“You are a black man – you have to leave”
Some of you may by now have listened to the Pambazuka broadcast interview with Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o (If you havent, please do as it is well worth the listen). Below is his experience of staying in a hotel in the Bay area of San Francisco on the 10th November. This incident has come to light because of the promience of the Professor but incidents like these happen regularly in the United States and in the United Kingdom to ordinary Black men and women.
___________________________________________________
Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o is one of the most celebrated Kenyan authors whose literary works explore issues of Black identity globally and in the U.S. He came to the Bay Area as a guest of Priority Africa Network and the African American Museum and Library in Oakland. The story as the Professor tells it, is that he was staying at the Hotel Vitale in the Embarcadero on November 10th on a visit to promote his new book “Wizard of the Crow”.
After a relaxing morning of a good walk and breakfast, he returned to his hotel to sit in the veranda section of the Hotel restaurant reading his newspaper. What happened next could have been a scene from a pre-Civil Rights Era of a Black man caught in a “White Only” section of a hotel. A hotel employee approached the Professor and said:
“This place is for guests of the hotel. You have to leave.”
Handling the matter calmly and intrigued by the assertion of the man, the Professor asked
“How do you know that I am not a guest of the hotel?”
The man continued unabated “You have to leave. This is for guests of the hotel.”
“But how do you know that I am not a guest?” the Professor asked
again.
“You have
to leave.”
“But you have not even asked me if I am staying in the hotel”
‘Okay. Are you staying at the hotel?’ The tone and demeanour was of a man who had made up his mind that the Professor could not be a guest.
“Let’s us go to the reception desk,” the Professor told him.
“It is not necessary,” he said. “Just leave.”
Having told accounts of this incident to many Black friends, a most common response has been “I’m not surprised.” Black men in particular are daily subjected to taxi’s not stopping, questioned for being in certain places, stopped for “driving while Black.” So, they ask me, why is this story any different. Because it happened to a distinguished Professor ? because it happened to a Kenyan man? because it happened to an elder ? All of the above, but mostly because it happened to a Black man period. A Black man who was invited here as n honoured guest and has been treated with utmost disrespect. A Black man is what the hotel employee saw, and all he needed to assert the Professor did not belong there.
Angered by the treatment of our guest we decided to make the story public to ensure that PAN members and supporters know about it and do not patronize the Hotel Vitale. The Bay Area has a proud history of being part of the anti-apartheid movement against racial segregation in South Africa. Many of our members are activists from that era who were part of that movement for change – we did not think we would be waging the same struggle for equality in the Bay Area in 2006 !
What transpired next did not end the matter. The hotel employee (who remains unidentified) walked to the reception desk along with the Professor. Once he confirmed the Professor was in fact a guest of the Hotel, he simply apologized and left. Not one to let matters go so easily, the Professor insisted that the matter be addressed appropriately and the Hotel Manager was called.
The Manager, clearly failing to understand the severity of the situation and the utmost disrespect against the Professor apologized for the “misunderstanding.” He kept referring to it as a misunderstanding which shows total lack of sensitivity to the gravity of the incident. Going even further, the Manager offered the Professor complimentary Whisky.
Yes, an apology worse than the insult. The Professor made arrangements to leave the Hotel Vitale immediately. His publisher (who booked the room) has received a formal letter of apology from the Hotel. Such simple steps by the hotel to put closure on the matter are unacceptable to us who are deeply offended by the incident. We are demanding a public apology by the Hotel, to be placed in a Bay Area newspaper, no later than the end of this month.
Please contact the Hotel Vitale to express your sentiments on this:
Hotel Vitale, 8 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: 415.278.3700 Fax: 415.278.3750
General Manager: David Curell’s: dcurell@jdvhospitality.com
Source: Priority Africna Network (PAN)
Tags: Ngugi wa Thiong’o Racism USA
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This is very shocking in a sense, and then again not. Some things never change, very sad.
The folowing reply was sent to Fahamu by the hotel owner.
Dear Community Member,
Prejudice still exists in America. It is real and palpable. While we’ve all witnessed superficial changes in America over the past four decades, the reality is that people “pre-judge” each other way too much, whether it’s based upon skin color, religion, sexual orientation, age, economic status, or some other factor that makes one “the other.”
