"Blockbusting," which Mike accuses Chester Byrd of practicing, was a real problem during the era that this episode was originally produced and aired. As Mike suggests, it was a practice by unscrupulous real estate brokers to try to induce panic selling by property owners in formerly all-white neighborhoods where minority owners otherwise would have trouble buying property. They would sometimes leave notes on doors asking "for the address where the black family recently moved in" or - like Mr. Byrd - offering unreasonably high prices for one or two houses while spreading rumors that black families would soon be moving in. Although the practice has declined somewhat as many neighborhoods having become multi-racial or multi-ethnic, it was specifically banned by the Fair Housing Act of 1968, just three years before this episode aired.