Does Airbnb discriminate against minorities? Gregory Selden says it does. Selden, a black 25-year old, recently filed a complaint against the San Francisco-based company claiming that when he tried to book an apartment in Philadelphia, an Airbnb host rejected his booking under his actual profile, which included a photo of himself. Later, however, he maintains that the same host accepted his request when he used fake profiles of white men.
Selden insists that when he raised the issue with Airbnb, the travel website gave him the cold shoulder and claimed that a representative told him, “It’s a disappointment people like you always victimize yourselves solely on the basis of skin color.”
Selden’s lawsuit accuses Airbnb of denying him “full and equal enjoyment” of lodging because of his race. “Under the Civil Rights laws, Airbnb qualifies as public accommodations,” said Selden’s attorney Ike Emejuru. “Airbnb serves essentially the same function as a hotel. We are confident that there are numerous persons out there who will potentially join the class [action lawsuit].”
I believe Selden. Don’t you? After all, it’s not hard to imagine homeowners denying black people—black men, especially—the right to rent a place. It’s not hard to imagine because it happens every day. What’s more a Harvard University study not long ago showed that Airbnb hosts are less likely to accept booking requests from black people. Research indicated that hosts rented to fake profiles with “white”-sounding names 50 percent of the time, compared to 42 percent of the time when names sounded “black.”
And by the way, the race of the host was irrelevant.
In a statement responding to Selden’s lawsuit, Airbnb stated: “Racial discrimination is unacceptable and it flies in the face of our mission to bring people together.” The company goes on to say that it will work toward eliminating unconscious bias.
That’s good. And that’s important. But who are we kidding? Selden’s case, like many others, is not a case of unconscious bias. It’s plain old bigotry. Let’s hope Airbnb also takes greater action against hosts who don’t discriminate by mere accident. As Selden explained to a local TV station, “I’m really not looking for sympathy at this point. I just want to see some change in their practices.” Me too.
Let’s be realistic with ourselves and rather than bemoan a system and a company that will continue to claim non racial bias, why not seek out homeowners of color and start a bnb type business that will rent to everyone? The class action suit may be well and good and could even win in court but the fact remains, a middle class family away on vacation would not feel in the least bit comfortable knowing a black person is in their home because they were raised to believe that we are thieves, rapists, and trash our homes . Whether or not this is true, that is how they were raised and nothing can convince them otherwise. The conditioning of their minds is already set. I am an African immigrant and am under no illusion of how a lot of people see me. Being from Africa, I am automatically viewed as inferior, unintelligent, poor and worthless, not only by white America but by black America as well. I am fully aware of the stereo type. What I and millions of other immigrants do to succeed is to accept what is and embrace all who embrace us and leave be all who don’t. If you look at the demographic aside from Caucasians, the fastest economic people are non white immigrants. We have created within our environment our own businesses where we can be treated with the respect we deserve. We have Lawyers, Doctors, nurses and pharmacists, real estate agents, insurance brokers etc. all catering to the immigrant population, living the American dream and while we are not happy about having to segregate ourselves and dislike the status quo, we are fully aware that we will not change a 400 year old mindset in a day.
This being said, I live in a predominantly Caucasian area in rural Minnesota and am the first black friend to many men and women here. I am careful to leave a good impression, one that can be seen and experienced so that I can create open mindedness in everyone I meet. It took 400 years for the racist mind set to develop and it will take at least another 400 to change this way of thinking. Within the Caucasian community there exists religious discrimination as well as places of origin and long before slaves got here the early white settlers had separated themselves accordingly. They showed a united hatred for the Native Americans they found here and many still do to this day.
So I say to you as people of color, African and American, Asian and Indian, if we all worked hard to empower ourselves financially, we would make better use of our time than complain about and call out what we have seen and will continue to see.
What fighting companies like BNB and calling them on their racism will do is create an even deeper divide that will take this struggle even further behind. Every time there is a push forward there will be a push back. My question to you then is in this free economy, why would anyone want to give their business to an organization that clearly does not want it? Why would anyone want to waste time and effort fighting for the “right” to live in another man’s home??
We live in a country where business opportunities abound and there has never been a better time in our history to create new businesses than today. I would do what our Asian friends and South East Indian friends and African friends from all the nationalities have done in this country since they started arriving here voluntarily. Form alliances in the cities you live in, create co-op type organizations with responsible, well educated leaders in place that can teach its members how to obtain financing, start businesses and network and build each other up from within. The pooling together of resources from like minded people has long been a practice in third world countries. How do you think so many of us got here? Doing this very empowering as has been clearly evidenced.
I in no way mean to offend anyone by my comments and sincerely hope this article is read with an open mind and will give you a fresh perspective. Peace and love to all.