Traveling in New Orleans this weekend we overheard another guest ask the concierge, what are you? No tone, just curious I guess but even a twenty something must realize there are other ways to be curious. Am I being over sensitive and or over horrified? I have tried to stop thinking about the interaction. In doing so I realize I’ve chalked it up to her way of being insensitively curious. Does that make me the real problem? The concierge had obviously been asked the question before and didn’t need assistance. Is there ever a time to comment from the sidelines?
The DNA comment in the article is spot on. Governments and Corporations tolerate this because it is deeply in their culture.
Take a look at the article today in the Times about Pennsylvania and the Nazi/NSM movement. Or the articles coming out of Portland.
And this is not just something in the US. Although years ago I was in the Brussels main train station and went to change a Travelers Check for Belgian Francs. Upon seeing my name in my Passport the teller told me he doesn't change money for Jews.
Was it posted that people have to shower before entering the pool, and was the place to shower visible so that it was easy to see who had showered and who didn't? Had everybody in the pool in fact showered, except for those two people?
It could be argued that somebody with a concern about this should take it to hotel staff rather than confronting the supposed miscreant directly. But if the person next to you on an airplane continues to use their cell phone after it's announced that they have to be off, is it wrong to say something to the person? Or does one have to call the flight attendant, if one has a safety concern about it? To come back to the hotel example, if you think somebody is harassing you, is it permissible to ask them to stop (which might itself be perceived negatively), or do you have to call management? And, in any case, isn't that one step away from calling the police on somebody, which, in today's way of thinking, has to be wrong?
I myself was once asked by a pool attendant to shower next to the pool after I had showered in the locker room and was, visibly, soaking wet. It wasn't racial.
7
@Mark:
Why reach conclusions if you haven’t watched the video?
The woman said there were three other people in the pool and the man only asked her if she had showered. The man shrugged his shoulders and said, “So what? Relax.”
Then the hotel manager came out, excused the man, and instructed the woman to calm down and “Step over here,” as though she were the aggressor. She even asked, Do you know who he is? Why are you letting him go?”
Honestly. Why are people afraid to admit that racism is very much alive and well in this country?
Are some people really so insulated that they simply cannot manage reality even in the face of empirical evidence?
9
@Valerie: I didn't reach any conclusions about the incident, only asked questions. I'm not on Facebook but in the meantime I looked at what there is on YouTube. I don't see that you or anyone answered my question about what is posted there or whether the man might have seen that other people in the pool (if there were any; he says there weren't) had showered.
Yes, of course. If white people go into that pool all the time without showering, and this man complains only when a black person does it, then what is plausibly behind this is an attitude that black people are particularly unclean, and there is certainly something odious and racist in that.
At the same time, if there is genuinely a health issue about people going into a pool without showering (which the present discussion seems not to regard as a relevant question at all), then perhaps this man is not entirely coming from nowhere. A reasonable person will think not only that the incident could well have involved racism but that Ms. Wheeler didn't actually follow the rules (something she never disputes, as far as I can see), and that there might be a good reason for those rules. Perhaps the rules need to be enforced better, for all guests. And for all we know, the man challenges whites all the time, but they do not post videos of it.
As to the question, "Why are you letting him go?," that seems kind of unrealistic.
Things are going to get much worse! These are mean times in America, which helped culminate in the election of Donald Trump! And this will continue, even after he leaves office in 2024! New York Times, please keep reporting it, and stoking the flames !!!
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Seniors endure "micro-agressions", blatant insults and rudeness all the time, but somehow NYT never publishes columns about it. Why? Do senior lives matter?
14
@me, Or how about being a female?
4
@me:
This shouldn’t have been reported because it didn’t involve elderly or women?
Seriously?
And why the passive-aggressive jab at Black Lives Matter? Because the woman and her daughter are African American?
Good grief. The subtly in the racism is chilling.
8
@me The Times does write articles about these issues. It should also be noted some of the seniors and women being slighted, or having police summoned on them for nonevents are also black.
I have, occasionally, been treated without kindness at hotels and other public places. I can make a big deal about it and prolong the negative feeling, or do what I have always done; look the person in the eye for an extended moment, ignore the rudeness, or if I’m feeling motivated, give the offending idiot a review on TripAdvisor and then get on with my life.
