16 ms·

I’m a black man – What happened when I booked an Airbnb

• soyiuz 10y ago
  I am thinking of a constructive way to solve problems such as these. What do you think of making public the host's acceptance and rejection rate by race and gender?
  • puppers 10y ago
    Consider if the host is black and the only caucasian people that inquire about the BnB are obviously hillbillies. Let's say he doesn't have a problem with caucasian people in general, but really doesn't like hillbillies. Let's say he promptly rejects them all. His rejection rate will make him look like he dislikes caucasians.
    • PKop 10y ago
      How is what you described a defensible action? What are hillbillies?
    • tbabb 10y ago
      And why, exactly, should the homeowner's right to make superficial snap judgments about people be protected? Why does AirBnB have some obligation to protect his image, which he brings upon himself with his own choices? Why is his image more important than somebody else's ability to find basic services like lodging without being judged or excluded based on outward appearance?
      • puppers 10y ago
        My comment was about how the solution soyiuz suggested could go wrong. Your questions are better directed towards him.
        • moosemilkie 10y ago
          What is "going wrong" in your scenario, though?
          • puppers 10y ago
            The host is wrongly perceived as someone who dislikes Caucasians.
            • tbabb 10y ago
              And this is worse than not being able to find lodging because of shallow, narrow-minded snap judgments people make about your profile picture?
              • puppers 10y ago
                For the host? Definitely! For AirBnB? Definitely, since AirBnb serves not only guests, but hosts as well. If I can't choose who to allow into my home, I am not using AirBnB as a host. I am confident that almost everyone shares this sentiment. Imagine if AirBnB required you to let anyone stay at your home. AirBnB wouldn't last another day. I agree that you shouldn't make judgements based upon only the profile picture. On the other hand, if they post things I find unattractive (like making fun of people of another race), I'm definitely not going to let them in my home. (OP seems to be a victim of the former and I sympathize with him)
      • TotallyHuman 10y ago
        So you are saying people don't have a right to choose for themselves who they want to rent their home to? It isn't illegal being a bigot or religiously deluded yet.
        • tbabb 10y ago
          I am saying that AirBnB has no duty to hide which hosts are racist from its customers, and, in fact, highlighting the information is a fair way to combat the problem-- and let customers punish hosts with their business-- without being authoritarian.
    • mst 10y ago
      Being perceived as the wrong sort of prejudiced douchenozzle doesn't seem that important a failure mode to me.
  • tootie 10y ago
    Stay at hotels. It's illegal for them to discriminate.
    • dragonwriter 10y ago
      In many cases, its illegal for people offering rentals through AirBnB to discriminate under the same laws that prohibit this for hotels.
    • alistairSH 10y ago
      While that's certainly true, it's a bit of a cop-out to suggest that as the optimal solution. Hotels have their place, but for extended vacations, having an entire home at your disposal can really change the quality of the vacation. More space to spread out and relax, a kitchen so you can cook some meals, etc.
  • mindslight 10y ago
    Don't plaster your face all over your profiles? The early net developed around a culture of eschewing pictures and even choosing one's own name, putting the focus on the content of what was said. When one puts a picture front and center and you bring in a whole lot of monkey-sphere bullshit. Of course AirBNB gets blame for pushing users to do that, making it so that not having a picture is weird but using a picture of someone else is fraud. It would obviously be politically unpalatable, but in a way it might be better if say AirBNB implemented support for discrimination on their platform. It's obviously something that exists, so reifying it into the formal system should make it easier to optimize away.
    • Manishearth 10y ago
      Not going to work; trust me, I've tried. I tried for years to avoid getting my pictures online, they got there anyway and are a Google search away. Now I've stopped caring. If you want to participate in social media (which you have to, some people won't communicate any other way) you've got to accept that not everyone views your privacy the way you do. And even of it did work, it wouldn't solve the issue since discrimination based on name can happen just as easily for people with obviously-black or obviously-Islamic names.
  • basseq 10y ago
    Within bounds of statistical variance, this is an interesting idea. I'm thinking of small sample sizes and the negatives of publicly posting an algorithmicly-derived statement of, effectively, racism. And do we normalize against those factors being transparent to renters? (If I reject an applicant with no photo who happens to be black, does that "count"?) But if you get it right, is there any legitimate explanation for why statistical differences would exist? Or do you baseline against the entire AirBNB population (which may be biased in of itself)?
