‘No Aboriginal people’: Airbnb pulls racist city listing

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This article was published 14/07/2021 (1724 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Airbnb has yanked ads from a Winnipeg user that banned Indigenous applicants.

Two ads posted for bedrooms available to lodgers near the University of Manitoba included requests that no one use it for COVID-19 quarantine and says “no Aboriginal people” are allowed as part of the house rules.

The account listed the user as “Ashley,” as an employee of the University of Manitoba. The Free Press reached out to Ashley for comment, through the Airbnb site, when the ads were up Tuesday afternoon; both were removed later in the day.

A spokesperson for Airbnb confirmed it had removed the listings and banned the user after the request from the Free Press.

Manitoba Human Rights Commission executive director Karen Sharma said organizations such as Airbnb are responsible for adhering to the human rights code, which protects people from discrimination in public services, including trying to access accommodations.

“There are histories of people encountering this kind of discrimination where there are signs posted in stores refusing service to some communities, or policies of segregation,” she said.

Airbnb is no stranger to accusations of racism. The hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack began gaining steam in 2016 as people shared stories of discrimination at the hands of Airbnb hosts. A Harvard Business School study from 2015 found that Airbnb guests with “distinctively African-American names” were 16 per cent less likely to be accepted as guests compared to others using the app.

Airbnb’s website includes a page encouraging those who see discrimination on the app to report it.

If a complaint is filed to the human rights commission and if the commission decided it needed to proceed to a public hearing, they would argue to have the discrimination remedied.

The commission typically acts only after a complaint is filed, but there are situations where it gets involved proactively. Sharma wouldn’t say if the commission plans to investigate this incident.

A similar situation was brought to the commission in 2016, when tenant Brandi Richardson was “required to endure constant racist and sexist comments” from her landlord and Kirkwall Properties director Wilma Galbraith. The company was required to implement non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies and Richardson was awarded $15,000 in damages.

“That decision really affirmed that when it comes to places where we stay, where we work, when it comes to services we experience, no one should have to ensure a treatment that erodes their dignity and self-worth. That is a basic and fundamental right under our human rights code,” Sharma said.

Sharma said complaints about racism, especially against Indigenous people, have increased in recent years.

“That is a problem that Manitobans are bringing to the commission, and are saying is insidious, and a significant (problem) we know needs to be addressed in our province… it intersects with the history of settler-colonialism in our province,” she said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_