Fantasia Barrino is speaking out about an upsetting experience she had with Airbnb after claiming she and her family were racially profiled by their hosts.
“The Color Purple” star recounted her stay in a Sunday morning post on X, formerly Twitter, writing: “My stomach is so uneasy this morning as I’m riding back to my home in the cold and rain. I don’t say much when people do me wrong, but I can’t stay quiet on how my family and I were just treated from a host with @Airbnb @airbnbhelp trying to kick my kids and I out at 12:00 midnight.”
“The host accused us of having a party with loud noises outdoors because they saw balloons being dropped off and a game truck with no generator in the early part of the day,” she continued.
Barrino also claimed the host’s rules said nothing about having guests, and noted that the number of guests reserved matched the number of people who stayed the night. She also said it was evident that the home had hosted gatherings before, as she found “weights with balloon ribbon left in the garage from a previous party at the house.”
“It’s evident to me this was racial profiling and the treatment we received was due to the color of our skin,” Barrino said. “I wanted my son to enjoy his friends (10-12) year old and make him feel special as I have been traveling for the last 35+ days promoting a movie I starred in. This time, I dare not stay quiet.”
The Airbnb Help account responded to the post, saying the company “does not condone discrimination in any way.” It also pointed her to their nondiscrimination policy.
Barrino further addressed the incident in an Instagram post, where she shared photos of the celebration and wrote about making compassion a priority.
“We have lost our internal compass of Love! Love moves us to deeply consider, it shifts us out of places of sympathy where we can gain a real understanding through empathy,” she wrote in the caption. “When love is present, it overlooks your race, age, gender, profession, zip code and even your past. This, is what we teach our and exhibit before children, and this is what we wanted kids outside of our home to experience as well.”
“Gaining and understanding wasn’t the desire, while we were being screened on various Ring cameras, the happiness and ‘character’ of the kids present also wasn’t considered,” she said elsewhere in the caption. “Right after a hot-chocolate Sip & Paint, without warning, we were asked to leave. So, at 6a, in the freezing rain, with sleepy kids, we loaded up 4 vehicles, respectfully cleaned and organized everything back to its original place and we left.”