Antiracism resources for the Airbnb community

[Airbnb]

People are experiencing hate and discrimination around the world, but due to the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others, these last few weeks have been especially difficult for Black people in the United States, including hosts and guests. 

We shared the email below with our community in the U.S. this morning, including an Activism and Allyship guide to stand with the Black Lives Matter movement. We also want to hear your ideas. 

What can we as a global community do to mobilize and show our commitment to nondiscrimination?

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To: All hosts and guests in the US

Subject Line: Antiracism resources for the Airbnb community

Hi, 

As we work to process the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others, we wanted to send a message to you directly. To hosts and guests who are hurting, angry, and scared, we want you to know that Airbnb stands with you.

Discrimination is the greatest threat to a community built on belonging and acceptance. It cuts to the core of who we are and what we believe in. Airbnb stands with Black Lives Matter, and we reject racism, bigotry, and hate. 

We can’t talk about recent events without also acknowledging the painful truth that some hosts and guests still experience discrimination, something that is the very opposite of our mission to create belonging. In 2016, Airbnb launched our nondiscrimination policy and community commitment, and over 1.3 million people who declined the pledge have been removed from our platform. We still have work to do, and we’re continuing to take action on our commitment to fighting discrimination.

One way we’re doing that is by donating a total of $500,000 to the NAACP and the Black Lives Matter foundation in support of their fight for equality and justice, in addition to matching donations to both groups made from all of our employees. Another is sharing an Activism and Allyship guide that our Black employee resource group, Black@Airbnb, prepared for our team, which references work from activists and experts in antiracism. We thought it would be helpful to share these resources with you—as we all work together to become better and more active allies.

Download guide

Please take care of yourselves, and stay safe.

In solidarity,

The Airbnb Team

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Please keep in mind the Community Center Guidelines, when sharing your ideas.

[Christine615]

I’m Black and a super host and I want to express LOUD AND CLEAR that Airbnb’s policies put Black hosts and travelers  at risk by hiding profiles and identities and controlling all screening to the point that my current guest had to go through enormous hoops to get me her contact info so we could talk. 

You change policies on a whim. You hide identities until we approve and if we do then cancel they already have our address.

DO YOU HAVE ANY AFRICAN AMERICANS GUIDING YOUR POLICY?

If not, then I’m a former corporate manager who will do it.

Don’t put out platitudes and guidelines about caring about my people.

Focus on your hosts and a policy of gatekeeping that will get hosts killed because you act as an omniscient gatekeeper but don’t take responsibility for the collateral damage,

For God’s sake be a neutral booking service, then get out of our way.  We’re hurting out there and these khumbaya moments you throw out at us are not helpful.

[Ann489]

@Christine615well said!    🙂           Please tag Airbnb in your post so that hopefully, someone on their team will read it.       

The hiding of profile pics and names has been an ongoing debate--a completely misguided move on Airbnb's part which does absolutely NOTHING to eliminate and racism.

Stay safe,

Ann  🙂

[Peggy300]

Hi Christine. I did not mean to offend you in any way. I am sorry if I did. I did just revisit the Black Lives Matter website to see if my concerns were unfounded. The landing page was a petition to defund the police. I am Not enamored of all law enforcement and what some do is despicable and the latest deserves the death penalty. However, defunding police departments is not a peaceful or intelligent response.  I am assuming no agitators infiltrates the website. If they did, I hope the petition is taken down quickly. 

I want everyone to live together happy, healthy and safe. I would love to have you as my host. I would guess we have more in common than you think. 

[Christine615]

@Peggy300 

thats what happens when people do a cursory look at a statement or a post then put their own interpretation and spin on it.

That “defund” issue is a way to open a discussion. No one actually wants to defund police. But sometimes an extreme suggestion forces people to talk and find common ground and solutions to a horrific situation.

But that’s not going to happen if someone outside of the culture insists on attaching their on interpretation as the definitive one then attacks it.

Again, BLM is not violent but we as a people have been subjected to brutal violence and only now are people seeing that. 

We just saw a man murdered on video and your comment about a Black organization could not have been more poorly timed.

😢

[Mark116]

@Christine615   With all respect, #defundthepolice is the first thing you see on their web site and there is no sense that this isn't what they 'really' want to happen or that this is being done only to generate discussion or find common ground.  I saw an interview w/one of the BLM leaders and she also reiterated her desire to see the police defunded and that  money channeled into black communities.  

[Christine615]

With all due respect you know that's not the real intent of that statement. And no matter how "clunky" the statement, it is not subject to your adding your own interpretation when some (not all) of the people in the movement are watching public servants come into their communities and serve a different form of justice than I suspect you get in your own community. Innocent until proven guilty doesn't seem to apply when you have racist super predators on the force among the men and women who actually care.

