Airbnb inclusivity

[Anonymous]

"Here are the keys to my house. You have a room to yourself, you can come and go at your leisure, my personal life is fully on display to you, and you can join my family in our shared space whenever you wish to have company. Here's a leash if you'd like my dog to walk you to the best park."

That is the default orientation that a typical homestay host like myself offers. Not because we're trying to adhere to some notion of "inclusivity" concocted by a boardroom full of newly minted billionaire white men in San Francisco, but because we care about a humanistic tradition of hospitality that predates the corporate culture of superficial virtue-signaling by millennia.

We do this on the basis of far more trust than is even rational, considering the fact that our guests come through a listing service that deliberately withholds valuable information about the people we're letting into our homes, because it doesn't trust us to be "inclusive" on our own free will.

Apologies if this is outdated, but here is the panel of people who are trying to teach us a lesson in what it means to be inclusive:

I challenge every host to look back through the history of guests they've welcomed into their homes and find a group less diverse than this. Do these magical concepts of Inclusivity and Belonging not apply to the 67% male, overwhelmingly-white boardroom?

[Dale711]

Salut @Ute42,

Obviously, not sincere !

@Stephanie do following phase make sense “the reason is acceptable”

With my respect, it might be pointless for you to press the issue at this point.

[Kath9]

@Anonymous , thank you for your brilliantly insightful post, and how deeply ironic that it was excluded from a topic on inclusivity. How on earth it was not relevant is beyond me. As you say,  opening our homes up to complete and utter strangers, whose photos we can't even see until we accept their booking, is the very definition of inclusivity. I don't ask people about their skin colour or religion or sexual orientation or gender identity or disabilities when they request to book. It wouldn't occur to me in a million years.  But I don't feel the need to put a picture of a rainbow on my listing to signal my virtue either.  I just like people, full stop. If I didn't, I wouldn't be a homestay host. I ignored the original topic because I found it tokenistic and somehow insulting. But Andrew, your response was perfect. A board of white, middle-class millennials (albeit 33% female) talking to us about inclusivity? How patronising. 

[Rebecca181]

@Anonymous This reminds me of when I was hired to teach a 'Diversity Awareness' course by a Bay Area University some time back. It was very rewarding to assist the students in pointing out (protesting) to the school's Executive Board that every single person on it was a financially privileged, white, able-bodied male. 

Be the change you want to see, Airbnb.

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Anonymous , I just read the originating thread so now I see where it came from.   I don't see your response as off the path at all but it certainly does highlight a level of hypocrisy that the mothership would probably like to avoid.  Melodie and I,  like most other hosts are either inclusive by participating  as modern day Inn Keepers or out of business from reviews that point out that we chose the wrong business.   

The tactics that Airbnb has employed to make sure racist's, homophobes and other vermin don't hide amongst us directly put hosts and guests in front of invisible trains.   Money lets people do things sometimes that they wouldn't otherwise, the types of humans that would judge someone by skin color or their life partner probably would not cancel a booking from someone that when unveiled after a booking is confirmed turn out to be either or both.   Airbnbs "Meathead" inclusivity policy puts the wrongly judged directly in the pathway of the folks the policies were trying to eliminate, Archie Bunker.  

Thats not a safe way to promote equal access, its a tiger trap that can and will leave someone injured or without a safe place to stay that didn't need to be just to show Airbnb cares.   At least they can write a bad review...   Stay well, JR

[Helen427]

Does it matter what skin colour these people are?
They all have very different surnames and names in general suggesting a cross section of nationalities and family backgrounds from far and wide.

How do you know that they don't have mixed race close personal relationships?

It's a little like people who judge the contents of books to get them banned without bothering to cross reference who those authors are associated with and the era they grew up in.

How many of you knew as a recent example that Dr Seuss was great friends with a Japanese man Mitsugi Nakamura and Hungarian Austrian Richard Erdoes to name two?

Yet it's a Japanese American woman who has complained about the contents of the Seuss books, who also failed to cross reference the fact that in earlier books Seuss dedicated at least one to the likes of Mr Nakamura.

Add to the mix, if one looks closely at the illustrations, they include a diverse range of nationalities and embrace people of all walks of life just like Airbnb do as can be seen by the wide range of names on there Board.

No one has the right to judge a book by it's cover.

"It's not what a person looks like on the outside that counts, it's the person inside that does"

[Inna22]

@Helen427  I am a huge fan of Dr. Seuss. No one says he is bad or is banning his books. Those specific titles were not even popular in the first place and are far from his best work. If you read them, they are simply sending a wrong message in today's world. With so many amazing books out there there is no reason to feed young minds offensive stereotypes. These are not for adult audience that is capable of looking at it through the lenses of the time it was written.