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@Jean:
Sounds like no one has ever intimated to you that you are subhuman and therefore you, and only you, must shower before entering a public pool.
Brava to this woman for making no bones about the racist man and showing her daughter the importance of fighting back.
4
What?!?
Let me state from the get-go here that I am a white non-republican female.
Here we go...
1. I take swimming lessons. Not free ones. My Asian instructor asks me EVERY TIME if I have showered before I get in the pool. There are signs posted in the locker room, stating that this is a rule. Inquiring if someone has bathed before swimming in a public pool IS NOT RACISM.
2. There are lots of places that I would uncomfortable traveling to. That is why I do not travel there. Travelling in general involves a bit of uncertainty as to how one will be received. It is part and parcel of the travelling. Do some basic research on the local attitudes. This is why I am not fulfilling my wish to travel to Turkey. It is not the job of everywhere to welcome everyone. As an American, you are at the same risk of being arrested in Iran, no matter what color your skin is. Lack of hospitality IS NOT RACISM.
3. Every single hotel I have stayed in has asked me for an ID at check in. This is standard operating procedure. Perfectly valid observation on the driver's part. NOT RACISM.
Yes, in the '60's the Green Book was probably useful. It is now 2018. A vast swath of people are just rude. To everyone. Everyone -- of every color -- should really be used to it by now. To assume people who make their living from tourism are being rude to the tourists who pay their salaries because of the color of their skin is arrogant.
I
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@Nadia Hey, everyone! Nadia declares racism is dead!
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@Nadia, "the Green Book in the 1960's was PROBABLY useful." ??? Really? There's arrogance alright, and we can see from whence it comes.
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@Nadia
You just don't get it. White privilege paves the way for you, I don't expect you to understand the constant underlying hostility that we go though these days. I think black folks need a new "Green Book". I would definitely take advantage of it. Anytime I can stay in a black owned bed and breakfast I can and do. I have not had any bad experiences staying in chain hotels....but I keep my eyes open and hope for the best.
6
Unfortunately, travel is a fraught experience for other minority groups as well, including Asian Americans.
Recall the story of Dyne Suh, an Asian American woman, who had driven in a snowstorm to an Airbnb rental near Big Bear, California. The host canceled the reservation as Suh was close to arriving and texted her: "I wouldn't rent to u if u were the last person on earth. One word says it all. Asian."
Suh responded that she would report the host to Airbnb for being racist.
"It's why we have trump," the host wrote back. "And I will not allow this country to be told what to do by foreigners."
https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/14/us/airbnb-host-fine-asian-comment/index.html
Trump has emboldened the overt display of racism by his followers. Putin would be so pleased by Trump's efforts to rend our delicate social fabric by sowing racial division.
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@Sleestak As an FYI, guests and hosts are required to post photographs on their AirBnB accounts, so the host obviously had to know the guest was of Asian descent before she ever got there. It looks to me that an argument was going on, probably over the extra people, and it got nasty. The host was WAY out of line though.
@Trish Bennett. The host explained exactly why he would not rent to her—“Asian”
No reason to make up other explanations for the behavior.
Q:"What's the problem? What do these people want?"
I am sorry to say that nearly half of these comments illustrate deep abyss of American racism. If there is a problem that can be seen, the solution will never be found. Racism is found in any country, every society,all cultures on the planet. In every culture you will find a variant of the "Golden Rule". Remember how that goes? Yeah,really?
Christ wasted his breath on us.
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@Ridem
"...Racism is found in any country, every society,all cultures on the planet.."
It is, but ours here toward Blacks is rooted in the fact that we (White people) used to "own" Blacks and imported them for that sole reason.
@Kraktos
What? Are you kidding? This is the first time I'm hearing this.
I am a minority not of African American descent. My guess is the AA community probably is discriminated the most compared to other minorities, definitely the most publicized.
In my personal experiences of discrimination I mostly ignore it because the racists represent the few, not the many.
1
I see a business opportunity: A green book for Travel in the 21st century.
4
Very much needed and useful article. Four incidents. One is about a scoundrel who was a guest in the hotel. One, about a racist note left behind, was a hoax. And one is about a cab driver. Hotels must do better.