As one of the owners of the Hotel Vitale and Americano restaurant, I want to publicly apologize for the treatment Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o received from one of our employees on November 10. While this employee has a good work history and worked quite closely with Willie Brown when he was doing his radio talk show in our circular lounge for nine months, the truth is that this employee “pre-judged” and disrespected the Professor by assuming he was not a guest in the hotel. Within a few minutes, when this employee was proven wrong, he was remorseful and ashamed and he has been put on leave from work as we review this matter further. What is troubling is that he, along with all of our employees, received mandatory diversity training, yet this incident still happened. I am deeply sorry for the offense this has caused Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o and the community. I have spoken with the author escort for the Professor as well as the publisher’s publicity executive who is handling the author tour, who is helping connect me with the Professor so I can express my sincere apologies to him directly.
This is a matter of great importance to me personally. I went to Long Beach Poly High School, one of finest inner city public high schools in America (famous for its African-American scholars, athletes, and artists) and one that I’m still active in supporting. I have a mixed race foster son who identifies as African-American. I am in a long-term relationship with an African-American. I am Finance Chair of the Reverend Cecil Williams’ Glide Memorial Church. My company has actively supported all kinds of programs from the Lorraine Hansberry Theater to the Hip-Hop Dance/Theater Festival and we’ve raised more than $2.5 million for the Tenderloin Afterschool Program during the last 14 years since we created the annual Celebrity Pool Toss fundraiser. In sum, we have always tried our hardest to assure we are part of the solution, not part of the problem. That is why this incident is personally very troubling for me as we have created a diverse workforce that has high employee satisfaction and, relative to other companies, we have a grass roots track record of respecting our employees, our customers, and the community. Yet, clearly we are not perfect and we need to do better.
Thank you for expressing your sadness, anger, surprise, and anguish. We are using it as a continuing “wake-up call” to assure that every one of our employees respects every single person they come into contact with – whether they are a customer or not. Every human deserves to be respected and acknowledged.
Sincerely,
Sokari,
Thanks for blogging this story and the subsequent apology that would have otherwise gone under the radar. I will pass it on to some other bloggers.
Steve
The public apology by the hotel owner is welcome nonetheless this incident needs to be publicised as much as possible because i cannot believe it is an isolated incident.
Let it be a warning to others that we are not going to allow people to get away with this kind of behaviour in 2006. It is not simply a matter of discipling or suspending the employee – it is about changing attitudes and training staff appropriately. And if that is not being done then the apology is worthless. I hope the management work on this issue seriously.
I am disgusted to say the least and made my thoughts known to the manager of the hotel. I will spread the word on this injustice
Here is the letter I sent to the manager:
Sir,
I am utterly appalled by your blatant lack of concern and vagrant disregard for your roll as manager of the prominent hotel Vitale in the bay area, demonstrated by apparent inadequacy in dealing with matters of segregation and ignorance within your staff. After reading the account of the ridiculous treatment of Prof. Ngugi wa Thiongo at you establishment by a clearly racist and severely prejudiced staff member at you hotel and your flabbergastingly inadequate attempts at reconciliation I am convinced that your lack of understanding and insight into the issue of racism and segregation is deeply entrenched. I hardly hesitate to put you and the staff in the same category as the students at Texas A and M that that put on a black face party or those at UT that dressed up as black faced thugs for Halloween. These two incidents have received much attention in the press, I think that the incidence at the hotel Vitale deserves just as much if not more publicity considering the status of the individual you insulted so casually, and strive to give it the sort of prominence it deserves.
Needless to say I will be boycotting you institution and will encourage those I come in contact with to do the same.
I seem to be the only person who finds this aspect of the public apology interesting: “What is troubling is that he, along with all of our employees, received mandatory diversity training, yet this incident still happened.” They received mandatory diversity training? What does that mean? He might as well have said “we teach all our employees how to use computers so we now expect them to be able to do so.” Am I being idealistic in hoping that by now understanding of and respect for racial, religious, ethnic, indeed any kind of difference, would be intrinsic and not something one has to undergo training for? Maybe I am looking for too much where there is very little.
Annie@ You raise a good point and one that yes has been missed. But one thing this incident has shown is that people do need training around issues of race, religious, ethnic and any type of difference. It is unfortuante but society still has a long way to go. Whatever the case his “mandatory diversity training” obviously didnt/doesnt have any impact on the staff. Like I said I cannot believe this has never happened before and imagine if it was a regular person – what would have happened then?
General Manager Hotel Vitale: David Curell: dcurell@jdvhospitality.com
Chip Conley
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
cc@jdvhospitality.com
415.248.5940
Jack Kenny
President and Chief Operating Officer
jfk@jdvhospitality.com
415.248.5958
Fred de Stefano
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
fd@jdvhospitality.com
415.248.5941
Peter Gamez
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
pg@jdvhospitality.com
415.248.5945
Jane Howard
Vice President of Employee Development
jh@jdvhospitality.com
415.773.1078
The year is 2006 and we still have such moral midgets as these?