• JPKab 10y ago
  Unfortunately, a service that connects people with other people directly to rent their homes is always going to have issues like this. I'm not sure that it's fair to expect Airbnb to "fix" this. Why? Because if they prevent people from discriminating on the very evil dimensions of race, gender, sexual identification, religion, etc, then they will also prevent people from discriminating on the basis of reasonable factors like "5 guys from 19 to 21 from a fraternity".
  • readams 10y ago
    Yea AirBNB ultimately can try to mitigate, but cannot solve completely this problem. Even if they try to blind the profile, at some point the guest has to show up at the host's house. In a way, it's probably better to avoid the racist host before that occurs. Of course, discriminating in this way is already illegal for normal rentals, but when you have rentals of rooms in people's houses I believe it actually is legal for hosts to discriminate in some cases. I really can't see how any sort of effective enforcement method could exist other than waiting for the racist assholes to die, sadly.
    • dragonwriter 10y ago
      > Of course, discriminating in this way is already illegal for normal rentals, but when you have rentals of rooms in people's houses I believe it actually is legal for hosts to discriminate in some cases. In California (the rules on this vary considerably by jurisdiction within the US), there is generally very little limit on discrimination by those renting out a room to a single roomer/boarder (but not if they are renting to multiple roomers/boarders), in an owner-occupied single family dwelling, though they generally can't advertise preference on any protected axis except gender, and only for that when there are shared living areas. In a case like this, renting out the entire place when the terms of the rental is that the owner won't be there, this exception wouldn't seem to apply, though Idaho may have different rules (I'm having more trouble quickly finding a good description of Idaho's rules.)
      • snuxoll 10y ago
• lomnakkus 10y ago
  Yet more evidence (as if we needed any) that racism is alive and well. I was going to try to be all superior by saying "in the US", but it's not really confined to the US[1]. It happens everywhere where there's any obvious way to do the whole "us" and "them" thing, whether that's skin color, gender, etc. We humans can be terrible :(. [1] Plus, I caught myself doing the exact thing I was lamenting. (Not "racism" per se, but still "us-vs-them".)
  • weberc2 10y ago
    Why is this evidence of racism? It looks like it could equally be anti-male sexism, no?
    • lomnakkus 10y ago
      Are you joking? What's the most obvious explanation here?
      • weberc2 10y ago
        Not joking. It's unreasonable to conclude any sort of discrimination based on a single sample, but if I had to guess a malicious motive, I would pick anti-young-male sentiment over racism. This is probably not very satisfying if you came for a witch hunt.
• sdiq 10y ago
  We have a minority South Asian population in my East African country. The South Asians are relatively wealthier than the other groups living in the country. However, it is not uncommon for one coming across adverts for houses to let, sell, and even a job or two, targeting only vegetarians. One of the jobs wanted only Gujarati speakers. While this is (or should be) illegal, the same happens quite openly.
  • kelukelugames 10y ago
    Hey congrats! Your country is experiencing dogwhistling. In America we use terms like welfare.
    • deleted 10y ago
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• V-2 10y ago
  I know it's just a blog post, but if we consider blogging to be journalism (even in some remote sense), then the accepted practice is to reach out to the other side and ask for comments. She could - obviously - refuse, then you write she refused comment. Or she might have some explanation that doesn't involve racial bias. It may be some BS excuse, we might not believe in it, etc. but this is her problem and it doesn't change the principle. On the other hand, not even letting that person know that you made the situation public, and offered conclusions at that, is kind of shady to me. But maybe I'm just old-fashioned (in the sense of believing in journalism standards, not racial segregation).
  • dragonwriter 10y ago
    > I know it's just a blog post, but if we consider blogging to be journalism Some blogging aspires to be the kind of neutral, third-party journalism to which that standard applies, but this kind of sharing of one's personal experience is not that kind of blogging. It's more like a personal version of an institutional press release, which might be the trigger and starting point for a journalistic story, but isn't one itself.
    • V-2 10y ago
      Where the boundary lies is subjective in my opinion, personally I feel it's better overall to "err on the safe side" as far as these matters go. At any rate, I would be quite simply curious about she would have to say
      • csydas 10y ago
        While I get what you're saying, this form of blogging is closer to opinion pieces, not journalism; it's why news papers formerly segregated the op-ed pieces from the rest of the paper, as it's less about a journalistic investigation and more a writing opining/pontificating. Blogging can have all sots of forms, some closer to news, some closer to personal diaries/journals. Based on the piece, this is closer to the latter, someone's personal experience made public. I realize that nowadays it's not as clear cut when you're reading an op-ed and when you're reading a piece of news, and sometimes it seems like authors try to blur the lines, but the distinction exists for a reason. The author of the piece did not really seem to try to make this anything more than "this is my story", which should set the tone and understanding of the writing he's about to present.