2
Sensitivity training is a nonsense euphemism. What racist employees lack is not sensitivity. He or she will almost certainly remain a racist after training. A hotel that employs a racist needs to give him or her a list of words and expressions that can't be used -- a la George Carlin. Why pretend that the Hilton can reprogram a racist desk clerk? All that can be achieved is censorship of his or her offensive language. If you think it is possible for the Hilton to redeem the way a racist employee thinks, you're kidding yourself. All that can be accomplished is cleaning up the employee's act by censoring his or her foul language.
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@michjas
"...Why pretend that the Hilton can reprogram a racist desk clerk?..."
No one pretends that the "training" will change anyone's attitudes or beliefs. As you point out, the "training" only changes (or is intended to change) the way they treat others while on the job.
1
I've been to multiple diversity trading sessions in my business. They are robotic as and boring and most people go because they are mandatory not because they learn anything from them.
I think the only solution to this is for managers and company CEO's to make it very clear that employees reported for racial or sexual discriminatory language and actions will be immediately disciplined with threat of termination on second offense, and immediately fired for serious offenses.
At this stage in our development re racism and sexism there is no excuse for stupid and insensitive behavior in businesses serving the public. Only immediate and severe consequences can eradicate it.
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I agree, there is racial bias. But we have also experienced gender bias in hotels, especially those overseas. I notice when traveling with my wife and we present ourselves at check-in, the desk personnel will address me and ignore her. In some extreme cases, even at very well-known hotels, male guests will be waved ahead of her while standing in line at the check-in desk.
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@TravelingProfessor as a woman who sometimes travels alone and stays in hotels in India, for example, if I were in line and male guests were waved ahead, I wouldn't stand for it. I would make a big fuss. Thus probably confirming the brashness of western women who dare to travel alone. Has not happened to me yet.
1
@TravelingProfessor next time have your wife do the check-in and see if you're ignored.
I can see why hotels can be held responsible for the behaviour of their employees, but not that of their guests.
It's not against the law to be racist. Sometimes it seems Americans forget about the First Amendment.
2
I guess when there is a “whites only” hospitality industry your comments will make sense.
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@Ambrose the first amendment got nothing to do with what you claim. It's the right to speak out against the government without reprisals. Look at around the world and see how many countries right now where speaking out against the government will bring imprisonment or death. People in the private industry businesses are different. There are consequences for overt freedom of speech that goes against the policy of the institution one works for or even visiting. A hotel has rules. I was in one week before last. They got a list of rules. One of their rules is if you are found to be smoking marijuana the police will be called and there is no exception. If you smoke in their room there is a hefty fine. So not because one is a guest at a hotel they can say and do as they want.
@Ambrose
It is not against the law to be racist, but the First Amendment applies to the government, not private organizations or people. I can legally prevent you from spouting your racist speech or actions on my private property, as can hotel owners.
Over spring break, I was staying at a hotel with my family and friends. There was a large group of very loud disruptive, uncontrolled kids who were jumping on top of older and younger swimmers in the water. So many guests complained to the management. When the manager confronted the group, their immediate response was that they were being targeted because of their color and went off on this kind, hotel woman. My friends, who are black, were angered this attitude. Be very careful where this could all go.
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As someone who does long distance contract work often and sometimes stayed for 30 days a a time at a local hotel All this time I was thinking”was it just me”. Cleaning people who refuse to clean. I once dropped a diabetic needle by mistake in my hurry to get to one assignment. This was immediately called into my company to try to get me into trouble. It didn’t work but didn’t prevent them from trying.
5
It's not just racial bias. People of African descent treat each other horribly, too. But the rift between African Americans and people of African descent from Africa and the Caribbean is quietly discussed. It should be better addressed. I just read a novel in which the protagonist mentioned a black woman who refused to clean another black woman's house the way in which she cleaned the homes of white people. Some call it "slave mentality." I call it unfortunate. But none of this unexpected. You often hurt the people closest to you. And let's not forget how it took the Irish a long time to be "white." For some white "nativists," they were little better than enslaved people when they arrived in large numbers in the middle of the nineteenth century. It would be so great if everyone learned to do better. These are scary times and a hotel - aside from a church - should be the last places one should be feeling unwelcomed.
