Radisson hotel employee caught on camera calling black customer a ‘monkey’

The international hotel chain confirmed staff member has been dismissed

An employee at a US hotel has been dismissed after being caught on camera racially abusing a black customer.

The incident occurred at the Country Inn & Suite hotel in Newport News, a coastal city located in Virginia. The international hotel chain, Radisson, operates this franchise.

Irby Fogleman, his partner and two young children, were staying at the hotel to spend time with his mother who was visiting from West Virginia for Fogleman’s son’s second birthday the following day. Upon arrival at the hotel, the family noticed a strong smell of smoke. As Fogleman’s mother was not a smoker, his partner, Kelsey Cunningham, went to reception to request another room.

Cunningham stated that the employee was immediately hostile and that he mumbled something under his breath. “You could tell his frustration and anger was really building up,” said Cunningham, adding that he disclosed that he had only worked at the establishment for three weeks, according to the Washington Post.

After being told that the only other room available did not have air conditioning, Fogleman then went down to the lobby to try and speak with a supervisor. The employee insisted that there was no one else available, so Fogleman took a business card from the reception desk and began composing an email on his phone.

Another customer then approached the front desk to complain that the TV in his room wasn’t working. The second customer shared a glance with Fogleman to convey their dissatisfaction with the standard of customer service, prompting Fogleman to shrug his shoulders and say, “See?”

The employee then became increasingly agitated and started shouting at Fogleman to leave the hotel, at which point Fogleman began filming the encounter. The pair began to argue, before the employee turned his back on Fogleman, saying, “F***ing monkey”.

Fogleman described his shock at the racist outburst, telling the Washington Post: “I could not believe it. I could not believe it. It’s 2018. I have two biracial kids. Race is not a thing to me.”

In a statement, hotel manager, Lisa Little, said: “I want to apologise for the inappropriate behaviour and comments of one of our employees. As a result of this incident we will also be re-training every employee this week on our code-of-conduct policies to help ensure something like this never happens again”.

Radisson had not responded to The Independent’s request for comment at the time of writing.