Airbnb partners with NAACP to battle discrimination
Keen to distance itself from negative attention over perceived racial discrimination by hosts, home sharing platform has teamed up with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The ‘landmark partnership’ will help attract more black hosts and offer a ‘tremendous step in the right direction for Silicon Valley to opens its doors to African Americans and other communities,’ says the civil rights organization’s interim president and CEO Derrick Johnson.
The partnership will see local NAACP chapters launch community campaigns alongside Airbnb to educate more minorities on benefits of hosting and attracting tourism to their neighborhoods.
Guided by the NAACP, Airbnb is also committed to raising the diversity of its US employees from 9.6% to 11% by the end of 2017.
The initiative comes just weeks after a host was fined by the state of California and banned by Airbnb for cancelling the booking of a guest citing her Asian ethnicity.
The company also recently updated its anti-discrimination code of conduct.
It forbids hosts from declining a guest request purely on the grounds of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.
"Our fastest-growing communities across major U.S. cities are in communities of color and we’ve seen how home sharing is an economic lifeline for families," said Belinda Johnson, Airbnb’s chief business affairs officer.
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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