One of my really close friends is a total anti-Semite and makes anti-Semitic comments about others. When I remind her that I am Jewish, she tells me I do not count because we have been friends forever. Having a Jewish friend does not make an excuse for her behavior. At the same time I am not going to write her off completely because there is pretty much no way to change her mind at this point. I do think should would hide me if Nazis came because at the end of the day she is good but a confused human.

Things are not always black and white (definitely no pun intended!)

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  You tagged the wrong Helen. 🙂

[Inna22]

@Sarah977 Thank you, changed it!

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  I have a friend like that, although we aren't close anymore and don't hang out, but for other more mundane reasons. 

He's anti-semitic, homophobic, a covid denier, on and on. Yet the bizarre thing is that about half the people he hangs out with and likes are Jewish. And while he espouses these repugnant views, on a personal level he's a gentle, sweet guy, not the least bit violent or anything.  I know he was indoctrinated with these views from an early age, which is no excuse, as he's an adult who can think for himself, but hasn't seen fit to do so. But he's also an alcoholic, so  his brain isn't operating at optimal speed in general. Sometimes I think he just likes verbally stirring up s**t. 

[Laura2592]

@Anonymous  I didn't even read your post before looking at that photo and thinking "wow...Airbnb is REALLY white and majority male." Then I read your post. 🙂

I can't say I am a big fan of corporate ABB. I do enjoy my interactions with this community that is consistently supportive and informative. As a woman who has run her own business successfully for years/worked in fortune 500 and federal entities, I chuckle at the lack of diversity among this seemingly hip and "inclusive" C-suite. Its no wonder that the polices that come out of this brain trust are so stilted and poorly communicated. Just waiting for the next big thing to come along and take over the ABB market share.

As for our guests, its hard to say what our numbers as all we have to go on are little thumbnails that are often of the guest's dog. We don't keep copies of ID and I truly don't make note if we have a guest of color, mentally or otherwise. We live in a diverse national capital metro area, but our cottage is in a very white/politically red skewing county of one of the most diverse and blue states in the US. Our guests come mostly from the state and the region, so our stays reflect that.

[John5097]

While the optics might lend its self to an expedient political narrative, the reality is they earned everything they have. They started out renting out their own extra bedroom then managing other homeowner's properties for a fee. I think the original thread this was in was simply asking how other host promote inclusivity. It wasn't known at the time but its apparently linked to another article that's meant to promote a listing outside of the US. So while I can't speak for the intentions of the various articles that are meant to promote inclusion, I haven't read anything that justifies defining the founders and upper management as caricatures of manilla virtue signaling. Maybe they are but just haven't seen that yet, and its pretty amazing that anyone can create their own listing in a matter hours and start hosting. I am however is agreement with the vast majority of host and would like to see some improvements that we are all in agreement about. 

[John5097]

@Anonymous 

Now that I've thought about it a bit more, this is the first time I've seen someone use the term "virtue signaling" and in general really like it and the way you are using it. I tend to watch a lot of docs, investigative journalism, so usually a bit frustrated at the oversimplified marketing aspect of issues on social media as a means for privileged people to promote themselves. There seems to be a consensus among host that ABB should be doing more to address a lot of issues. It seems like a very diverse range of host visit CC with problems they are having. 

[Inna22]

@Anonymous did you just say you are African-American? I had no clue, all these years of discussions. This is a perfect example of why forced inclusivity does not work. I never bothered to analyze the micro picture of you (and have been in need of glasses for a while now). You write the most eloquent posts and I enjoy reading them. We interact as humans. I would not have respected your posts any more if Airbnb told me to do it to be inclusive. No one is going to be anti-racist because they were told so either. I happen to take a racism history course last month and completely coincidentally read "The street" and "The water dancer" at the same time. I am a changed person. One of the many take always is that the people that created racism can not be the ones to make it right. If Black people do not have a seat at the table, yet again someone else is making decisions and changes on their behalf even with best of intentions.

[Ann72]

I'm not sure I understand why they're not allowed to promote, discuss, or encourage inclusivity just because they're white men.  Is it not a step in the right direction?

[Inna22]

@Ann72 because they can never truly understand at the core what steps to be taken, what it means to be included and how it feels not to be. They should be at that table but they should not be making those decisions on behalf of someone else. When white people enter any space, we assume they will be included, we assume we will meet people like us, we assume we will be accepted as we are. It is like discussing how to improve cafeteria food by a group of people who have no taste buds. They can understand what ingredients would make it taste better or what needs to be done during the cooking process and they can even have really productive ideas but they have never experienced the bad food and they will never taste the improved results so someone who can should be in the decision making group as well