ML/NJ?
Posted on 05/06/2016 2:29:40 AM PDT by reaganaut1
A trending social media hashtag has highlighted experiences of possible racial bias by users of the AirBnB rental app.
Quirtina Crittenden, a 23-year-old business consultant living in Chicago, who is African-American, started the hashtag #AirBnBWhileBlack after noting how often she was declined by hosts when seeking a place to rent – even when the apartments advertised appeared to be available.
“The hosts would always come up with excuses like, ‘oh, someone actually just booked it’ or ‘oh, some of my regulars are coming in town, and they’re going to stay there,’” Crittenden said in an NPR interview.
“But I got suspicious when I would check back days later and see that those dates were still available.”
AirBnB users have both a photograph and name as part of their profiles. After Crittenden created the hashtag, many other people of colour have described similar experiences.
As an experiment, Crittenden changed her photograph from a self-portrait to one of a generic cityscape, and shortened her first name from “Quirtina” to “Tina”. She found that her requests to rent were then accepted.
“Ever since I changed my name and my photo, I’ve never had any issues,” Crittenden said.
Earlier this year, Harvard Business School researchers ran an experiment (PDF) exploring racial discrimination in what has become known as the “sharing economy”.
The study found that, on the AirBnB platform, “requests from guests with distinctively African-American names are roughly 16% less likely to be accepted than identical guests with distinctively white names”.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Sounds like a Queer Tina, does it not?
Because owners have had experience and don’t want their place trashed, don’t want to be cheated on rent, and don’t want drug dealing in their property.
ML/NJ
Wrong spelling, but very nice try.
There are strong African names also, if they want to go that route. I have friends named Kunta, and Kargbo, Koroma, etc. Strong African names with history behind them. But that name is made from a sound a pregnant woman makes. Look up he word quirt in the Urban Dictionary.
What the h&&L is strong about that?
Just look at the sample “black” and “white” inquiry notes sent out—the black one was illiterate and demanding, the white one was polite and educated in tone.
Then they got differing responses and cried racism.
All you decent black folks out there can place the blame where it truly belongs; on the prior behavior of folks who just happen to look like you.
My kids and their friends went out of town last week and rented an airbnb house advertised as having five beds.
Five beds, yes. But three of them were children’s size beds with kids blankets. There were some funny stories.
First, can anyone blame the property owners for not wanting Shartiqua and Shitavious renting there?
Two, 23 year old business consultant? Yeah right.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.