I live and work in Italy and have always expected racial discrimination, but 5 years down the road I can hardly sense it. There is the odd uneasy feeling you get around old folks but thats about it.
Amazing that this nonsense remains unabated in the US. Shocking, disgusting and appalling. Surely the hotel in question has done this severally and there must be a section of their patronage that supports this.
Let me stop the rumbling but I have to see that I’m disgusted to the back teeth.
Thanks for this, I´d put it in my blog.
I learned from the 12 years I have been living in Portugal, that we Africans are viewed like subhumans, even by very educated (in Academy) persons.
But what really irritates me is that many Africans seams to be blind about this.
Deocliniano @ I agree with you on the “blindness” which is one reason why racism and this kind of behaviour continues. If we are not prepared to both recognise it and act on it then of course it will continue.
I am flummoxed. While I urge that we forgive the person who did this injury to another human being, I suggest we all ensure every part of this earth hears about this. Those of us eager to reach out for the American Dream may as well rethink that desire and embark on other dreams right where we are. America has been made great by its acceptance of people from every corner of the globe and focusing on what they can do – rather than what they look like. Are we about to reverse that? God forbid.
And this irrespective of how good my work record had been hitherto.
But not in the case of the Hotel Vitale. Perhaps because his action was (in their eyes) understandable. After all, if the professor were not who he is, would we even hear about the incident? Incidents such as this occur more frequently that any of us care to know. What an outrage!
This is so annoying. As a black person if I was employed at a hotel in London’s Mayfair, and I acted in a manner similar to this employee, you could bet that I wouldn’t retain my job till the end of the day on which the incident occured. And this irrespective of how good my work record had been prior to the incident.The man ought to have been swiftly relieved of his job!
But no, not in the case. Perhaps because his action was (in his employer’s eyes) understandable. A black man would not ordinarily be a guest at a fine hotel. After all, if the professor were not who he is, would we even hear about the incident? Incidents such as this occur frequently, and more so than any of us care to know. What an outrage!
Indeed, the racist action taken by the said Hotel Vitale staff was shameful and irritating. Well, these things happen all the time, and the Ngugi wa Thiong’o case probably hit the news due to his prominence. Still, Kenyans back at home are disappointed, and an apology by the hotel on the Kenyan mainstream media would do some good. In addition, I suggest that the hotel employee in question be given a free copy of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s “DECOLONIZING THE MIND” – this should be bought by the hotel, of course.
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Wow. When you read something like this, you think you’re reading of some cariciature of 1950s America. And then you’re sick because you realize it’s 2006.
“The public apology by the hotel owner is welcome nonetheless this incident needs to be publicised as much as possible because i cannot believe it is an isolated incident. ”
This is spot on. I have trouble believing this wouldn’t have made the news if the victim hadn’t been one of the world’s most respected novelists.
THIS IS NOT AN INCIDENT OF RACISM. As an employee of the spoken restaurant I am appalled that this can even be considered an incident of racism. This is San Francisco, a city with the worst homelessness problem in the nation. Daily we have people from the street wander in and disrupt service. Crack addicts, prostitutes, etc. disturb people who are paying good money to eat and stay here. Constantly we have to escort disgusting trashy people from our restuarant on the embarcadero in order to ensure a sense of security amongst out guests. It does not matter whether you are black white pink or blue, if you come into our restaurant reeking of body odor, adorning dreadlocks, and wearing filthy clothes, you run the rist of being escorted from any fine dining establishment. Any restaurant in the state of california reserves the right to refuse service to ANYONE. Service was refused to this man based on his appearance not his race. If anyone has strong enough evidence than I to contest this statement I would like to know. We are a tolerant community and a diversely employed restaurant, how dare you try to bring down our good name for an issue that has been dead for years.
“Service was refused to this man based on his appearance not his race.” Please explain to me how the two are mutually exclusive.
“If you come into our restaurant…adorning dreadlocks…you run the risk of being escorted from any fine dining establishment.” It is important to recognize the racial implications of these statements. It is these very stereotypes that we are fighting against. If anything at all, the employee’s “mistake” should teach you that you cannot classify people by the way they look, by their “appearance.” This man may have looked a certain way, but the conclusion drawn was clearly mistaken. People are judged in this way all the time and IT IS WRONG!
I applaud you on being a “tolerant” community. It’s interesting that in 2006 mere “tolerance” is something to be flaunted. Good luck on your business if it will be carried on in this vein.