• benbenolson 10y ago
  It sucks that this happened; some people can really be scumbags. However, I'm really not sure that there is a solution to this. People in general are racist/biased/sexist/thing-ist, all over the world. Trying to regulate that fact doesn't make sense (how would you even police that?), but perhaps confronting her about it could help. If you sent her your blog post, detailing the steps that you took, she could come around and tell you a more reasonable explanation, like that her schedule is unstable and she had lots of other offers.
  • tlrobinson 10y ago
    Don't show profile pictures?
    • kazinator 10y ago
      Some people could refuse to lend the place without seeing profile pictures, so you will have to make that "show phony profile pictures", which is in the category of poor idea.
      • tlrobinson 10y ago
        I think the key to eliminating most of this behavior is to not show the picture right off the bat since it allows people to be subtly racist. If they have to ask for a picture before denying a guest then it's a lot more obvious they're being racist. The more overt racists can be dealt with by doing simple analysis of denied/cancelled bookings and banning them. I'm guessing AirBnB will eventually have to implement one or both of these approaches to avoid discrimination lawsuits.
  • geofft 10y ago
    > However, I'm really not sure that there is a solution to this. People in general are racist/biased/sexist/thing-ist, all over the world. Trying to regulate that fact doesn't make sense (how would you even police that?) We made a lot of progress on this a few decades ago with fair housing laws. It wasn't instant or perfect, but it absolutely was policeable. You can't police how people feel, but you can, empirically, police whether people get to act on their feelings to deny other people civil rights. Of course, you need a working regulatory framework for such policing to be able to have an effect.
• bdcravens 10y ago
  When we applaud the AirBnBs and Ubers for going around regulation to get the outcome we want, isn't it inevitable that many will use some to exact the outcome they want but that violates social rules we thought were in place?
  • mcbrown 10y ago
    Yes, like the fact that there is not a single accessible Uber vehicle in New York City... we THOUGHT the ADA had outlawed that sort of thing, but apparently not.
    • serge2k 10y ago
      Uber disrupted the ADA.
  • lbn 10y ago
    In the UK it is illegal to refuse to let your property based on the person's race [1] and I am sure it's the same way in many other western countries. People using Airbnb to rent out their property are effectively breaking the laws and due to loopholes in regulations cannot be held responsible. It's a lot more than just social rules. [1] https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/discrimination-in-housing/overview-of-discrimination-in-housing/ https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/discrimination-in-...
    • niccaluim 10y ago
      Dunno how common this is but in my home state of Indiana the non-discrimination laws include specific exemptions for properties used as homes by the lessor. I imagine that would provide an out for people like Crissie if it ever came to a civil suit.
      • the_ancient 10y ago
        These roommate exceptions are definitely needed for a verity of reason. Living with someone is deeply personal as such you should be able to discriminate more that a simple commercial lease arrangement, however from the story I doubt they would apply as the author states "crissie" is in California and not on the property, or at least it is not her primary residence, might be a vacation home, or it might be pure rental income.
• googletazer 10y ago
  As long as resource scarcity exists racism/*-isms are inevitable. Its the simplest strategy human mind can conjure - divide and conquer, divide up some resources with members of my group, and use them. Extremely cheap energy (fusion power maybe?) might solve it for good by alleviating survival worries in the human psyche, no amount of regulation or rules can. Edit: resource scarcity from the perspective of the human psyche, which affects worries about survival. The unconscious worries about there not being enough stuff, so that you might as well divide it up with your group.
  • monochromatic 10y ago
    What? Resource scarcity should discourage things like this by encouraging people to maximize profits. If I only rent my house to whites, it limits my market. My neighbor who's willing to rent to anybody is more likely to be able to get bookings and more likely to get more money.
    • weberc2 10y ago
      Discrimination in business is likely predicated on the belief that people of group X are more likely to damage your property than people of group Y, and that the risk is great enough to avoid doing business with group X altogether, even though it means a smaller pool of potential tenants/customers.
