Two hotel employees have been suspended until further notice, after actor-comedian Mark Curry accused them of racial profiling. In a video posted to Instagram, Curry said that a Wyndham employee walked up to him thinking it’s “impossible” for a black man to have a hotel room at Wyndham’s The Mining Exchange in Colorado Springs.
“Black man and a Hotel Lobby it’s impossible that he has a room here. No, I have a suite! He walks up to me with no badge on. I don’t know who this man is. And asked to see my hotel key Wyndham racism,” Curry wrote.
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Curry — who has been a TV and film star for decades — said he was drinking coffee in the hotel lobby on Friday when an employee asked him whether he was a guest. The employee also told him that the lobby is private, the comedian said.
Curry accused the employee of approaching him because he is black. “If you’re black and you’re in Colorado Springs, you can’t be in the lobby,” he said. “Wow. This is crazy.”
The employee denied Curry’s allegation, saying in the video that the incident had nothing to do with race.
It remains unclear what happened before Curry began recording video footage in the hotel lobby.
Actor/comedian Mark Curry (C) and family arrive at Nickelodeon’s 27th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards at USC Galen Center on March 29, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Elsewhere in the video, Curry asked the hotel employee why he was not questioning the white guests. The employee said it was because they had paid for drinks, adding, “Then you’re a patron of the hotel, which I asked you several times.”
When Curry later went to the reception desk a short while later to complain to the receptionist, she asked him for his information.
“Do you have a room number of any sort? Can I have a last name?” the receptionist asked. “They just want to know if you’re a guest. That’s all.”
A Mining Exchange spokesperson told Colorado Springs Indy that the “employees involved in this matter have been suspended, pending further investigation.”
“We are committed to providing a safe and inclusive space for all guests and employees,” the spokesperson continued. “We deeply regret this incident and have reached out to Mr. Curry to offer not only our sincere apologies but a full refund of his stay and an invitation to return, at no cost, anytime in the future.”
“As a respected community partner, we are also using this opportunity to revisit training with our staff, helping to ensure all interactions are reflective of our company values,” the spokesperson added. “The Mining Exchange plays a special role in the Colorado Springs community and we will continue working each and every day to ensure that our hotel remains a space that is open and welcoming to all.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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