Singer and actress Fantastia Barrino has accused an Airbnb host of ‘racial profiling’ after she and her son were forced out of a rented home over the weekend.
Barrino, 39, posted a lengthy message to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Sunday morning. The multihyphenate won the third season of American Idol and releases music under the mononym Fantasia. She is set to star in the upcoming remake of ‘The Color Purple.’
In the post, Fantasia claimed an Airbnb host tried to forcibly remove her and 12-year-old son Dallas, as well as his friends, from a rented property in Mooresville, North Carolina.
‘My stomach is so uneasy this morning as I’m riding back to my home in the cold and rain,’ Barrino wrote. ‘I don’t say much when people do me wrong, but I can’t stay quiet on how my family and I were just treated.’
The singer claimed the host accused her of throwing a party ‘with loud noises’ due to a balloon delivery and the arrival of a game truck earlier that day.
Fantasia Barrino, the singer and actress known as Fantasia, accused an Airbnb host of attempting to force her, son Dallas and his friends out of a rented property over the weekend
The 39-year-old multihyphenate claims they were asked to leave ‘without warning’ and were accused of throwing a party ‘with loud noises’
The listing for the four-bedroom, three-bath home in Mooresville, North Carolina has been moved
The host never said they weren’t allowed to have company over, Barrino continued.
‘It’s evident from the sayings on the wall, to the outdoor fire pit/jacuzzi and a well equipped game room in the garage/poker table that people Hosts (sic) parties and/or gatherings here on the lake often,’ she wrote, adding that there were remnants of balloons from a previous party.
‘It’s evident to me this was racial profiling and the treatment we received was due to the color of our skin,’ she finished.
Fantasia did not say how their race played a factor in them being asked to leave.
The listing to the property was removed following the backlash. The four-bedroom, three-bath home sits on the shores of Lake Norman and is designed for 10 guests.
‘We have lost our internal compass of Love!’ Barrino proclaimed in a separate post to Instagram, accompanied by photos of her son – who just celebrated his birthday on December 13 – and friends grinning inside the rented house.
‘Love moves us to deeply consider, it shifts us out of places of sympathy where we can gain a real understanding through empathy,’ the singer wrote. ‘When love is present, it overlooks your race, age, gender, profession, zip code and even your past.
‘Being abruptly asked to vacate a house (which proved to not be a Home) on the first night while a diverse group of technologically & robotically Inclined group of kids (one is a pianist) were winding down to sleep was unthinkable.’
She included photos of the children standing around the outdoor fire pit, reclining on a bunk bed and painting with watercolors.
Barrino’s son turned 12 on Wednesday and was celebrating with a group of friends
A parent of one of the guests says the children were unable to roast s’mores ‘because of the neighbors’
Barrino says they were asked to leave abruptly following a hot chocolate ‘Sip & Paint’ event (pictured)
‘Gaining and understanding wasn’t the desire, while we were being screened on various Ring cameras, the happiness and “character” of the kids present also wasn’t considered,’ Barrino continued. ‘Right after a hot-chocolate Sip & Paint, without warning, we were asked to leave.’
The family was first asked to leave at midnight, Fantasia claimed. They didn’t leave then, opting to wait 6am to leave.
At 6am, as freezing rain fell, Barrino and the guests tidied up the property before loading up four vehicles and heading out. Some of the children had to be taken home, despite their protests, she said.
‘I didn’t deserve to look or feel like I let my son and the other kids down,’ Barrino wrote.
Fantasia said they also cleaned and organized the house to its original state before leaving.
Airbnb responded to the actress’s tweet with a post from its customer service account.
‘Airbnb does not condone discrimination in any way,’ the rental company wrote, including a link to its Nondiscrimination Policy.
Barrino was encouraged to reach out via direct message with the email address connected to her booking, ‘so our team can follow up.’ It is unclear if she did so.
Bina Bustamante Guinn, the mother of one of the children in attendance, commented on Instagram, writing: ‘My son enjoyed himself.
‘It’s crazy because when I dropped him off it was quiet outside. The kids were on the game truck peacefully playing video games,’ Guinn said, adding that the party seemed ‘a lil too quiet for kids.’
The actress and singer stars in ‘The Color Purple,’ which releases in theaters December 25
She received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as Celie, a Black woman living in rural Georgia in the 1900s
Barrino first rose to stardom as the winner of the third season of American Idol in 2004
The woman mentioned that her son said the children were unable to cook s’mores ‘because of the neighbors.’
Barrino is set to star in ‘The Color Purple,’ which hits theaters later this month. The film, based on the novel of the same name, follows a Black woman named Celie living in rural Georgia in the 1900s.
The 39-year-old received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance.
She is reprising the leading role for the second time, as she acted as Celie in the Broadway rendition of ‘The Color Purple’ between 2005 and 2008.