    • api 10y ago
      That would be a rational response. The psychology here is not rational and is based on evolution under conditions where small tribes competed for scarce resources over a wide area. Scarcity -> Identify a vulnerable out group -> Attack out group and steal their hunting grounds Our brain stems don't know what millennium they are in.
    • googletazer 10y ago
      In the long term your prediction will be correct - those willing to rent to anybody will acquire more money, and eventually might be able to boot out the other more "choosy" party. A virtuous monopoly of sorts. I was talking about the unconscious worry about resources and survival, not the rational economic kind.
• evan_ 10y ago
  Everyone is saying "well obviously AirBnB can't end racism" but what have they actually done to solve their local problem? Have they sent out an email to their hosts that says "please don't discriminate based on race"? Is there a way to report hosts engaging in discriminatory practices? If so are those taken seriously? Not being able to solve the problem 100% doesn't mean they shouldn't try to do anything. (Now, maybe they have done a bunch of stuff, I don't know, but it seems like there's still a problem)
  • golergka 10y ago
    AirBnB is a platform to connect vendors and buyers; they're closer to a measenger app than a hotel business. Airbnb trying to end hosts racism makes as much sense as Facebook censoring racist messages.
    • abalone 10y ago
      That's like saying Amazon's not responsible for the products sold on its platform. There's plenty Airbnb can do to ensure their hosts aren't racists. They have complete oversight of the booking process. They can detect racist rejection patterns and investigate.
      • evan_ 10y ago
        ...or at least are not using their platform to engage in racist practices.
      • Will_Do 10y ago
        No it isn't. Amazon owns the majority (although not all) of the products sold on its platform. Airbnb owns 0% of the houses put up for rent on their platform.
        • abalone 10y ago
          Yes it is. Amazon supports 3rd party sellers.
• millstone 10y ago
  Here is an idea: make it a standard practice for hosts to publish the a "we do not discriminate" clause in their listing. Maybe even provide a checkbox that adds that boilerplate. I'll bet most people prefer to rent from hosts that say they don't discriminate. Of course this won't solve the problem, but for hosts like the one our blogger found, it will at least tug on their conscience.
• xiphias 10y ago
  I would think twice to rent out my apartment to a guy and his friend ever. I'm a guy but when I see how other (especially unknown) guys treated my flat at a house party (compared to unknown girls) I decided that I don't want to allow guys I don't know beforehand. And I would do the same thing with rentals probably. It's just not worth the risk for that amount of money.
  • mineshaftgap 10y ago
    This type of discrimination is fine, as long as the males are white, obviously.
  • dudul 10y ago
    So you would discriminate based on sex?
    • ArtDev 10y ago
      I do. A group of college guys cannot stay at my house. A group of girls could if they convinced us that they weren't going to party and trash the place. When we first started renting it out we did have a bunch of girls throw a party and there was some damage. They lied about their intention to have a party. The neighbor has been mad at us ever since. Discriminate? Absolutely! No one can force me otherwise. You have to trust the guest not to trash your house. Its very subjective. Rejecting someone means I lose money but its worth the risk.
• chrisBob 10y ago
  Isn't the whole point to provide a hotel like service that is unregulated and ignores the law? I thought that is what disrupt meant. Why would they follow this specific law?
• josh5555 10y ago
  Life is too short to go around crying about racism all the time. It exits in all people worldwide, deal with it.
• josh5555 10y ago
  Life is too short to go around crying about racism all the time. It exits in all people worldwide, deal with it.
• fiatmoney 10y ago
  Should a woman living alone be free to refuse to rent her spare bedroom to men?
  • raldi 10y ago
    Openly stated in the advertisement, or implemented through deception and outright lying?
    • fiatmoney 10y ago
      That's not the question. Whether overtly stated or not, is it permissible for her to manage her risk in that way?
      • raldi 10y ago
        Not in the United States: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/renting-shared-house-can-landlord-specify-gender-renter-want-93026.html http://homeguides.sfgate.com/renting-shared-house-can-landlo...
        • deleted 10y ago
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      • dragonwriter 10y ago
        > Whether overtly stated or not, is it permissible for her to manage her risk in that way? In California, if there is exactly one roomer in an owner-occupied, single-family home, its legal to discriminate on just about any basis -- but not to advertise a preference. Except if there are also shared living spaces that will be used, in which case it is also legal to advertise a gender preference. See, "Limited exceptions for single rooms and roommates", at http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/discrimination.shtml http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/discriminati...
