A black family was targeted by a white man who had the nerve to ask them if they had showered prior to attempting to enjoy a day at a California hotel pool.
Mom Carle Wheeler can be heard on cellphone video that she posted to Facebook accusing the man of targeting her and her daughter out of all the patrons at the pool at the Westin Hotel in Pasadena, Calif., with a rant about “diseases.”
According to Wheeler, the man continually approached her and her daughter, asking personal questions, and at one point he even pretended to be someone from the “health department.”
Wheeler wrote in her post:
This past Monday, June 11, 2018 at 10 am PST while on summer vacation at the Westin Hotel in Pasadena, California my 5 year old daughter and I were approached by a white man while swimming in the hotel pool. The man asked if me and my little girl had showered before getting into the pool because people carry diseases into the pools and he doesn’t want the health department to shut the pool down.
Minutes later he approached us again on the opposite end of the pool under the pretense that he worked for the health department.
The upset mother called out the unidentified man on his bullshit and what she said “appeared to be blatant racism.” She added:
I let him know that being black is not a disease and showering would not wash the BLACK off our skin. I think it’s awful that ANY man would think it’s okay to essentially ask a woman and a little girl if we took off our clothes and scrubbed our naked bodies before getting into a hotel swimming pool.
In the video, an employee at the hotel can be seen speaking to the man as Wheeler becomes increasingly upset.
“You had no right to do what you did,” Wheeler can be heard saying to the man.
“I simply asked them if they had showered,” the man admits with naught a sliver of self-awareness in his voice.
“Because that’s one of the rules,” he continues, “and I don’t know about you guys, but I’m tired of getting in pools people consider baths.”
“But you didn’t ask anyone else,” Wheeler points out.
The man tries to brush off her assertion, claiming that no one else was there, but Wheeler insists that there were “plenty of people in the goddamn pool.”
As Wheeler continues to blast the man, he does the most white-man ever, telling her to “relax.”
The hotel worker can be heard telling the man that his comments are inappropriate, to which Darth Jack responds with a long-suffering, “I apologize. It’s everyone business. ... Google it! Google the diseases in pools.”
At some point, Wheeler can be heard requesting that her daughter—who is still witnessing all of this bullshit—be removed from the confrontation so that she doesn’t have to be further subjected to the man’s ridiculousness.
However, the man is not quite done yet.
“It’s only a shower, young lady, don’t worry,” the man taunts, calling after the 5-year-old girl as she is being led away.
Eventually, a man identified as the manager of the hotel, Carl Sprayberry, shows up and asks the man—still unidentified, mind you—to leave while he pulls Wheeler and her family aside.
That difference in treatment only proves to further upset Wheeler as she questions the manager’s decision to let the man leave without even getting his name.
Wheeler wrote in her post:
After many failed attempts at pleading with Mr. Sprayberry to not let the man go but to instead find out who he was, we left. Only after speaking with the white bystanders who corroborated our story did Mr. Sprayberry instruct the other hotel managers to review the tapes to find the man he had just let go! Upon our departure from the hotel Ms. Dolliver apologized to us and admitted that Mr. Sprayberry handled the situation incorrectly. She said they were “still reviewing the tapes” to find the man and remove him from the hotel. No follow up had been made by anyone from the Westin Hotel since.
“I have to teach my innocent child that no matter how much we educate ourselves with degrees, no matter what career we choose, no matter if we own a nice home in a gated community, or drive a nice car there are still people in this world who will not like us just because of the color of our skin and even worse there are people in this world in positions of power and authority like Carl Sprayberry that will not stand up for us when they know it’s wrong that we are treated that way,” she added.
The hotel released a statement to ABC 7:
In light of these events that happened, we feel it is important to share that we do not condone comments or behavior directed to our pool guests. The safety and security of our guests is our top priority. We strive to maintain an environment where our guests feel welcome and are treated with equal respect and attention from our team.