![\"cd-logo-masthead-500\"](\"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/cd-logo-masthead-500-300x37.gif\"){kind=logo}
\n<\/a>Briahnna Brown<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"Noirebnb's](\"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/noirebnb-1024x506.png\")
Noirebnb’s current homepage design. Users are able to enter their email and sign up for updates on when the site will be live.<\/p><\/div>\n
Discrimination against Black Airbnb users has been brought to light recently with people taking to social media with the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack to tell personal stories where they were denied a room with Airbnb, the online platform where people can list and rent places to stay. As the stories generally go: a white host declined a black user\u2019s request but accepts a (real or fake) white user\u2019s request for the same dates.<\/span><\/p>\n Rohan Gilkes, 40, was one of those telling his story, as he wrote on Medium about how he was denied a place to stay on Airbnb. After posting his story, there was an outpour of other people telling similar stories which prompted him and co-founder Zakiyyah Myers, 40, to create an alternative platform. So, Noirebnb was born.<\/span><\/p>\n Gilkes, who was born in Barbados and lives in Tampa, Fla., is no stranger to tech start-ups as he has been helping to build million-dollar tech companies for the last five years. Since the soft launch of Noirebnb on Monday, he\u2019s been getting a lot of attention and praise on social media. The idea for an alternative lodging platform isn\u2019t exactly new, with sites like misterb&b which was created for gay men who also face discrimination when finding a place to stay. There is even another Noirbnb (without the \u201ce\u201d) that was recently founded as well by Stefan Grant and Ronnia Cherry. Understandably, the two sites are currently looking for a way to merge together.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking and we\u2019re optimistic that something will happen, but we\u2019re also prepared if something doesn\u2019t happen,\u201d Gilkes said.<\/span><\/p>\n For now, Noirebnb is still in Beta, but potential users can sign up for email updates in the meantime. Noirebnb is still in the process of finding enough hosts and travelers, but they hope to formally launch the site in about 8 weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of moving parts,\u201d Gilkes said, \u201cbut we have a really strong team and we\u2019ve built multiple tech businesses before together and have had a lot of success, so we feel that we\u2019re the right team to make it happen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In addition to the technological aspect of building this site from the ground up, Noirebnb aims to offer a safe space for those who have faced discrimination in trying to find a place to stay on Airbnb. Harvard Business School did a study in 2014 that highlighted the prevalence of discrimination on the online marketplace, with non-Black hosts being able to charge 12% more than Black hosts can for similar properties.<\/span><\/p>\n But, of course, the discrimination doesn\u2019t stop there, as Airbnb is currently facing a lawsuit from Gregory Selden, a Black man in Washington, D.C., who is claiming that the company has regularly violated the Fair Housing Act as well as the civil rights of other people of color after he was denied a place to stay, according to him, because of his race.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBased on a lot of what\u2019s been happening with Airbnb and discrimination having to do with race, sexual orientation and gender identity, we\u2019re thinking that we have to not build a platform and then fix this problem; we want to create a platform that is completely based on a solution around these problems,\u201d Gilkes said.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the ways that Noirebnb plans to make a difference and prevent discrimination in the platform by ensuring that dates made unavailable for one are made unavailable for all, with some fail safes put in place in case a mistake is made.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe just want to be as inclusive as possible,\u201d Gilkes said. \u201cWe\u2019re coming from a good space where everybody is welcome to take part.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#1c4693″ show_divider=”on” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_team_member admin_label=”Person” name=”Briahnna Brown” position=”Fellow, Chicago Defender” image_url=”https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/briahnnabrown_dtu_0781.jpg” animation=”left” background_layout=”light” facebook_url=”https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/brilove714?fref=ts” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” body_text_color=”#1c4693″ twitter_url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=bri_articulate&src=typd”]<\/p>\n Briahnna Brown is a recent graduate from the School of Communications at Howard University. Briahnna was born and raised in Baltimore, Md., and many of her stories have focused on issues that affect her hometown. Briahnna\u2019s articles have appeared in the Howard University News Service and the NNPA News Wire. Last year, Briahnna was selected to be an American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) intern and she worked at the Smithsonian Magazine in Washington, D.C. Briahnna has also interned at Howard Magazine, the university\u2019s alumni publication.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_team_member][et_pb_social_media_follow admin_label=”Social Media Follow” link_shape=”rounded_rectangle” background_layout=”light” url_new_window=”on” follow_button=”on”]<\/p>\n [et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”facebook” url=”https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/brilove714?fref=ts” skype_action=”call” bg_color=”#3b5998″]<\/p>\n facebook<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”twitter” url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/Bri_Articulate” skype_action=”call” bg_color=”#00aced”]<\/p>\n Twitter<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_social_media_follow][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off”][et_pb_fullwidth_post_slider admin_label=”Fullwidth Post Slider” posts_number=”21″ include_categories=”7″ orderby=”date_desc” show_arrows=”on” show_pagination=”on” show_more_button=”on” more_text=”READ MORE” content_source=”off” use_manual_excerpt=”off” show_meta=”off” background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.53)” background_layout=”light” show_image=”on” image_placement=”background” parallax=”on” parallax_method=”off” use_bg_overlay=”on” use_text_overlay=”off” remove_inner_shadow=”off” background_position=”default” background_size=”default” auto=”on” auto_speed=”5000″ auto_ignore_hover=”on” hide_content_on_mobile=”off” hide_cta_on_mobile=”off” show_image_video_mobile=”off” arrows_custom_color=”#f4bc00″ dot_nav_custom_color=”#f4bc00″ header_text_color=”#f4bc00″ body_text_color=”#f4bc00″ meta_text_color=”#ffffff” meta_letter_spacing=”0″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#f4bc00″ button_bg_color=”#1c4696″ button_border_color=”#f4bc00″ button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon=”%%20%%” button_icon_color=”#f4bc00″ button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” button_text_color_hover=”#e09900″ button_border_color_hover=”#e09900″ button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ bg_overlay_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.53)”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_fullwidth_post_slider][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Discrimination against Black Airbnb users has been brought to light recently with people taking to social media with the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack to tell personal stories where they were denied a room with Airbnb, the online platform where people can list and rent places to stay. As the stories generally go: a white host declined a black user\u2019s request but accepts a (real or fake) white user\u2019s request for the same dates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,16,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-briahnna-brown","category-chevy-dtu","category-chicago-defender","category-nnpa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1968"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2103,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions\/2103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cIt just went crazy!\u201d Gilkes said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve slept.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n