  • dragonwriter 10y ago
    Renting a spare room when the owner is present is a different thing that renting the entire unit when the owner is not present.
• shekyboy 10y ago
  There should be some sort of penalty for canceling/rejecting even if you had availability. Just like canceling an Uber. These cancellations ought to add up over time and reflect in the rating... Additionally potential renters should be able to rate this initial experience as well, which should factor in the rating. Dont think that will fix this problem but might curtail some of this behavior. I believe that technology and applied correctly has potential of changing behaviors (we have seen that in spades with AirBnB already).
  • parennoob 10y ago
    This would probably be the most practical way of dealing with issues like this. A tag such as "[Unreliable] Host canceled prior availability dates 5 or more times." would make these assholes think several times before canceling on someone because of their skin color. I also like the idea of showing someone's profile photo only after they book. Really, there is no reason for anyone to see my photos for short-term rentals. Maybe the two could be tied together! That is, if I start canceling prior availability dates more than a couple times, AirBNB will stop showing me profile pictures of prospective tenants in advance.
  • ArtDev 10y ago
    Forcing hosts to accept questionable guests is a terrible idea. Many people don't read the house rules before they book. Yes, you have to make effort to show that you are not going to trash my house. Its not a hotel.
    • deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    • tptacek 10y ago
      False. If you're going to let your house out for short-term rentals on the market, you are obliged to follow the same rules regarding who you rent to as the hotels are. If you don't want strangers in your house --- and I sure don't either --- don't try to capitalize on it on Airbnb.
• dawhizkid 10y ago
  I don't think Uber shows the rider's photo on the driver's phone (from what I've seen it's only my name) - perhaps for this very reason?
• osazuwa 10y ago
  I am a black man, and I have dealt with this too. Here is few hacks I came up with. 1. In your profile picture wear one or more of the following fedora, suspenders, thick rimmed glasses, and a bow tie. 2. Position a white or (more ideally) an Asian woman center frame, and position yourself behind her left-center. 3. Have some animals in the picture. Cats are easy, ponies work best. Try to add other things that make you less threatening, eg. babies and ice cream.
  • parennoob 10y ago
    It is sad that these hacks are required, but as a fellow person of color who has to practice similar ones in other places, I appreciate them. (If I can suggest another one, it would be to have a picture of yourself in front of some building of obviously European architectural style such as an old library, etc. that looks "trustworthy". I have done this in the past.) Related question, is there a way to report hosts to Airbnb for actions like this in any way? And have you tried doing that? I've never used the site, so I honestly have no idea.
    • sridca 10y ago
      As a fellow person of color, I have suspected such discrimination happening to me - however by and large I have been able to get an airbnb without much fanfare, which is likely to do with the positive reviews on my profile.
  • mst 10y ago
    I'm torn between "I hate that the world requires this" and sheer awe at the approaches you've come up with and the experiments that must've been performed to get there.
    • davidcelis 10y ago
      He… Probably didn't really do all of those things.
      • 10y ago
• ksou32 10y ago
  This is why I just book hotels. Uber on the other hand may actually reduce profiling . You don't have the fear of a driver ripping you off
• abalone 10y ago
  To those saying "that's bad, but what can Airbnb do?", I will repeat my comment: they can definitely end this problem if they wanted to, using the same techniques that the bloggers have used to uncover it. If Airbnb sees a suspicious rejection of a person of color, Airbnb themselves could try rebooking it under a fake white profile. If it gets accepted, ban the host (or flag for further review, etc.) It could be mostly automated and has no negative impact on good hosts.
  • Madmallard 10y ago
    No people should not be forced to let anyone in their homes. This is unreasonable. Edit: Something else important here. We do not know that the reason he was denied was because he was black. You have reviews of yourself that you cannot see. Who's to say this isn't some race baiting article and this guy is a creep.
    • the_ancient 10y ago
      I agree and if the government was attempting to pass a law mandating this I would support you But if AirBNB want to have a racism free site where only non-racists homeowners are allowed to post listing then it is perfectly with in the right to do so and I support AirBNB in banning any racist persons they find trying to use their site. No one has a right to a AirBNB listing, and just as the homeowers can refuse service to anyone, so can airbnb
      • deleted 10y ago
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      • w4 10y ago
        > I agree and if the government was attempting to pass a law mandating this I would support you The government already passed the law mandating this, way back in 1968: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Housing_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Housing_Act Yes, it applies to Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/898/ada-and-fha-compliance-policy https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/898/ada-and-fha-complian...
