Posting a true story:

Here's my understanding of the sequence of this story so far (might not be accurate):

Around 2011, Martha Esch, someone who is not Chinese American or of Chinese descent, bought a property in Locke, California, a town of about 50 people -- none of whom are of Chinese descent -- for $21,000 cash from the estate that owned it.

An artist, she reportedly then invested $80,000 on repairs to the property, taking care to match and preserve the character of the one-block town.

A group of people working together under the name Land Management Association (LMA), a subsidiary to the Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency, sent a letter to Esch that included a statement that said, “… to enable the LMA to carry out its legal obligations to its Historic Preservation purposes. (This includes our responsibility to notify the 400 Chinese Ascendants and Descendants of Locke of their own priority to purchase the Locke property).”

LMA also subsequently filed a lawsuit against Esch for not getting permission from them to buy the property before she and the seller mutually agreed on the price and completed the sale. This lawsuit against Esch started the process of forcing Esch to give up her ownership of title to the property for $21,000. The people organized as the LMA, and the court, said this is justified because Esch violated LMA's bylaws, which, according to the Sacramento Bee newspaper, "give the board, and hundreds of former Chinese American residents and their family members, the first right to purchase any buildings in the blocklong town for the sake of preserving its history and culture."

The name of the blocklong town is Locke. According to lockehistory do t blogspot d o t com/2016/02/slander-and-disappointment-in-locke.html, "Locke was built on the land owned by George W. Locke." George Locke was not Chinese or Chinese American. His "family continued to own [property in Locke] until the 1970s when the last of their heirs passed away. ... If it was not for the Locke family, there would be no town of Locke today." According to Wikipedia, Mr. Locke leased some of his land to Zhongshan Chinese after a fire destroyed several buildings in a small town nearby, at a time when Chinese Americans were not legally allowed to own land. With George Locke's lease, a businessman from Guangdong province in China led the establishment of Lockeport, later called just Locke, to house the Chinese farm and levee workers who'd been displaced by the fire. Also according to Wikipedia, the town later also became a port-town destination of illicit entertainment, with gambling casinos, prostitution, bootlegging, and opium dens. The Sacramento Bee says, at the time of Esch's purchase and lawsuit, about ten percent of Locke's residents had and have Chinese ancestors. The newspaper also says that the association’s secretary, Deborah Mendel, told them that "...since the Locke Management Association was formed last decade, none of the handful of buildings offered for sale have been purchased by Chinese Americans."

According to deltaconfluence d o t com/content/2016-09-14/locke_management_association_under_fire_alleged_conflict_interest, LMA's members are not elected (perhaps they are self-appointed?), and are in violation of a number of laws, including ones that prohibit conflicts of interest and guarantee people the right to attend and participate in meetings of local legislative bodies (such as the Brown Act).

According to sallyoomsblog wordpress d o t com/2016/03/04/historic-town-wins-lawsuit-preservation-now-may-continue-in-chinese-delta-town/, "without the LMA’s knowledge, the defendants began negotiations for the building around mid-January of 2011, with LeBlanc as the prospective seller of the property. Shortly thereafter Esch signed a formal offer to purchase it. ... But 'the contract contained no contingency for the LMA to consider its right of first refusal,' the court ruling said. Defendant Esch was aware of the LMA right of first refusal 'for some time' prior to closing escrow, and admitted to actually reading them prior to closing escrow."

The sallyoomsblog website goes on to say, "In February of 2011, counsel for [the property's seller] LeBlanc notified the LMA too late in the process of the sale. The LMA did vote to exercise its right of first refusal and notified interested parties who had a right to purchase the property, as required in its bylaws and the Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions. The lists for notification include former Chinese residents, their descendants and ascendants as well as other interested parties added to the list. The court document shows that Esch, in attendance at that meeting, closed on the sale two weeks later, 'with personal knowledge of the LMA’s rights of first refusal….' The judge found that Esch had exercised 'willful disregard.'”

After the court's ruling, $21,000 was "held pending the decision on Esch's appeal" (see the sallyoomsblog website), and LMA filed a motion to dismiss Esch's appeal because she "accepted" the funds.

In 2017, when the soft-voiced Esch went by herself to attend LMA meetings, she was accused of harassing the "non-profit foundation" and of preventing the meetings she tried to attend from taking place, was videotaped and commanded by LMA secretary Mendel to leave, and was humiliated into leaving--one time by two uniformed sheriffs.

In videos posted to YouTube, she can be seen being forced to give up her right to attend the meetings, stating that she herself called authorities to ask them to help her at one of the LMA meetings, and politely reminding the LMA members that "we're all neighbors." youtube d o t com/watch?v=pmIxSH03zDY youtube d o t com/watch?v=IpGB69rm61M youtube d o t com/watch?v=qkoewSk9Cvo sacbee d o t com/news/local/article68446707.html deltaconfluence do t com/content/2016-09-14/locke_management_association_under_fire_alleged_conflict_interest sacramentopress d o t com/2011/09/07/locke-property-dispute-part-1/

According to sacramentopress d o t com/2011/09/07/locke-property-dispute-part-1/, the discriminatory statement in the letter from LMA to Esch was reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Searches for news about any subsequent action on the part of HUD return zero results.

Searches using the search-strings -descendants of mexicans have right of first refusal united states real estate- and -descendants of kenyans have right of first refusal united states real estate- and -descendants of israelis have right of first refusal united states real estate- and -descendants of japanese have right of first refusal united states real estate- and -descendants of italians have right of first refusal united states real estate- and -descendants of norwegians have right of first refusal united states real estate- and -descendants of canadians have right of first refusal united states real estate- and -descendants of persians have right of first refusal united states real estate- and -descendants of irish have right of first refusal united states real estate- have been so-far unsuccessful but continue.