And the comment about funneling money into the community is that those communities are taxed heavily, then the money is paid to police officers who drive in from the suburbs for their jobs. We had to reintroduce the requirement that police officers live within the city limits in order to cut some of the problems.


But the best way to starve Airbnb of revenue is to just close your account.  Wish you well.

[Reyume0]

Thank you for standing your ground and for fighting for something that should be common sense by now. This whole thread reeks of white privilege. People only stand up when it hits close to home so I shouldn't be surprised. God bless

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

Ever since the covid-19 has disrupted the lives of just about everyone in the world..... many Asians who have lived in western countries (U.S., Canada, and those in Europe) for years if not generations are suddenly the target of all sorts of hate crimes and random verbal and physical attacks from strangers on streets, buses, subways. Didn't see a single peep about anti-racism resources then. So what about Asian lives? 

"Airbnb stands with Black Lives Matter, and we reject racism, bigotry, and hate." 

Not including or acknowledging.....more or less IGNORING the widespread anti-Asian sentiment at this time seems plenty racist, discriminatory and myopic from where I stand. 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/08/asian-american-coronavirus-geoffrey-mak

https://time.com/5807376/virus-name-foreign-history/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/05/26/covid-19-coronavirus-continues-to-expose-anti-asian...

https://www.dw.com/en/anti-asian-racism-on-the-rise-in-germany-since-covid-19/av-53442341

https://abcnews.go.com/US/asian-americans-covid-19-racism-virus-hate-reporters/story?id=70810109

[Christine615]

Point is well taken. Racism is not limited to African Americans.

But right now our urban individuals are being hunted by predator cops and there wasn't an outcry or support from the Asian community on that kind of violent racism until Trump used it as an excuse to blame the virus. And it is noted among many African Americans that Asian immigrants settled into mostly poor Latinx and African American communities than used white racial stereotypes as a means to define us rather than become cohesive parts of the community. It was noted that the police officer standing over the dying man was Hmong. Note that Asians in the US were compensated (albeit poorly) for internment camps, African Americans have never merited the same consideration for their ancestor's forced free labor.

In this case, I would fully support a universal outreach by Airbnb to support anti-racist organizations.

But the history of being African American is that outsiders always find ways to demand our specific needs fold under a big tent, or be shunted to the side. I wholeheartedly object this time.

Create an organization and ask Airbnb for equal funding. Don't dismiss the unique needs African Americans face here in the US.  But I will tell you from experience - this is how we all lose. When some other group demands to be heard at the expense of one that has been fighting that battle for years. We are not your enemy. But right now - we're the ones being killed by the very cops paid by our tax dollars to protect us.

Blame Trump and racists. Don't blame us.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Christine615 

The intention of my post was simply to point out that I would prefer to see Airbnb support ALL anti-racist efforts equally. It's not about the funding. As a GLOBAL PLATFORM talking about fighting against "racism, bigotry, and hate" why does it specifically have to be ONLY about black lives (and only in the U.S.)??? Racism is not black vs. white - and I feel it's wrong to represent racism as simply black against the world. As an Asian myself, I would have appreciated even a single MENTION by Airbnb about the growing anti-Asian sentiment (due to Covid-19) when talking about Airbnb's commitment to nondiscrimination. 

No one is blaming anyone. But please don't act like only blacks have been fighting the battle against racism and are the only ones being killed by cops or paying taxes. No one is dismissing anything and no one is trying to take anything away from you.

African Americans may face a *different* kind of racism than Asians and I understand the need to address those separately. But I would prefer we try to learn from our past wrongdoings and find some common ground and fight the fight together when possible rather than finger-point among ourselves...... because racism, hate and violence is ALWAYS wrong. 

[Christine615]

@Jessica-and-Henry0  I think this is a cultural difference and I'm not sure I can make you understand. THAT is always the argument. When African Americans have a concern, everyone else packs their own issues into the mix, claims "common ground," and demands we become a big tent and address everyone's issues. The idea that we are "stronger together" has been a false narrative in the United States. What has been the historical pattern is that those issue have gone front and center and the original intent of fixing a specific problem gets forgotten.

the #MeToo Movement, for instance was started by a Black woman. But now - who can tell with all the white celebrities who took it over to address their own issues? They don't even bother to acknowledge the founder unless called out.

I DO think we need to address systemic racism and fight together. I do. But I'm kind of sick and tired of decades of the "we're all one big tent" mentality. THAT is why racial covenants and red-lining of mortgages affects African Americans more than the others. The Suffragettes fought for the right for women to vote, but not African American women. And so on, and so forth.

That Airbnb supported a specific organization that is focused on the epidemic of killings of Black people at the hands of the police doesn't negate your own concerns abut racism towards Asians.

Airbnb is a global company, then it should address global issues. But in the US, there are those times when my culture needs to not have people climb on board and redirect the concerns to include them. It's called "Turtles in the bucket" syndrome. Once turtle climbs to the top of the bucket and then others climb on its back in an attempt to escape too and they all fall back down to the bottom.

