13 comments

  • Krishna Brown, 5 years ago

    Every single booking I made in the States with airbnb has been rejected. Even when I was booking a corporate trip through a corporate airbnb account I was summarily rejected. I have a photo showing my real face and profile explaining I'm American and a LinkedIn profile showing I'm employed. I do not have these issues with hotels. I give them my credit card. They charge me. Done.

    My UX solution for solving this issue is to no longer use airbnb.

    I

    7 points
    • ポール ウェッブポール ウェッブ, 5 years ago

      Damn, that's terrible. It's funny, bigots and their ilk don't realize that the very people they discriminate against also have money. Good grief.

      0 points
    • Osandi Sekoú, almost 5 years ago

      Krishna, I'm terribly sorry that was your experience. All valid and an indicator that the problem is deeper than just the app, but who it connects on the other end. I'm curious if they'll get it right after having more knowledge of how there are people out there who just aren't with the program.

      0 points
  • Tyrale BloomfieldTyrale Bloomfield, 5 years ago (edited 5 years ago )

    Early in my career, I actually sent my resume out as 'Tyrale' and got nothing. Sent it out again, a week later, to the same places. This time as Robert, and nearly all of them called me.

    I have retested this over and over with the same results. You would think that in a design career it wouldn't happen as much, but it does.

    Not saying I know what is like to live as a different race, only as a white fella with a non-traditional white name. I have seen prejudice based on my name.

    One last little story. Growing up this was a very common call from a friend to their parents.

    kid - " Hey mom, can Tyrale come over and play"

    mom - responds on the phone...

    kid - "No, he's not black."

    For Airbnb, you can't get around names. Either the user is prejudice, or they are not. Maybe remove the name and provide all other info first.

    4 points
    • ポール ウェッブポール ウェッブ, 5 years ago

      Wow. This makes me really uncomfortable.

      I like your idea for removing the name. I've never used Airbnb, but do they support usernames? If so, if they really feel the need to have real names, they should de-emphasize them with gray/small text, under the username (or, just put it somewhere else).

      0 points
  • Andrew LeeAndrew Lee, 5 years ago

    The UX solution is to have a child and raise them to not be an asshole.

    Best of luck.

    2 points
  • ポール ウェッブポール ウェッブ, 5 years ago

    In light of the racial bullshit going on in this country, I find myself extremely lucky that my mom named me "Paul", instead of "Rashad" like my grandmother wanted. The main reason was so I could have a fighting chance getting job interviews.

    I hope Airbnb can figure this out.

    0 points
    • Osandi Sekoú, 5 years ago

      You know, I have one of "those" names and to be honest, I'm proud of it. I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. I can only imagine how I'm perceived before people meet me in person when engaging me on social media, reviewing my CV, or the like.l

      As far as racism in America, and within the tech industry are concerned, it can't be something that only POCs want to fix. Racism isn't our problem to fix to begin with.

      And there are so many people who'd rather quietly benefit from inequities of racism and White supremacy than confront it wherever they see it intersects: work, public spaces, etc.

      So when people ask "How is it that it's the [insert year] and we still have racism or racist people in this country?" they can ask the crickets that showed up to this thread-it's as though the majority of designers on DN either have no interest in solving these problems, are afraid / ashamed to admit they don't know how to (designers like to know or promote that they know just about everything), or just don't really care enough to.

      3 points
      • ポール ウェッブポール ウェッブ, 5 years ago (edited 5 years ago )

        Hah, very good points!

        I wish DN provided analytics for posts, I'm interested to know how many people clicked this link. Y'know, you actually made me realize something. When I post or share something about race or POC on the usual social networks, I get plenty likes, but that's it. No reblogs, reposts, or retweets. Interesting.

        Maurice Cherry has his Revision Path podcast that interviews POC in tech, but I think that's the only race-positive thing I see in tech.

        I recently purchased the domain excellence.black, but I haven't figured out what to do with it yet. I definitely agree with you that racism isn't our problem to fix, because, obvious reasons, but I don't see how we'll get the conversation not only moving, but started, unless we do something ourselves. No one else will, why would they? Like you said, the people that benefit from racism don't want to lose their comfy positions.

        Facebook's Diverse Device Hands thing was dope. Oh wait, just had an idea. Maybe I can use my domain to round up similar things! That list is small (for now), but it'd make a great resource.

        Thanks for the reply, I got a new project to start. (:

        P.S. Your name sounds dope, like a superhero character in Black Panther. I sound like a pencil-pusher, haha!

        EDIT: Fixed a weird sentence and elaborated.

        2 points
        • Andrew LiljaAndrew Lilja, almost 5 years ago

          I'm excited to see where this goes!

          1 point
          • ポール ウェッブポール ウェッブ, almost 5 years ago

            Aw man, now I really have to do it, haha!

            I just finished my portfolio redesign a few hours ago, so I actually have time for this project. I need to look for resources to link to first, but I think I could have this launched in January.

            0 points
      • Tyrale BloomfieldTyrale Bloomfield, 5 years ago

        Quite proud of my name as well. Lucky to land 'tyrale' as all my usernames or sites.

        2 points