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…

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.

- 24 year-old Caucasian in a multi-racial family

-Intolerant Black woman in Canada

nice try but you didn’t ‘pass’

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

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