By Asia Armour
The Seattle Medium
Airbnb is collaborating with the Seattle/King County branch of the NAACP to promote entrepreneurship and stimulate economic growth within the Black community through homesharing.
The organizations are partnering to host two events at the Northwest African American Museum. The first event takes place tonight (Weds.) June 5, from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm. The second event is tomorrow, June 6, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. The partnership is an effort to enlighten communities of color about the economic opportunities of working with Airbnb.
At tonight’s event, a panel of hosts will share what it’s like to open their home to guests using the homesharing platform.
Thursday’s event is a supplier and recruiting mixer where attendees will receive additional information about how to get a job with Airbnb.
Janaye Ingram, Airbnb’s Director of National Partnerships, spoke to Airbnb’s focus to provide economic opportunities to Black homeowners with their community outreach and education commitment.
Ingram introduced software engineer Lennox Matsinde, who shared some of his experience as a host with Airbnb. According to Matsinde, not only has being a host offered him a chance to earn extra money, but it’s tied him more closely to his community and allowed him to connect with people from varying backgrounds.
“Airbnb provided me a vehicle to earn an additional stream of income in a pricey Seattle real estate market,” he said. “Right now, I’m hosting a guy from the east coast who’s working at amazon for two months. It’s cool to get to see the different types of people who come in as the seasons change. It gives me pleasure to be able to play a small role in sharing what we have going on in Seattle. I would encourage other folks in the Black community to embrace the platform.”
The Airbnb and NAACP partnership had several commitments in its founding two years ago. Aside from the community outreach and education pillar, Airbnb shares over twenty percent of the earnings it receives from it’s outreach efforts with the NAACP, and plans to significantly increase the diversity of its employee base and its suppliers.
Since becoming partners, Economic Programs Manager for the National NAACP Lisa Bland Malone said Airbnb has visited Miami, Oakland, Atlanta and Chicago. Seattle is the most recent city in their efforts to provide communities of color with potential income opportunities with Airbnb.
Airbnb has come under criticism recently due to incidents involving race and discrimination.
One such incident took place last weekend in New York City, where an unidentified Asian host referred to a group of five Black guests as “monkeys.”
In doing so, the host violated Airbnb’s Community Commitment pledge to “treat everyone in the community with respect and without judgment or bias, regardless of race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or age,” and thus was swiftly removed from the platform by Airbnb.
Ingram said the company has been working to be more proactive in rectifying incidents of discrimination. She said Airbnb encourages minority communities to work alongside the company to help eradicate these issues.
“You can’t solve a problem by moving away from it, you have to address it head on,” Ingram said. “So, I encourage people to join our platform and become part of our community so that we can embrace everyone. We want to show that anyone can belong, everyone should belong, anyone who’s traveling should be allowed to find a place that suits their needs.”
“That’s what our mission is, to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere,” she continued. “It’s a very lofty goal, but I will say this is a company that’s shown its committed to ensuring the protection of that goal and that we can work towards it.”
The Airbnb events co-hosted with the Seattle/King County NAACP are free to the public.
