What we don't know - Do people still think like this?

Yoko Ono & John Lennon

So Lauren Bacall is good enough for the Dakota but not Banderas?

Read below and see what the Dakota Co Op board thinks of Antonio Banderas.  They called him a drug dealer!  Since when did anybody think that Antonio Banderas is a drug dealer?  Maybe the Co-Op Board of the Dakota saw Banderas as a hoodlum in Robert Rodriguez's film "Mariachi" and got the film confused with reality.

What is disturbing about the nasty words said by the Dakota Co-op Board is that a good number of Americans talk like this - and do so readily in "polite company." Only when they think they are being taped do they watch what they say.  Does this mean that there are still lots of Americans who despise African Americans and Latinos.... the answer is YES.  This is not about being paranoid.

 

Alfonse Fletcher

Dakota Co-op Board Is Accused of Bias

 The Dakota, the legendary New York apartment building, has long been famous for its celebrity residents, including Leonard Bernstein, Lauren Bacall and John Lennon.

Civil Complaint (PDF)

A suit by Alphonse Fletcher Jr., a Wall Street investor, accuses the Dakota and several of its board members of racial discrimination and defamation.

But it is also well known for having among the most restrictive co-op boards in Manhattan, having turned down would-be buyers including Billy Joel, Cher and the acting couple Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas...        

"The lawsuit’s explosive allegations include claims that board members made ethnic slurs against prospective residents, including describing one couple as part of the “Jewish mafia” and suggesting that a Hispanic applicant was interested in a first-floor apartment so that he could more easily buy drugs on the street. The applicant, who was rejected, was married to a “prominent financially well-qualified white woman,” according to the suit, and though neither is named, the timing and circumstances suggest that it was Mr. Banderas.