From the comments of this anonymous employee, I wonder what kind of diversity training the hotel is giving it’s employees. You would have thought that any employee in doubt would first of all confirm if the person in question was a guest, not walking him out even when he insited he is staying at the hotel. Is there a dress code in the hotel? is dreadlocks banned? must a guest wear a $10,000 suit?
The posting by Anonymous exposes a common misconception about the difference between racialism and racism Racialism is the expression of prejudice. Racism is the underlying systemic framework that leads people to assume that someone who is black and not dressed in middle class drab deserves to be chucked out of the place. Anonymous may not express his prejudices verbally, but his reaction shows how embedded he is in the racist assumptions of US white society! It is a manifestation of racism, even if the motives may not derive from racialist views.
I live in houston TX and I just want to say that as a Kenyan I love Ngugi wa Thiong’o with all my heart. I have the uttermost respect for him. I only have issue with his appearance. Hotels and places hospitality have reputations to protect. they have guests who want to spend their monies in places of high class. High class has nothing to do with race. if we all saw our dear Ngugi’s picture on the Kenyan newspaper (www.nationmedia.com)when they ran this story, you would understand that even you would have asked him to get groomed or leave. let us not bash the hotel’s anonymous employee when we all know that the hotel needs all their patrons to be of certain stature. I know that you will probably want to hang me for this but sa a Kenyan i just want to advice this man who i dearly love that the freedom fighting days were over in 19632. That rugged, unkempt look is unbecoming of a person of his stature and one representing not just Kenya but Africa and the Philanthropic society. I am a member of the US armed forces and I have to shave my head and have no tatoos on my neck, face or head. these things would not affect my service to the country but they are not becoming of a Soldier and i have to live with that. Even in Kenya I know a couple of Hotels that would have asked him to get groomed were it not for him being Ngugi wa Thiong’o
What is all this nonsense about appearance. Do we all have to shave our heads and walk around lookking like identical frigging robotic members of the US or any other army – is there no room for individuality and diversity? So now people are judged not on their work or what they produce but how they dress. To hell with these places of “high places of class” – jesus the world is full of violence and shit and you are fussing over what people wear and high class bloody hotels.
Please include my email in your mailing list.
Jackson Nanje
sokari, that is my point exactly, to hell with those high class places. but if you wanna go there be ready to look it.
wally
November 23rd, 2006 at 7:38 am
“sokari, that is my point exactly, to hell with those high class places. but if you wanna go there be ready to look it.”
Wally, I’m not so sure that Albert Einstein were he still alive, would be required to get himself a haircut and a shave in order to sit at the balcony at the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco.
“Crack addicts, prostitutes … disturbing other people who are paying good money to eat and stay here, reeking of body odor, adorning dreadlocks, and wearing filthy clothes” This is what ‘Anonymous’, and to a considerable extent my fellow kenyan wally describe Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Now, this “looking like it” nonsense is nauseating. The elderly scholar did not need an expensive suit to be decent!! It is interesting, the guts ‘Anonymous’ has to continue slandering the hotel’s name. If this should be the case, Hotel Vitale should let the world know that unless you are in a $10,000 suit, you should not be sighted anywhere near Hotel Vitale, or else you’ll be swept into the trash bin! This would have saved Ngugi, even though he had all the money that could afford him the stay! I wanna bet the last coin in my pocket that with this attitude, if ‘Anonymous’ was a cop bouncing past the hotel entrance, we would have seen headlines with photos of our very own professor Ngugi in handcuffs, or being frogmatched away for “contaminating the core of sofistication”, and a later apology for “mistaken identity”, perhaps.
Dear All,
Reading comment #23 made by an alleged employee of this hotel, name to which I refuse to dignify either by typing or saying, I question the sincerity of the initial apology made by “one of the hotel owners” when he wrote the patronizing letter of apology.
I would think that, if indeed the said hotel realizes the gravity of what they’ve done and is indeed apologetic for it, the first step would be to reeducate the staff first on prejudice, not just racism. Then tolerance, difference vs inferiority/superiority,…. I would think that, in this day and age, any one who even dares to think himself educated enough to decide what/who is proper would have the understanding that that someone is different, either by race, religion, creed, gender, nationality, financial status, societal status, does not make them inferior or superior, but just different. I would think that being educated also mean that one understands that not everyone gets caught up in spending hard earned money that can easily go into more important and humane needs in buying “fine” clothes and that also is okay because people are different. I would expect the said hotel that prides itself on being diverse to understand that every one of its employees have to, not only be good at getting the job done, but educated and diverse human being.
But how could I have expected this from the said hotel when it’s manager thought this incident as an understandable “misunderstanding” that could be resolved with whiskey. I guess in his mind, “did they not say that our ancestors got those colored folks to the New World by giving liquor and money to them? Well, I might as well give it a shot to make this man shut up.”?
