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Comment by osazuwa | Hacker News Reader

I am a black man, and I have dealt with this too. Here is few hacks I came up with.

1. In your profile picture wear one or more of the following fedora, suspenders, thick rimmed glasses, and a bow tie. 2. Position a white or (more ideally) an Asian woman center frame, and position yourself behind her left-center. 3. Have some animals in the picture. Cats are easy, ponies work best.

Try to add other things that make you less threatening, eg. babies and ice cream.

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I'm torn between "I hate that the world requires this" and sheer awe at the approaches you've come up with and the experiments that must've been performed to get there.

He… Probably didn't really do all of those things.

You are right, I used a cat, not a pony.

Well, no, not all at once in the same picture, that would spoil the experimental results.

It is sad that these hacks are required, but as a fellow person of color who has to practice similar ones in other places, I appreciate them. (If I can suggest another one, it would be to have a picture of yourself in front of some building of obviously European architectural style such as an old library, etc. that looks "trustworthy". I have done this in the past.)

Related question, is there a way to report hosts to Airbnb for actions like this in any way? And have you tried doing that? I've never used the site, so I honestly have no idea.

As a fellow person of color, I have suspected such discrimination happening to me - however by and large I have been able to get an airbnb without much fanfare, which is likely to do with the positive reviews on my profile.

As a 30-year old white guy, I had more success when I changed my profile picture to include me holding a baby (my cousin). Better to look like a family man than a partier.

> thick rimmed glasses

I don't know if you're familiar with Curb Your Enthusiasm, but Larry gives this exact theory to his friend Leon ("white people revere black people with glasses... no glasses, no job."). It's really quite amazing how closely it mirrors what you're describing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ECj4OcCC0

A lot of black comedians have similar jokes about performing rituals to be accepted by whites. For example, Aries Spears says white women only date him after they hear him sing to 80s rock songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg-4e4PWGY8

Not a new concept to people of color. Despite the jokes, it's depressing.

That's cause only nerds wear glasses and nerds aren't threatening.

Or just don't use Airbnb? I'd rather not turn myself into a circus clown just to be able to use a service. Especially one that I pay for.

I stopped using Airbnb wholesale after experiencing very similar things to what the OP has described in this article.

Plus, hotels are just better.

It's not Airbnb. It's the users.

Though they can directly address this by taking photos out of the mix. Interesting question: Right or wrong to make decisions about trusting strangers based on how they look? I know my answer, what's HNs?

Yes, I know. We live in the real world. My issue isn't people making judgements, etc. It's that I choose not to willingly expose myself to (and support) a system that enables those judgements to negatively affect me. Instead, I choose to spend my money with a system (a hotel) which does not allow the prejudices of individuals to get in my way.

Airbnb has chosen it's system (and refuses to address the flaws inherent in that system), so I've chosen not to use it.

Not sure about right or wrong but the potential for abuse is too high, IMO.

There was a history of cab drivers in NYC refusing to pick up black customers - when Uber came to town one of the first questions was "can drivers see my photo", which they can't until they accept the ride IIRC. I don't see this situation as being too different.

> Though they can directly address this by taking photos out of the mix.

You could, with mixed results, I'm sure. There are many other factors to base a prejudice on; for example "does their name /sound/ black?"

Airbnb could also establish an anti-discrimination policy, which if you are caught in these types of incidents, you and your properties will be banned for some amount of time.

I've never used the service, so I can't say for sure, but I can think of at least a few good ways to accomplish this along with a team responsible for checking into flagged events and user reports.

As a very white dude (http://www.digitalprognosis.com/pics/supergotchi.png) this makes me angry and sad at the same time. I don't want this to happen to you, or me, or anyone. How do we "fix" this absolutely blatant, but also passive aggro racism? This is simply despicable that you have to seriously do those sorts of things because you were born with dark skin.

Get rid of profile pictures? Make hosts declare their racist/homophobic tendancies?

I can imagine it's harder for a black person, but "looking less threatening" helps white people, too. Some (white) people have profile pictures where I'm sure I wouldn't host them.

Edit: It'd be interesting to compare profile pictures used in the original story.

Ok, but I feel like you may have missed the part where the "looks threatening" bit here is "is a black man".

In an age where college students need safe spaces, words are rape and anything can be 'triggering' it's all justified and valid, isn't it?

I had a philosophy professor call words violent weapons two days ago, so the parent is not over exaggerating. FYI weapons are AK-47s in Africa, barrel bombs in Syria, missiles in Gaza, and what they store in guard posts in North Korean work camps.

I don't know how old you are, but discrimination by race used to be legal and much more prevalent. People still need the Fair Housing Act. Remember Donald Sterling? He's been rejecting tenants based on race before today's college kids were born.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Housing_Act

Until recently, my picture was of me while running a marathon, since I thought that would be the most non-threatening photo available. However, I recently had a reservation (for a nearly 2-week-stay) cancelled by the host shortly after booking. I'm now suspicious enough of her justification that I've decided to remove the photo entirely and let my uneventful trip history speak for me.

I'm a brown man and having my white blond blue-eyed girlfriend in my Airbnb photo with me made all the difference. At least we've gotten past issues with miscegenation.

Heh. Without such race-validating arm-candy, a brown man is taken by some to be a rapist by default, no? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/german-profes...

Or a (potential) thief.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/indian-grandfather...

In this case, its not accurate to group all brown people together. Some brown races (Indians) are actually stereotyped as less dangerous than whites.

Clever, but sickening that you have to do that.

Alternatively, maybe make the picture black and white? You will stand out less that way.

Dude really?

>(more ideally) an Asian woman center frame

Why? What's so special about them?

This has to be satire.

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