• Madmallard 10y ago
  The only thing wrong with this is that they knew ahead of time and changed their plans to cancel instead of cancelling/denying at the start. It is people sharing their homes they should be able to deny anyone for any reason. It's not like their house is a public service that everyone needs. I've used AirBnB several times. If you're there for any appreciable amount of time that isn't one night, these people will vet you and interview you beforehand and if they don't like you they will deny it. There is nothing wrong with that. Who's to say this guy didn't have an iffy review that he doesn't know about?
• fiatmoney 10y ago
  Why should anyone care who a third party rents his vacation cabin to?
• interesting_att 10y ago
  If the hotel industry ever got its act together, they could really use this for a great marketing push. Advertise the fact that AirBnB lets racial discrimination go unabated, unlike the hotel industry which is regulated for this. Younger, more liberal minded individuals will be less likely to use AirBnBs.
  • ArtDev 10y ago
    The sharing economy is based on trust. Unfortunately there is some cultural baggage around this, but it is no fault of Airbnb. I reserve the right to discriminate who can stay at my house. Similarly, when I am traveling as a solo (white) dude, I expect that it is tough to find a place to stay on Airbnb. If someone rejects me, no big deal. Sexist? Probably but I understand.
• ArtDev 10y ago
  When I am traveling to a tech conference as a solo (white) dude, I expect that it is tough to find a place to stay on Airbnb. If someone rejects me, no big deal. Sexist? Probably but I understand. It just means I need to either: a) try harder to look trustworthy b) just stay at a hotel c) stay at an airbnb with guaranteed booking
• dajohnson89 10y ago
  African American male here, living in a major and supposedly progressive city (Washington). Just last night, I was trying to hail a cab. I was in a predominately black and poor neighborhood. Two obviously empty cabs saw me and kept driving. The third stopped for me, but made me tell him my destination before letting me in. After I told him, he said, "are you sure?". Not a huge deal isolated, but this type of minor discrimination really gets old.
• alistairSH 10y ago
  I wonder if booking "Super Hosts" helps avoid the problem? Obviously not a full solution (they tend to be clustered in urban areas), but these hosts seem to be "pros" (often multiple listings, etc) and may be less likely to reject guests. This also assume you're looking for a full house/flat, not a room, but I think that's probably the majority use for AirBnB these days.
• hemantv 10y ago
  I always find using hotels.com or booking.com works better than AirBnB just too much hassle and back and forth, unless I really want to save that extra $10 motel will do just fine.
• deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
• gizi 10y ago
  For a starters, in any discriminatable situation, I do not show pictures of myself. That is indeed one reason on a long list, why I only work online. I simply do not accept job offers or service contracts in which I would have to disclose racial information. Generally, if the counterparty decides to proceed, and then breaks our contract on impermissible grounds, they will obviously be facing a bill for the damage, as specified in the T & C of the marketplace in which we execute the trade. In those cases, we do not discuss. We repossess and confiscate only. Fundamentally, I believe that anybody has the right to be as racist as he wants and towards any race of his own choosing. That is certainly not the problem. I only demand that the third party who will be the judge of it, must be color blind, objective, and impartial. That is one reason on the list of so many, why I never agree to any part of any state apparatus to be the judge of such situation. I am personally not racist. That would be utterly contrary to my fundamental beliefs. In the Farewell Sermon, delivered after the final double recitation, as narrated by Ibn Hanbal, you can find my fundamental belief about racism: Indeed, there is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab, nor of a non-Arab over an Arab, nor of a white over a black, nor a black over a white, except for his greater obedience to the laws of God and his good works.
• serge2k 10y ago
  This may be a bit controversial, but I read this then I go back and look at his picture and I can't help but think... ... his beard looks pretty decent. You want spotty you should see mine. Dude wants to pay me a 1000+ dollars to stay at my AirBnb I'm probably gonna be okay with it.
• tangled_zans 10y ago
  I'm surprised by people saying "well how could AirBNB end racism?!" It's not like they have access to all the data from who the hosts accept and reject and the profile pictures of each.
• kisstheblade 10y ago
  Any experiences where the landlord is black? Do they have any preferences as to who they want to use their home?
• arjn 10y ago
  Brown man here, 40 years old. I've used AirBnB extensively in the last year or two and have never faced a problem like this (or at least i'm pretty sure I've not).