31–40 of 171 posts
Very interesting however they could have easily provided some more conclusive proof. The author should have tried booking one of the places that turned Brandon down on the same dates. If he had been offered the place it would haave been more clear racism was in play. I'm not denying racism was in play (although the UberX example seems quite silly - personally I'd be happy to get a driver that didn't talk to me and th…
So unfortunate, and also a reflection of the wider national context. Maybe time to add a few more to this list of "21 Things Black People Can't Do in America": http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/21-things-you-cant...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is that you can sue Hyatt if you are discriminated against, which keeps people in line. It's very difficult to sue AirBnB for the actions of a host.
You could sue the host. But that violates the rule that you only sue people with money. There are not many but this is one disadvantage of wealth.
This is so depressing and even though sample size is small it rings 100% true. I think it's just a symptom of an inherently racist and unfair world and is not Uber or Airbnb's fault. The same thing happens with names at the resume level and on and on. That said I think there's a new market here. If the average Airbnb listing is rejecting applicants of color maybe there could be a special "diversity friendly" designat…
The only method I can think of would be to monitor when hosts reject minority guests but then there's a risk that you punish hosts who reject a minority guest for some unrelated reason.
White supremacy is an oppressive institution that reaches throughout all of society. Unless it is actively fought against, it will prevail.
I'm not saying the shared economy is racist by design. Nor am I accusing mentioned companies as being racist. But as companies build trust through profiles and links to social networks, they should be wary of the unintended consequence.
since you have the time to clarify, perhaps you should update the post's title. :)
There's a really simple explanatory mechanism, which is that even if an AirBnB host is bound by the same anti-discrimination provisions of the Civil Rights Act as a Hyatt, which is probably true, holding individual service providers accountable at that level is basically impossible. And to the extent that the "sharing economy" involves more individuals rather than businesses that can be sued, you will see more discri…
Impossible? That's nonsense. They could ask users for a standard race descriptor that is never shared with the hosts, and if the hosts seem to predominantly reject certain races of people, the marketplace like AirBnB could kick them out. It's actually pretty simple. It all depends on how eager the marketplaces are to solve this particular problem.
So unfortunate, and also a reflection of the wider national context. Maybe time to add a few more to this list of "21 Things Black People Can't Do in America": http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/21-things-you-cant...
Equivalent:
"21 things white people can't do in Germany: Be the nation's leader while having a tootbrush mustache"