4 ms·

What’s missing from corp. statements on racial injustice? Real cause of racism

• creato 6y ago
  > A good example can be seen in Airbnb’s introduction to Project Lighthouse, which states that the company was “deeply troubled by stories of travelers who were turned away by Airbnb hosts during the booking process because of the color of their skin.” Were those guests really turned away because of their skin color, or because their prospective hosts were racist? I got this far into the article. People that react like the author of this article are why I will never, ever comment on race (or gender, or any of the other hypersensitive topics of today) in a professional capacity. Is it not blindingly obvious what Airbnb was actually saying here? How about a little charity principle, especially on such sensitive topics?
  • jawon 6y ago
    “What they’re actually saying” was the authors point in that paragraph. How things are said is important. Why things are said in a certain way is important. Why frame being turned away a result of guest skin colour instead of host racism? The problem with that framing is what it implies. It’s because of skin colour? Well, we can’t change skin colour, so we can’t do anything about this. It’s a pity that we need to read so much nowadays with such attention. Particularly corporate communications.
  • bmcn2020 6y ago
    The easy way to say it was: those guests were turned away because the hosts were racist. But they said it was because of the guests' skin color, and this allows for interpretations. And, like the article says, removes the focus of the behavior away from the hosts' racism, and instead places it on the guests' color. Like the article said, it's discussing race but not discussing racism
    • emteycz 6y ago
      Let me see you call someone a racist through your company. Maybe don't have antidefamation laws if you want companies to be straight?