
Fang – Mike Seyfang
Comment by fang — July 1, 2006 @ 10:14 am
Thanks Mike. I appreciate the feedback as alot of me went into that. I had read the thing on craigslist a couple days before in the wee hours. It wouldn’t let me go. So I came home from work Friday and just had to get it out. A song I like says it best – It only lives when you give it away.
Comment by Dave the Lifekludger — July 1, 2006 @ 7:12 pm
Sat Jul 1, 2006 at 3:18 AM pm | In Thoughts | I’ve written something over in my personal blog around the title of this post, Craigslist, Second Life and the law – disability, society and openness, that readers of Lifekludger …
Trackback by Anonymous — July 1, 2006 @ 7:48 pm
My.. very impressive..
..especially "..I think the answer is, I’d feel bloody good."
Just when you think you understand alot.. you realise there is more.
Comment by wolis — July 1, 2006 @ 8:57 pm
Thanks Wol. There is alot to understand.
Comment by Dave the Lifekludger — July 2, 2006 @ 4:50 pm
Sun Jul 2, 2006 at 11:54 PM and openness Posted by Jane under Uncategorized Been reading an interesting post on Blob regarding a lawsuit against Craigslist. Apparently there is a discrimination law suit pending …
Trackback by Anonymous — July 3, 2006 @ 4:24 pm
Keep drawing.
Comment by Dave the Lifekludger — July 3, 2006 @ 4:33 pm
Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 10:36 PM young, good-looking, thin one on the right….hey, it’s virtual…I can be whatever I like! Besides, I couldn’t find a wheelchair in SL.Dave Leave a commentLinks :About meLifekludger blogFuneral Music …
Trackback by Anonymous — July 12, 2006 @ 3:06 pm
Fri Jul 14, 2006 at 2:00 AM model for Second Life?Filed under: Blogging — dnw @ 6:29 pm So as readers would be aware from here, here, here and here, I’ve been dsipping my virtual feet into Second Life. A story behind the news is …
Trackback by Anonymous — July 14, 2006 @ 6:30 pm
Tue Jul 18, 2006 at 5:08 AM lacking in such cases is connection. While I might be disabled and hence share some of the inherent by-products that come with the territory, fortunately I am not too socially isolated due to good http://lifekludger.net/?p=124
Trackback by Anonymous — July 18, 2006 @ 9:38 pm
Dear Dave, I’m a student from Utrecht (Holland) and I’m writing a paper about disabled people in Second Life. I wondered if I could do an interview with you. Please let me know. Kind regards, Freek.
Comment by Freek — March 20, 2007 @ 9:22 pm
And maybe you know other people who could also help me?
Kind regards.
Comment by Freek — March 20, 2007 @ 9:30 pm
Hi Freek. Yeah I’ll gladly do your interview. I’ll be in touch via email.
Comment by Dave the Lifekludger — March 21, 2007 @ 6:19 pm
I know few people I could track down maybe.
Comment by Dave the Lifekludger — March 21, 2007 @ 6:25 pm