A Hampton Inn employee was fired this week after calling the police on Black guests whom she suspected of trespassing.
The incident occurred Saturday in Williamston, North Carolina, where a woman—identified as Anita Williams-Wright on social media—and her children were using the hotel pool. According USA Today, the white staff member and two police officers approached Williams-Wright and asked her to prove she was staying at the Hilton-owned hotel. The mother streamed the interactaction on Facebook Live and has since shared the footage on Instagram.
In the 10-minute video, Williams-Wright is heard telling the hotel employee and the officers she was a Hampton Inn guest and proceeds to pull out her room key card as proof.
"I feel it's discrimination ... I have a room here, and I told her that ..." Williams-Wright tells the officers, who continued to ask her name. "What did I do wrong? This lady here is discriminating [against] me ... I have a key to get in and I can show you that it works ... I don’t have to give my name. I didn’t break the law."
In a statement, Shruti Gandhi Buckley, the Global Head of Hampton by Hilton, said, "Hampton by Hilton has zero tolerance for racism or discrimination of any kind. On Saturday, we were alerted to an online video of a guest incident at one of our franchise properties. The team member is no longer employed at the hotel."
