A Colorado hotel is facing backlash after comedian Mark Curry posted a video on Instagram revealing what he alleged was racial profiling while he sat in the hotel’s lobby. The 26-minute video shows Curry disputing with an employee at the Mining Exchange, A Wyndham Grand Hotel and Spa in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
As he was sitting in the lobby while recording the video, Curry pointed the camera to the employee and said the man had been asking him to prove he’s a guest at the hotel.
“If you’re Black and you’re in Colorado Springs, you can’t be in the lobby,” Curry said. “Wow! This is crazy, isn’t it?”
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Another employee, standing nearby, said Curry was “using the race card.”
“So we got an Uncle Tom saying ‘I’m doing the race card,’ but he’s hanging with this dude,” the comedian said as he showed both employees on camera.
As the standoff continued, Curry expressed he felt threatened by the two employees standing near him.
“Please can you back up? I feel threatened,” he said.
Curry eventually left his seat and went to speak with other employees, saying the two men were threatening him.
“We have these dudes harassing me, following me,” he said to other staff in the lobby.
An employee at the check-in desk also asked Curry if he’s a guest. The comedian, however, demanded the employees to ask all the other people in the lobby if they were guests as well.
Curry later jumped in an elevator and went to his room at the hotel. After settling in, Curry revealed the hotel’s phone number to his viewers and demanded everybody to make calls.
“A Black man can’t go nowhere in America,” Curry said from his hotel room.
In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, a hotel representative said the Mining Exchange is “committed to providing a safe and inclusive space for all guests and employees.”
“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,” the hotel stated.
