#AirbnbWhileBlack: How Hidden Bias Shapes The Sharing Economy

A 23-year-old African American woman who is a “travelling type“ was refused an accommodation on Airbnb officials when noticed from her picture she was black.

According to WNCY News, a 23-year-old Quirtina Crittenden was refused a room on Airbnb several times when she requested. Crittenden is a young successful business consultant woman who likes travelling. She says she feels like it’s because of her race that caused that.

“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. “But I got suspicious when I would check back like days later and see that those dates were still available.”

“The most common response I got was ‘oh yeah, that’s why I don’t use my photo.’ Like duh. Like I was the late one,” Crittenden said. According to the young woman, she did her own survey by shortening her name to “Tina” and “Ever since I changed my name and my photo, I’ve never had any issues on Airbnb.”

Crittenden Twittered her displease making the world know how bad racial differences has gotten to.

Through a recent experiments ran by two Harvard Business School colleagues, Airbnb have been one segregated hotel that is prone to racial bias in customer care. Through details such as names and pictures, they deduce race and deny customers.

However, this is how racism affects the lives of black people. It seems to be a small thing, but things like this are what combines into racism. Racism that hides under the notion of macroaggression, political believes, isolated incidents and the claims that racism doesn’t exist.

Airbnb is a racist company, and an investigation should be conducted at such a big hotel.

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