I won’t even bother making a quip about Florida today because we all know what’s up. So let’s get right into the story.
Facebook user Covey Banks, who is a physician, exposed some ugly racism that occurred at the Omni Orlando Resort over Memorial Day weekend, sharing footage of a white woman screaming racial slurs and other vulgarities at Banks and her family.
In the video, the unidentified white woman could be heard calling Banks and her family “black bitches” and other slurs.
A woman behind the camera, presumably Banks, can be heard calling out a man on his family’s behavior.
“I paid just like you. You don’t call me out my name. I didn’t call you nothing! You were being rude. Your wife. Your family. Period,” the woman behind the camera blasted.
At that point, the white woman in question could be seen rounding the corner and screaming to her man, “Leave the nigger alone.”
The woman behind the camera brushes it off: “That just shows your ignorance. That name don’t bother me.”
“Leave the black nigger alone,” the woman repeats.
“Bye!” the family behind the camera dismisses the troglodytes.
At one point the white woman appears to flick Banks’ phone and also appears to push someone on the other side of Banks.
The video ends with the couple walking away.
Banks wrote in a separate Facebook post that the confrontation started when the nasty woman told her daughter to pee in the pool that they were in, even while the little girl was crying and begging to use the bathroom.
“The mom started looking around, we presumed for the bathroom, and we pointed it out to her. She started yelling ‘you don’t know what MY daughter is saying,’ ‘I’m taking her to the bathroom,’ ‘I wasn’t telling her to pee in the pool’ (guilty conscience), etc etc. Figuring she was embarrassed because she got caught being nasty, we paid her no mind,” Banks wrote in the post.
Banks continued:
She’s still saying stuff and telling her kids to splash us. After a couple of cannonballs, we started splashing too. I mean, we’re in a pool, we don’t mind splashing. Then the mom says “come on let’s leave these black bitches.” So now we’re calling names?! Sticks and stones... ok, leave, bye! But apparently they weren’t getting enough of a reaction out of us. The grandma starts yelling “black bitch” and “black bitches” as they’re exiting the pool. When the mom makes a threat I got out of the pool. The mom and the dad kept walking but the grandma and grandpa continued to antagonize us. You know they dropped the n-word. The grandma tried to swing at my niece and knock her phone out of her hand. I grabbed her arm and stopped her. See the video...
The family called hotel security but apparently received no help on that end. The family reportedly also received similar treatment when the police were called. I guess they didn’t have the right-color skin.
Banks wrote:
Afterward we called hotel security. Who do you think they talked to? Giving them the benefit of the doubt that the other party ambushed them, do you think they came to hear our side after? You know, from the party that actually called and who got harassed? Nope.
Then we called the police. Guess who they went to first? I went over to the officer, said I’m the one who called, and that they were the ones yelling, making threats and using racial slurs. The officer said “we got 2 calls and 2 cars are being dispatched. I’ll talk to them and you can talk to the other officer when he gets here. Go stand over there and wait.” Oh, word?!
We go over and wait, another officer comes and asks if I want to press charges. He said that we would both get charged because she had a scratch on her arm.
🙄 She screams, curses, yells racial slurs, obviously under the influence, swings at my niece but she got a scratch on her arm for being stopped and we’ll BOTH be charged?! 2/3 officers were rude and completely unprofessional. I gave my statement. Witnesses also came downstairs and wrote their statements in our defense.
Their behavior was completely and utterly disgusting. The follow-up was even worse.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, Omni Hotels & Resorts President Peter Strebel said that he had personally apologized to Banks following the incident.
“An incident occurred at our resort in Orlando last weekend,” the statement read. “Two families staying with us got into a dispute and one family used racial slurs. The use of such language is completely unacceptable and it will not be tolerated at our hotels and resorts. We are sorry this horrible event occurred at one of our properties and I have personally apologized to Dr. Banks.”
The Sentinel also reached out to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, which confirmed that deputies responded to the incident. A report was taken and is expected to be forwarded to the state attorney, who will review the case.
Meanwhile, Banks is continuing to encourage others to share her story, insisting that the hotel “did NOTHING” about the incident.
“Share, share, share! Find them! Expose them! My family was subjected to this horrific treatment by guests at the Omni. The Omni did NOTHING to ensure our safety or denounce the behavior of their other hotel guests. The guests were allowed to remain on the property until Memorial Day,” she wrote in a separate Facebook post with the video. “My niece saw them going into their room, which was in the same building and on the same floor as ours and my kids were frightened when we seen them at the pool later Sunday evening. Listen to the vile words they spewed at us. Disgusting, to say the least. The Omni has now resorted to LYING about the incident.”