Does this employee really believe that we are stupid enough to believe that what is alive and living in his bones his not racism because racism has been “dead for years”?
Here is a letter from one of the hoteliers in response to comment #37
______________
Dear XX,
Yes, we are very troubled that an alleged employee made these comments. We are doing our own investigation because these sentiments are diametrically opposed to the kind of workplace we believe we have created at that hotel. Thank you for pointing this out although we were already in process to learn more about it. You have my assurance that we are sincerely moving forward with anti-racism training for all of the hotel staff.
Best,
Chip Conley
US is still full of racism almost everywhere. Each state has its style, and the only difference is that there are those who play the game more subtly than others. The hotel owners comments tell it all!
youre bashing on the hotel. you guys cant call this case racism because it is one of the most respected and highest class hotels in the city of san francisco. Because of it’s high class, they can’t afford to have many disturbances. according to a family member who is a supervisor in the housekeeping dept., the area around the man was a mess. there were newspapers on the floor etc. I think its legitimate to think – if in fact he is a tad unkempt – to ask him to leave.
After reading the comments, it seems quite simple to me after all :
Everything about the prof’s looks and demeanor was very uncharacteristic of a guest at that hotel.
I started reading all this thinking that a sharply dressed, or just plain normally dressed black man was simply told to get out, just becauswe he was black. It turns out that the prof looks like a 60s radical and that he had a mess around him. It turns out that he may have looked just like a homeless guy .
Why the hell then wouldn’t the employee think that he’s not a guest ? Has it occured to you that maybe the employee has dealt with similar situations before ? That certainly sounds like it to me because there’s no way that the employee was simply kicking out “a black man “. Are you guys going to tell me that no black people ( of course most likely business people ) ever stay at that place ?
The hotel owner’s apology is QUITE convincing to me. A white ( I assume ) guy who has black children, donates a lot of his time to black causes and has a black wife is almost certainly NOT a racist, at least the way normal people understand the word. Of course when one is a “people of color radical” every white person is, by definitiopn, racist, if not plain evil.
You guys remind me of what John McWhorter was talking about in his latest book:
Black people who are **addicted ** to outrage and who need, at all cost, to find “racists” to vent their outrage at. It doesn’t matter is the guy has a black family , he’s still an eeevil white priviledged racist and he’s gotta go down!
In the end , what I’ve read about this incident doesn’t scream racism at all, at least the way the dictionaries and the population at large define that word.
- black man in canada
I will write to those hotel owners and wish them well.
To: black man in canada
nice try but you didn’t ‘pass’
WTF is wrong with Black man in Canada? I was enraged reading the account of Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o and have already sent my own letter of complaint to the Hotel Vitale regardless of their half-hearted apologies. What has bothered me even more is how a grown-assed Black man cannot see the obvious racial overtone from the hotel by them asking the professor to leave. Please do not begin to think that we are all as naive and stupid as this idiot. Most of us those of us north of the border are keenly aware that racism is alive and well here too. It’s a shame that some people insist on denying it. This was an insulting act of prejudice that cannot and will not be tolerated.
-Intolerant Black woman in Canada
I just want to say thank you for this site. I had not heard about this until an NPR podcast today. And I live in the Bay Area. Just wanted you to know how this message is still traveling and hope it continues. I am sending it to family and friends.
- 24 year-old Caucasian in a multi-racial family
Unless I missed it somehow, no one raised the obvious point about “appearance”: if the Professor had been “White,” we would not be discussing this matter because it would never have happened, no matter how he looked. The idea that anyone would presume or suggest that all the guests of any “high class” hotel in the U.S. look a certain way at all times is ludicrous! People with money are often very unconcerned about their appearance–because (as we say in the States) “they’ve got it like that” (meaning they don’t have to care).
At the very least, no matter how disheveled the Professor looked, if he had been “White,” even if he was approached, the first communication would have been a simple question and very respectful: “Are you, sir, a guest of our hotel?” No challenge if the answer was “yes.” And definitely, no trip to the registration desk. (He is hardly the first professor not to satisfy a G.Q.-standard, and he was after all, sitting in the sun reading the paper, not appearing for the press or something.)
The bottom line is that the whole incident was about race–not about class and, most assuredly, not about appearance. Which is why it was so unconscionable and indefensible.
Everything about the prof’s looks and demeanor was very uncharacteristic of a guest at that hotel.
Puh-lease. “Black Man in Canada” clearly has never actually *been* to San Francisco and seen what passes for fashionable dress or ritzy hotel demeanor there…