As you can see - I'm usually pretty moderated on the boards. But right now - this is the wrong week for people to be attacking any groups addressing African American concerns (organized or not) in favor of replacing them with something else. We saw someone murdered on camera. It isn't the first time. Yesterday cops (who were Black) pulled two college students out of their car. Police, walking down a residential street, yelled "light em up" and someone started shooting rubber bullets at residents who were in their own doorways.

Yes - you have legitimate concerns. but sometimes I just want to scream - "it's not always about you.".Start a movement and ask Airbnb for money. There - problem solved.

[Melodie-And-John0]

Not one tent @Christine615, that only works for vigils and when the tent comes down, most of the emotions that were expressed in that place are forgotten quickly.  Weve seen that way often, the second the Hollywood elite and paid prognosticators leave the tent, the plight and blight is forgotten .  We must unite under one movement that has proven teeth to cut through the unwritten and unspoken protections that shield injustice from the light of day, one united nation with liberty and justice for all. 

If we can't act as a nation in crisis  to demand our Laws be enforced equally and offenders be prosecuted rightfully, the unacceptable taking of human lives  like Mr Floyd and Mr Dorn by rabid two legged animals will have accomplished nothing but fill graves and they will continue to ravage neighborhoods in every state of our union until we do.  Neither of those humans deserved the ends they received, both have families and friends that legitimately seek and demand  justice be served and that can only happen in a court of law.   It cannot happen in the streets or back alley ways, too many innocent lives hang in the balance for vigilante justice to be any reasonable answer to problems that transcend generations of failures on many disjointed fronts addressing this. 

Hundreds and thousands of innocent LEO's, Citizens and Business owners of all types are being murdered, injured and their properties destroyed to highlight injustice, thats more than unfortunate, its sickening and ineffective I might add . Groups like BLM, ANTIFA and others (most that are well meaning) cannot and will not arbitrate or eliminate the laws of unintended consequences that are causing fresh new pain to the many they aim to protect. 

 Minnesota was too slow to respond to their rotten apples but they have finally, the Pieces of Garbage that inflamed an already hurting nation will have their day in court and by their own hands, words and deeds be convicted and prosecuted for murder.  That is both the right answer and a legal one for our nation and families and sets a tone for what we the people expect for all not just some.   

I pray for peace but demand legal responses for all affected.  Today is a beginning of a new day in some important ways, the few POS  Officers making Laws of their own and hiding their hatred of humans inside a incredibly dedicated force for good (LEO's) are finding out, they have no place to hide anymore, time for them to go into a different line of work that isnt on the people's payroll or be prepared to pay with their freedom and lives when they are outed.  Stay well, JR

[Helen3]

I do see your point @Jessica-and-Henry0;  our anti-racist movements in the UK are very much around advocating to end discrimination against all those who experience racism in our society rather than a particular sector of that BAME (black and ethnic minority population).

I think the Black Lives Matter movement could more to demonstrate that ALL black (and ethnic)  lives whether you are African, Indian, Chinese, American Indian, Arabic, Romany, Indonesian, Afro-Caribbean, Aborigine, Maori, Persian  or Jewish etc.

We are stronger when we stand together to fight racism and discrimination.

I do understand that this US movement (now in Canada and UK) started as a direct result of police violence against the black community, but as it acknowledges on its website, the movement is evolving and becoming more inclusive which can only be a good thing in helping achieve it's aims.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Helen3 

One thing that has always stood out to me as an Asian is...... when an act of violence occurs against a black person, many non-black citizens are quick to show and express their support in the fight against racism and discrimination.

When the same thing happens to an Asian, it rarely gets any sort of decent media coverage and is easily and quietly swept away without a second thought. It's treated like a one-time incident due to bad luck or a simple, honest mistake rather than anything to do with racism or discrimination. But then again...... people who self-identify as Asian-American in the U.S. is something like 3~5% of the population so a very small minority within the minority making it very easy to ignore. 

I don't think I've seen anyone who is not Asian, someone who doesn't have an Asian family member show their support for #IAMNOTAVIRUS

[Melodie-And-John0]

Wow @Jessica-and-Henry0 , you said a mouthful to be sure.  I bet a solid Doctoral thesis could be written just on the short but deep observation you just made.  I'm not sure that a smaller population accounts for the very notable differences in response or treatment though it surely may.    I have never heard about the #IAMNOTAVIRUS but I also don't do hashtaggy things either but consider me the first mostly Mongrel lighter skinned American to add my name in support cause being Asian isnt responsible for C19 anymore than being a Dark skinned American is the cause of bad LEO's doing unforgivable things in the name of US or State law.   Neither is acceptable in any case in my house, my leaders or my gods.  Stay well my friend, JR