Back in 2016, Airbnb hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to help squash its consistent racial problem. Holder was to help the
Airbnb had — and apparently still does — a major discrimination problem. According to a Harvard Business School study, there was widespread discrimination by Airbnb hosts. “Renters who have said they were repeatedly turned down by hosts — a pattern that tended to reverse if they swapped their profile photo for one of a cityscape, for instance — have protested the racial discrimination under the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack,” USA Today reported.
Well, a viral video proves not much has changed over at Airbnb. Recently, a group of friends, all of whom were Black, visiting New York for the weekend encountered a racist Airbnb host who called them “criminals” and asked them “Which monkey is gonna stay on the couch?” She kicked them out at 2 am. The incident was caught on video and has gone viral.
Kenneth Simpson, from Virginia, “told the Washington Post he and three other men had flown from different parts of the country to spend the weekend with a local friend. He said the Upper East Side townhouse was advertised as an entire-unit rental, but they realized it was a shared home only when they arrived,” The New York Daily News reported.
Simpson later tweeted that the host “assumed” they were going to steal and destroy her property.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 16: Boyce Watkins Jamarlin Martin talks to Dr. Boyce Watkins, founder and CEO of Watkins Media Group, about Black self-determination and Kanye West bangin’ for MAGA. They also revisit Bill Cosby’s “Pound Cake” speech, and whether he received a fair trial.
“After being harassed by her nonstop, she then told us to ‘Get the f— out of her house immediately!’” he wrote. “We cooperated and began to pack our things to leave.”
“The language is unacceptable and has no place in the Airbnb community,” Airbnb tweeted. “We’ve removed the host from our platform and are supporting the guests with a new place to stay.”
There has been an array of stories about racist Airbnb hosts. “This is not the first time or only time Airbnb caught heat because of racial incidents since it’s launch in 2008. In April of 2018, police confronted Donisha Prendergast, the granddaughter of Bob Marley, and her two friends while leaving an Airbnb home in California,” BET noted. “These are just a couple of the platform’s numerous issues with discrimination and racist behavior, often on the part of the hosts. We hope that Airbnb takes the necessary measures to prevent this from happening to anyone else.”