10
Ok, let's focus on these things, but let's maintain some perspective. I mean that Westin Pasadena pool incident seems rather unfair to be blamed on the hotel management. The obnoxious incident was caused by a guest, not by a hotel employee. What's the hotel manager supposed to do? Start a fight with the guy,?
27
@BD: Maybe call the police on the guy?
According to another news site, "[Wheeler] added that she's also upset how the manager handled the situation. The manager didn't question the man and let him leave. It wasn't until after the manager figured out Wheeler was being harassed that she said he then tried to find the unidentified man."
So maybe the hotel manager needs training to let him know that in situations where one guest speaks rudely to another guest, he must interrogate the harassing guest and may not allow him to leave the scene; and wouldn't that require the police?
Hm!
4
@Mark ... " the manager didn't question the man and let him leave ". What was the manager supposed to do? Wrestle the guy to the ground?
1
@BD The staff failed to step in promptly when a guest was being harassed. Of course they can't pre-empt a guest acting badly but they can be alert to the situation around them and respond quickly.
I spent quite a few years working in hotels like the Westin and all staff were trained to react swiftly in any situation where a guest was being bothered in any way. The goal was to be polite but firm and shut down any problems asap.
Problem: A hotel guest makes racist comments toward another hotel guest.
Solution: Hotel employees are put thru "unconscious bias training".
Oh man. I'm pretty sure nothing was solved here.
31
IMHO, the guest who asked the question should have been told in no incertain terms to shut up - it’s not his/her business to monitor who swims in the pool - upon threat of eviction from the hotel. Yes, eviction. Any hotel guest who self-appoints himself as a kind of police and begins harassing other guests needs to be dealt with in the firmest terms. Because it was indeed harassment that Ms Wheeler experienced. Hurtful, discriminatory harassment.
19
You don't think expecting a hotel to be responsible for the behavior of its guests is a bit much?
31
@DrD - I absolutely expect the staff of any hotel I stay in to be responsible when the behavior of any other guest makes me feel unsafe, unwelcome or unable to sleep. If guests threaten, harass, break down doors, set fire to the hotel, yes indeed, staff should interfere.
1
If I’m paying good money at a hotel and I tell them there is a man who has moved twice to sit near me around the pool and then proposition me I expected them to do something and they did.
This summer when I stayed at a hipster hotel with a noisy clientele they couldn’t stop them but they changed my room and insisted on giving me freebies I hadn’t asked for but appreciated.
So yes, I do expect service and protection from other guests when staying at a hotel.
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@DrD Hotels are responsible for making sure guests are not harassed.
6
Waste more time on non issue. Is there a single hotel, airline, lounge in the US that's rated 5 stars and actually comparable to 5 stars in Europe, Asia and Middle East? American service employees are already undertrained in the task they have to carry out and waste more time training to babysit oversensitive guest will just drop US further down the ladder.
11
I'll ask once again. In the Twitter post cited, who, exactly, is "Chad"?
@joe ny
The Twitter feed’s author is referring to “Chad” as the stereotypical clueless white male. Google the term as incels refer to Chad in a different context.
2
@joe It's the male version of "Becky", as I understand it... how insulting would it be if white people had equivalent names of minorities?? Everyone needs to take it down a notch.
1
If hotels are concerned at all about how the wider public perceives them they should reconsider having the hotel lobby TV monitor constantly turned to nothing but Fox News. I remember enduring a week of the Obama "Birther" madness on every coming or going for my entire visit and thinking "this hotel is clueless about how this is an insult".
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@Angel That must have been maddening, but did you speak to the manager and request they change the channel? You are a guest and deserve to be respected.
1
@Angel
This also happens in the dining room of extended stay hotels. It is very annoying and one wonders why most hotels only subscribe to conservative media like USA Today and Wall Street Journal.
5
hate the constant internal adverts, but at least the medical offices have finally turned off the Fox News.
6
Ms. Taylor said of the recent events involving bias. “We keep pointing the finger and that person is fired, and there should be some action, but we keep missing the deeper D.N.A. of where this comes from.
