Serious concerns about Hilton's integrity as a company, and Paizo's support for them.

[Moojii]

Today, December 25th the Oregonian reported that on Sunday, December 23rd in Portland, Oregon a security guard at the Portland DoubleTree racially profiled a black guest and had him removed for trespassing and kicked out of his room at the hotel. When contacted about this, Hilton denied that any of their staff racially profiled guests. However the video of the incident seriously suggests otherwise.

Considering Paizo's extensive history of inclusion in the gaming community and it's standing relationship with the Hilton DoubleTree in Sea-Tac what kind of response does Paizo think is warranted by this incident? I would hate for my money to go towards supporting a corporation (Hilton) that completely disregards basic decency, refuses to acknowledge its mistakes and hires racist security.

-Moojii

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2018/12/portland-hotel-calls-cops-on-bl ack-guest-in-lobby.html

(edited for grammar)

[Sara Marie]

Moojii, I appreciate your concerns at this report. I saw it come up on my social media and it is indeed very troubling.
Unfortunately as it is right after the holidays most of Paizo is still out of the office. Looking into this incident is not something we can adequately do until people are back after the new year.

[Colbonation]

Moojii wrote:

Today, December 25th the Oregonian reported that on Sunday, December 23rd in Portland, Oregon a security guard at the Portland DoubleTree racially profiled a black guest and had him removed for trespassing and kicked out of his room at the hotel. When contacted about this, Hilton denied that any of their staff racially profiled guests. However the video of the incident seriously suggests otherwise.

Considering Paizo's extensive history of inclusion in the gaming community and it's standing relationship with the Hilton DoubleTree in Sea-Tac what kind of response does Paizo think is warranted by this incident? I would hate for my money to go towards supporting a corporation (Hilton) that completely disregards basic decency, refuses to acknowledge its mistakes and hires racist security.

-Moojii

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2018/12/portland-hotel-calls-cops-on-bl ack-guest-in-lobby.html

(edited for grammar)

First, let me preface this by saying that I do not work for Hilton or it's affiliates in any way.

I think it's important here to understand the difference between corporate policy and the actions of a few individuals. It wasn't and isn't the Hilton's policy to racially profile their guests. This was an isolated incident involving 2 people that resulted in the firing of those 2 people who did the racial profiling. Hilton has a zero-tolerance policy about discrimination.

Mooji, I completely understand your concerns, and I share them. If this were a case of discrimination as part of a corporate environment (like chik-fil-a discriminating against homosexuals), I would be concerned and probably boycott the place. However, this was not that. I don't think Paizo needs to make a response to this. They could acknowledge that it happened and reassure everyone that Paizocon is an inclusive event and no discrimination will be tolerated.

[Arc Riley]

Of course Hilton would like to say it was an isolated incident, and of course they responded after the incident went viral and got coverage by CNN, and of course they threw the two employees under the bus. They want this matter to disappear.

Portland was one of the last cities in the country with sundown laws, we still have systemic racial discrimination against housing and lodging. This was absolutely not an isolated incident, the only thing that made this special is the victim recorded and shared his experience online.

I know you're angry, I'm angry too, what happened was a crime and needs to be treated as such. Our state's AG has a whole dept to investigate and charge businesses with violating our state's anti-discrimination laws but they rarely do anything.

Here is the number for Oregon Dept of Justice civil rights unit. Call them. Tell them how outraged you are. Demand that they investigate and enforce our existing anti-discrimination laws in this and every case.

503-378-4400

[Sara Marie]

I was able to discuss this with Jeff yesterday. We have a multi-year contract with our current location and while altering the location isn't something that we could do immediately, incidents such as the one described in the news reports and the business's responses to them are something we would take into consideration when looking into future venue options.

Since the post was initially made, it appears that the Hilton has followed up with this incident and the DoubleTree Portland location where this happened has terminated the employment of two indviduals involved (the security guard and manager) as well as committing to fully investigating the incident and taking preventative actions with their policies. OregonLive follow up. USAToday Follow up.

We are committed to supporting our our attendees safety, as well as ensuring that PaizoCon is an environment where they can feel safe too. If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact me at paizocon at paizo.com.

If you have questions or concerns involving the DoubleTree by Hilton brand, I would recommend contacting them directly.