Corporations Hate All Things Urban No Matter How Harmless

(Photo: Bryant Thompson Photography)

I am going to stop believing that we get treated a certain way because we are black. I’m under the impression that corporations are so afraid of the backlash of racism that they’ve decided to expand it further than that. Corporations are okay with the “safe” black people, but the real threats are actually the “urban” crowd.

Allow me to explain a situation that happened to me very recently. I had been working with a high end hotel to book a mixer in one of their suites. We corresponded primarily through email and from the very beginning we were very upfront about what our intentions were for the use of the suite. We disclosed that one of our partners were a major television channel, which at the time of correspondence they were. We told them that there would be a large flow of people coming in and out and all of the things we intended to do. This all sounded good to them. The partnership with the television channel was probably a huge selling point for them. I’m sure they wanted all of that publicity, especially knowing the channel and their very (non urban) crowd, I suppose. But that’s neither here nor there, the main point was that there was an agreement between the hotel and myself and they seemed to be down with the “get down”.

Well, that was until we actually got to the hotel and they spotted the fitted caps, t-shirts and Jordan sneakers. There were a few black faces, a few hispanic, a few white, but clearly on the hotel’s behalf there was a lot of tension. This is when they began to wonder “What did we get ourselves into”. At that point it became problem after problem and violation after violation. It’s funny because these violations were never a violation until they physically saw who they were dealing with and the fear sunk in. What did they fear? I’m not sure. Maybe they thought we’d shoot the place up, tear up the furniture and leave the entire floor smelling of high grade weed. I guess they didn’t realize who those fitted cap wearing people were.

Unfortunately for the hotel, they pre-judged a lot of very important people. They assumed the worst and tried to overly regulate everything they did. We weren’t allowed to bring any food or alcohol in to our own PERSONAL suite, not event space, but suite (with beds and stuff). If I purchased a hotel room and wanted to bring in food and alcohol, I’m sure no one would tell me no, so what’s so different now? The congregation of hip hop heads? They tried to complain about the potential of noise, not that there was currently any noise, but that there could potentially be. Who knocks on your door and says “You’re not making any noise now, but there are people in your room that may make noise, so fyi we’re watching you”. They confiscated our bottles of liquor. They hung out outside our room door for at least an hour or two waiting for us to mess up, and guess what — we never did. See, because the people invited to this event is that they although they were dressed casually, they were industry executives, clothing designers, media, all around important people. It was a mixer, a way for industry people to get together and network. There wasn’t going to be any live music, there wasn’t going to be anything that would have bothered anyone. The most we had was food, drinks and good time. They eventually told us that we were doing “a good job” and they didn’t have any problems with us so they’d let up.

Problem is, do you treat ALL your visitors this way or just us? I don’t think I saw anyone posted outside the door of other rooms. I can’t remember the last time I was told I couldn’t have food or drink in my own room. I don’t remember being talked to about noise, when no noise complaints have been made. That’s never happened to me before, well until now. I guess the realization is — it’s safer to hate all things urban than to say you hate black people.