By describing these racist incidents as a part of natural selection -- "the deeper D.N.A. -- is to over look the imprimatur prior law and current social acceptance is responsible for the racism. Racism is taught. No person is born a racist. This is obvious in the playing of children until they reach the age of about 5 or 6 at which time they have become aware of how the larger society treats non-white people.
Please, please stop acting like racism is natural -- D.N.A. -- induced. It is a legal and social phenomenon. It is not nature, it's nurture!
9
Please reread what Ms. Taylor said with a better eye and mind for context. She’s not saying that it’s inherent in the DNA of humans, she’s saying that it’s inherent in the structural DNA of the companies.
3
The airline industry, not only the US, also need this training.
6
The only way to fight racism is to file a law suit. We cannot change bad behavior until the bad doer knows the consequence.
8
Insensitive comments are unfortunate but I think they are the rarity by far and not the norm as perhaps the article would like to push blame on someone or some group?
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@Jan
Rare? Really? The article notes several instances from July alone, in widely disparate locations.
13
@Jan
What's the basis for your claim?
3
You cannot "train" anyone to change their racist views. Racism is a disease you catch from other racist family members, friends, associates and counterparts. I wish companies would stop trying to treat these incidents like HAZMAT drills.
12
Things are getting worse with Trump. Racists feel more emboldened - more white people need to speak up, silence is complicity.
51
This aberrant behavior has gotten much worse of late due to Trump's actions, tweets, and overt racial animosity toward people of color. He has given a degree of "cover" to those disposed towards such racism and hatred, as exemplified once again by his disgraceful performance at his "base(less)" rally of followers/cultists last night in Tampa. The Republican leadership has abdicated any responsibility, obsequious enablers who have become shameful symbols of Trump's moral indecency. Bravo to those who speak up and fight back against such horrible behavior.
45
The incident mentioned about the Art Ovation Hotel in Sarasota and the note supposedly left on a sticky note on a lamp has been debunked and looks like a hoax. The patron said the note wasn't there while they were initially in the room but that when they left the room someone else entered and placed the note conspicuously on a lamp. The hotel reported that the electronic locks showed nobody else had entered the room. The Hotel is brand new and has an art/music theme, is set up for artists to do their work on site and is the last place in Sarasota such a craven act would occur. Fake news.
38
The type of performative actions this piece asks for seem unwarranted, in my opinion. Racist actions and comments should be met with swift action to signal that they are wholly unwelcome in modern establishments, but the idea that a corporate president has to step in and personally apologize for the action of some low level employee is asking too much. Forcing the entire staff of a company to undergo some kind of re-education training because a single employee acted inappropriately seems over the top.
Bringing public attention to the kinds of unfair treatment that marginalized communities has been a welcome part of today's online communication. Offenses that were previously ignored, or dismissed, are getting the attention they deserve. But I fear we are overstepping the mark when we become a kind of paranoid mob, looking into every word and deed to uncover some kind of malicious behavior. It is no longer enough that the offending individual is punished, now we demand punishment for all associated with that person.
If we are to live in a diverse and tolerant country, we must assume some level of good faith on the part our fellow citizens. Otherwise, no amount of apologies or "implicit bias" training will ever be enough.
34
This isn't just about anti-discrimination training, this is about racial justice training. And not just for client-facing staff but for organizations as a whole, from the top down - CEOs, boards etc. Until a true reckoning is made at companies large and small, to the real truths behind racism - and that name-calling is just one small piece of the entire system that maintains white supremacy (hiring practices, lack of diversity in leadership, etc) - when people of color are visible and equal in all parts of the system - limiting trainings to only "anti-discrimination" ensures this type of behavior will not stop because the larger systemic values continue to maintain the racist hierarchy and thus silently encourages this type of simple-minded thinking. It helps maintain it.
3
Seems like it would be a good idea to screen for this in hiring. There must be a creative way to do that legally. Also, chains might consider "mystery shopper" runs with a variety of folks - people of color, same-sex couples, people using assistive appliances, etc. to see how they are treated by employees. Expensive? Not compared to battling bad PR.
