A viral video shows a white hotel staff member alleging a Black teenager is trespassing as she attempts to escort him from the premises before his mother intervenes and reminds the employee that they are guests.
“What y’all kickin’ me out for?” the teen is heard asking at the start of the video.
“‘Cause you’re a trespasser,” the white female employee states.
“How I’m trespassing when I got a room upstairs?” the teen asks.
“You don’t have a room,” the woman insists, before telling him to leave.
At this point, the teen’s mother sees the interaction and intervenes. “What’s going on,” she asks and she reminds the staff member of their status as hotel guests.
“He’s with me, this is my son,” the mother says, adding that they had just visited the facility’s pool and exercise room.
“You need to keep him with you,” a security guard is heard telling her.
“He’s 18,” she responds.
The teen is heard explaining that the employee who tried to kick him out also took his ID and snapped a picture of it before telling him to leave the hotel.
As his mother continues speaking with hotel staff, she launches into a list of issues she’s encountered from the moment she and her son checked in.
“Now you harassing my son?” she asks the female employee.
“I’m not harassing your son,” the employee insists.
The teen’s mother also recalls previous times the staff member witnessed her and her son in the hotel together.
“This experience has been the worst,” the mother said of her hotel stay. “And can you delete his picture that you call yourself trying to take of him?”
“Yeah, of course,” the woman says.
“I’ll make sure I write a nice, lengthy review about my experience,” the mother tells the staff.
The teen posted the video to TikTok on March 26, tagging Memphis Vitality Hotel and accusing the female employee of racial profiling. It’s drawn more than one million views and thousands of comments.
Atlanta Black Star has reached out to the family to inquire about their hotel stay and the confrontation.
