"You're not the great artist that you think you are, you're not the queen that you think you are. You need to leave now. This is not Africa," said a Dutch Airbnb host to a guest before throwing her down a flight of stairs.
South African filmmaker and student Sibahle Nkumbi and some of her friends and colleagues were staying at a Airbnb rental in Potgieterstraat, Amsterdam to cover an art exhibition. According to Quartz Africa, Nkumbi and three fellow renters were checking out of the rental and were running behind schedule and were still in the property at 12:30 p.m. despite the 11 a.m. check-out time. The host then showed up to evict the women, throwing their bags down the stairs and yelling at them to get out. It was then that he apparently told Nkumbi she wasn't in Africa.
"The connection of those words. Any person of color that reads this and has witnessed racist attacks, you know it when it happens to you," said Nkumbi.
From the video, it's clear that the confrontation became physical at the top of the stairs. When Nkumbi tried to steady herself, the unnamed host appeared to shove her down the stairs. She landed at the bottom, unconscious. According to Nkumbi, she woke up in the hospital with bruises and a concussion.
The NLTimes reports that the 47-year-old Dutch host has been arrested.
Nkumbi detailed the entire interaction in a filmed interview posted to YouTube:
Part of the reason this story is gaining so much traction, other than Oh My God, it's horrible, is because Nkumbi's friend, a well-known artist and fellow traveller named Zanele Muholi, posted the stair attack video to her 40K-follower Instagram account.
In a statement posted on ABC 7, Airbnb's Director of Diversity & Belonging David King said:
"Appalling and unconscionable behavior against members of our community runs counter to everything Airbnb stands for. Our CEO Brian Chesky and I are reaching out to the affected guests. We will take the strongest actions we can against such abhorrent conduct, including banning people for life from our platform and assisting law enforcement with their investigation and potential prosecution. Nobody should ever be treated like this and it will not be tolerated."
Who among us checks out on time? NO ONE. "If this had been a white person, I can guarantee you this would have turned out differently," said Nkumbi.
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