11
My wife and I travel quite a lot. I am of Afro-Caribbean/American heritage and my wife is a blond haired, blue eyed German. When we started using Air BnB years ago, I set up an account and used a picture of my face in my profile, as anyone would. This was well before accusations of discrimination by black Air BnB users became national news. Anyway, we noticed that we were getting a lot of emails from Hosts saying "sorry, those dates are taken" after booking dates that were clearly available when we booked them. As an experiment, we signed my wife up as a new user, with a picture of her face in the profile. We've never received any push back when booking under her profile. We are aware of, and appreciate, Air BnB's new anti-discrimination policies, however we still use my wife's profile as a precaution. We just want place to stay. We don't need the hassle. It's a shame that, sometimes, people of color need a white person to open doors for us.
68
@Stating the obvious-why would you give your money who don't think you are good enough to stay there but your wife is? I work too hard to spend my money with people who are up front in believing I'm inferior. I don't need a white person to open that door for me.
1
A good subject for a future article might be the psychological methods for detecting racism and misogyny. In these cases it can be difficult to know why people act the way they do. Understanding intent is clear-cut if it is overt (in-your-face), such as when derogatory comments or symbols are used. But in the majority of cases the problem is unconscious. To paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart: "I can't define it exactly, but I know it when I see it."
In RICO cases (those involving criminal conspiracy and fraud), it is often important to establish intent. This means separating malfeasance from incompetence. The first may be a crime, but the second may be excusable. But at some level a specific behavior is automatically a crime, such as in a physical assault. Example civil rights statues can be found under 42 U.S. Code § 1983 and § 1985.
In cases of racism and misogyny this would roughly translate as: are they intending to inflict harm, or are they just socially inept or using bad judgement? Even well-meaning people can act in a racist or misogynistic fashion.
As an example, I have found that arrogance - for whatever reason - is commonly understood by some to be racist or misogynistic. This is true even if the underlying cause is narcissism.
5
I find this article very interesting because I'm someone who loves traveling around the world. Never have I encountered hotel clerks stating a racial slur towards a customer. I feel that we should all treat each other equally and not make others feel uncomfortable for something they can not control. In my life, I have never had someone say anything racist towards me, although, I have seen how hurtful comments can make someone extremely disappointed. It breaks my heart to see others being treated unfairly by their looks and no one is looking into their personality. For example, the article stated that, "software engineer from Dallas who stayed at the Westin Pasadena in California, posted a Facebook video showing a white man asking her and her daughter if they had bathed before swimming in the pool. The video shows the hotel manager dismissing the man from the scene while encouraging the distraught family to “enjoy the pool.”" This comment really shocked me. When visiting a hotel, you expect the employees to respect you and do anything to make everyone comfortable. In this situation, the black family was pointed out because of their color, and they had to leave the pool because they were being stereotyped. All in all, I feel that others need to be respectful to their peers, no matter the color of their skin.
2
I am a service business owner and I never understood bias and bigotry in business. Everyone’s money is green, I tell my staff. Doesn’t matter what color they are, what their sexual orientation is, or what religion they practice. We are trying to get as many customers as we can so why in the world would we ever discriminate? It just seems so counter productive to the ultimate goal of business. Just my 2 cents.
46
The examples cited came from guests towards other guests. Policing guests' behavior isn't the hotel's obligation. NYT, this is getting excessive.
54
@Uncommon Wisdom the very first example cited is of an employee. Also, if I was in the lobby and an angry man was making sexual comments about me, I believe that most hotels would intervene on my behalf. It would seem threatening, as I imagine racist statements also would. It's not so cut and dry.
11
@Uncommon Wisdom. ‘Policing the behavior of its guests’ is indeed a hotel’s obligation, and a restaurant’s obligation, and a tavern’s obligation... and the reported case law imposing liability on public establishments for failing to restrain the bad behavior of their guests while on the premises is legion. If guest A harms guest B, and the staff has reason to know of guest A’s propensity to cause harm, the proprietor is likely to take a hit.
You may think that is ‘excessive,’ but courts throughout the United States have disagreed with you for over 100 years.
10
@Uncommon Wisdom. Excessive? The article is about racism. This article is, shall we say, awareness training. The excessiveness is the prejudice that still prevades this society.
1