Wednesday, Dec. 13, marked the birthday of Fantasia Barrino‘s son, 12-year-old Dallas Xavier Barrino. Although the singer and actress was busy on her press run promoting her new movie “The Color Purple,” she made sure to make up for it days later. However, her plans to give her son a weekend getaway with friends were thwarted when neighbors of the Airbnb they rented filed a noise complaint with the property rental company. The neighbors complained that the kids were making too much noise, but the American Idol winner is calling foul. Not only does she say the children were not loud, but she details the night of wholesome fun, reluctantly concluding that this might be a “color thing.”
The North Carolina native said her son wanted her to rent a house at the lake for him and six of his friends. She booked the place, and they arrived on Saturday, Dec. 16.
The house near Lake Norman in Mooresville, North Carolina, was furnished with various games like air hockey, ping pong and a poker table in the garage. It also had a fire pit and a hot tub in the backyard.
Fantasia says she hired someone to put up a celebratory balloon arch in the front and hired a game truck to come by for two hours during the daytime for the kids to play video games. She said she didn’t have a DJ and that outside of playing the games, the kids did a “Paint and Sip”— with hot chocolate.
She clarified that while the kids did gather around the fire pit in the backyard to share spooky stories, with the occasional screams, the majority of their time was relatively subdued and tame and not disruptive at all.
However, neighbors presented a different account, alleging that the festivities were disruptive and lasted until the later hours of the night. Fantasia claims owner of the property contacted the Barrinos around 11:30 p.m., almost three hours after the kids were in bed, in response to the noise complaints from neighbors and asked them to leave the premises.
Barrino, who rarely takes to social media to vent, made an Instagram Live video about what she believes was racially motivated.
“It felt like a Black thing. I came home to North Carolina, out to the lake,” she said. “This house sits in the middle and there’s like three houses behind it, where they can just sit and look at us. It feels like a colored thing. Like, I’m being honest. … I’m ready to buy my own Airbnb.”
Many people on social media chimed in on her video, some giving context to where the star decided to have her son’s shing ding.
“Lake Norman, Mooresville is Peckerwood territory! They ABSOLUTELY HATE to see black people with more money than them, black people enjoying life, or just black people period,” one person wrote. “That’s an area of NC where they still refer to black people as ‘colored’ and don’t see anything wrong with the word. They blame their behavior/terminology on growing up in the ‘Deep South.’ They expect you to except that.”
According to the U.S. Census, the town has a 77.5 percent white population and only 10 percent of the town is Black.
“It’s a race thing for sure because why have they been ‘watching’ that’s stalking. The need to find some business to attend to,” another comment read.
Barrino also took her grievances to X.
“My stomach is so uneasy this morning as I’m riding back to my home in the cold and rain,” she said before noting that she did not break any Airbnb rules. “The amount of guests we reserved for are the amount of guests who stayed the night. They never said we weren’t allowed to have any company over!!”
Fantasia also says that there were signs that the home had hosted parties there in the past, so her family being singled out was likely a race issue.
“It’s evident from the sayings on the wall, to the outdoor fire pit/jacuzzi and a well-equipped game room in the garage/poker table that people Hosts parties and/or gatherings here on the lake often as there were weights with balloon ribbon left in the garage from a previous party at the house. It’s evident to me this was racial profiling and the treatment we received was due to the color of our skin,” she wrote.
Hi Fantasia, Airbnb does not condone discrimination in any way. You can view our Nondiscrimination Policy here: https://t.co/6U6NcNnC7U Please send us a DM with the email address connected to your booking, so our team can follow up. Thank you. https://t.co/WCQEFGIlXC
— Airbnb Help (@AirbnbHelp) December 17, 2023
Airbnb soon responded to the “When I See You” singer’s post. On their X platform, they wrote, “Hi Fantasia, Airbnb does not condone discrimination in any way. You can view our Nondiscrimination Policy here: http://air.do/6014RrtEK.”
They then asked her to send them a direct message “with the email address connected to your booking” so that their team could follow up on her claim.
Fantasia has not publicly given an update on the incident as of this writing.
