By Louis Chan
AsAmNews National Correspondent
Investigators in California are looking into a widely publicized alleged incident of discrimination against an Asian American by an Airbnb host.
Dyne Suh of Southern California has filed a formal complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
A video about the incident went viral on social media and was widely shown by news organizations in California.
“I am cooperating with an investigation into the incident by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing,” said Dyne Suh to AsAmNews. “They reached out to me and I wanted to help them enforce anti-discrimination laws in California. I think it is important to send the message that racism will not be tolerated in California, and that it will be taken seriously by the government. Because racism is so hard to prove, most people seem to get away with racist actions. Here, we have a smoking gun.”
Suh has not released the name of the Airbnb host, but she did file a complaint with Airbnb which quickly permanently removed the host from the program calling the incident “abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Suh, who just graduated from UCLA School of Law, has not released the name of the host, but she is believed to be an English as a Second Language instructor.
Suh was just minutes away from checking into her reservations in the San Bernardino Mountains when she received a message via Airbnb’s messaging app , “I wouldn’t rent to you if you were the last person on earth. One word says it all. Asian.”
Some have been skeptical about Suh’s claim, wondering if she did anything to prompt the sudden cancellation. The host had exchanged numerous texts with Suh about its pet policy and whether Suh could bring additional guests.
RELATED: Host Dumped by Airbnb after Racist Incident Leaves Asian American in Tears
While Suh has released many of the messages, she has now released a full transcript of the messages to AsAmNews after numerous requests from many readers.
The full transcript is below. AsAmNews received them in PDF format in reverse order with the last message on top. AsAmNews has cut and pasted each individual message so our readers can view them in the order they were sent.
“I released the full transcript so people who still had doubts about it being made up, or people who thought that I was to blame for the woman’s behavior could see for themselves what happened,” she said. “It is unfortunate that so many people have the knee-jerk reaction of blaming the victim when it comes to racism, or even deny that it happened.”
Suh told her followers on Facebook “the good news is, for every one hater, I received at least 15-20 kind messages of solidarity. The good news is, kind people seem to outnumber mean people. It gives me hope that love will prevail in the end. Thank you again to people who sent me messages of love and support.”
RELATED: Text Messages Here
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. You can show your support by liking our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/asamnews, following us on Twitter, sharing our stories, interning or joining our staff.
RE: California Investigating Airbnb Incident: First, I find it completely irresponsible of Asamnews and Dyne Suh to publish the address of the Host and her family. Given the threats that have been posted online, you and Ms. Suh may be endangering them.
Second, there is no evidence that Ms. Suh was denied housing because she is Asian. The conflict appears to be whether her additional guests would be allowed to stay or not. The Host wrote, ” If u bring 2 extra people- this is not happening.” Up to that point, the transaction was going smoothly.
Third, yes, it appears that the Host previously agreed to the additional guests in text messages. However, this raises more questions. Why is Ms. Suh trying to conduct business outside of the Airbnb website? Ms Suh wrote,”Can they give you cash?” Isn’t that a violation of Airbnb policy? If an accident were to happen, Ms. Sun’s additional guests would not be covered by Airbnb’s insurance policy.
Fourth, there appear to be missing messages. Apparently, there was discussion of a “mancave” yet none of the previous messages have “mancave” in them. Also, the online fight happens very quickly. This could be the nature of text messaging but it feels like something is missing. Why does Ms. Suh ask, “How much more per person?” The Host told her explicitly in a previous text. This is why everything should be conducted within the Airbnb website.
Fifth, given that I see no evidence that Ms. Suh was denied housing because she is Asian, the accusation that the Host denied her housing based on race may constitute libel and slander. I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. Racial epithets are not considered slander or libel. Asian is not a pejorative. Accusing someone of breaking the law when they have not is slander and libel. If a lawsuit should happen, I hope the Host considers countersuing for libel and slander.
RE: California Investigating Airbnb Incident:I’m Asian and I’ve to side with the airbnb host. The customer got way too demanding, and kept pushing and pushing for more, quite pathetic. It’s 50 bucks, be reasonable, other people have to make a living/pay their bills too. she didn’t have an issue with an Asian staying at her place up until the last incessant demand. I hope the airbnb host reads this and realize not all asians act like that. We’re frugal but actually are very considerate, reasonable and respectful people.
RE: California Investigating Airbnb Incident: Hello Louis Chan, I think it was good that you pieced together what communications you had between Airbnb Host and Dyne Suh.
After looking at the text/airbnb sms messages, this doesn’t look like a case of racist cancellation. Instead, it leans more towards a case of airbnb HOST’s patience being tried to the point they make racial epitaphs because they think they are being cheated.
Also, I hope you can find out more on this point. Sadly, the HOST’s name and occupation has been made aware to the public (this could be wrong information), but in the conversations between HOST and Dyne, it would seem the HOST are two entities… wife and husband.
The first conversations are with said wife I believe… since her grammar and spelling is indicative of someone with an ESL teaching background.
Unfortunately, the last part of the conversation… right before the cancellation appears to be with the husband.. who seems to use abbreviations and shortcut spellings (unseen before with the wife).
I hope we don’t lump the wife as being a biggot. Even the husband, it’s very trying to say he was racist as he made only two comments. He was saying the renter was an asian (i.e. a cheap asian). Later on he makes a BOGO reference to only paying $50 for the room. The airbnb HOST doesn’t seem to think he’s going to get paid $100/night for the room. I do believe Dyne was willing to pay $100/night.
This goes back to why it’s difficult to say that this was a case of racist cancellation. I do believe on the preponderance of evidence that…
1) Host never agreed to the $100/night stay because it doesn’t appear that an Invoice was ever sent.
2) Host confirms (I think) that the loft/man cave would be used by the HOST to stay in. Either host is lying or maybe (let’s think positively) the host never confirmed on paper the +2 guests were coming since the text message about this was 5 weeks ago.
I’ll send you might complete analysis of what I think may have happened between them. I hope maybe you at asamnews will reconsider writing
One last point. Dyne was supposed to checkin at 3pm. Most of the guests (I’m guessing 2 parties) had checked in already at 4pm. But Dyne had said there was an accident and she was worried they might not get their in time. Even before that she messaged asking if she could make a LAST MINUTE reservation change to the next day because she though the roads might be blocked.
As a host, they had been waiting… and waiting for check in. It was now almost 10pm.. and the renters were finally texting… “We’re here… and oh… what about the 2+ guests” (I’m totally paraphrasing here.. just to give a perspective from the airbnb hosts side). I’m just trying to put my shoes in both people’s places.
I agree that on both sides, things could have been handled better… and if it did.. then they wouldn’t be in this situation. What I find abit sad in this day of age is the rush to use Social Media to push a one sided story (I’m not saying you guys). I’m just saying, maybe all of them can hash things out… I do believe everyone here is decent people.. just a slight misunderstanding.