‘This Is Wicked’: Airbnb Rental Removed from Website After Black Woman Finds Hanging Monkeys and Cotton As Decor, Video Shows

A viral video on TikTok that alarmed thousands of viewers shows the racist decor inside a rental home that a Black woman reportedly booked on Airbnb. Erica W., whose username on TikTok is @tasteofmelanin, posted a video to her account on July 28 showing several disturbing furnishings inside a home she rented, including monkey toys and fake cotton plants and branches. One piece of decor seen in the video was a fake cotton branch on a wall with plush monkey toys hanging off it. Erica W. found cotton and monkeys in her Airbnb rental. (Photo: TikTok/@tasteofmelanin) There was also a basket full of fake cotton placed on the floor, a vase filled with cotton branches, and a large flower plant with plush monkeys hanging on it. While it’s unclear where the Airbnb was, the video also shows a wooden plaque on a mantle with the shape of the state of Virginia etched onto it below a deer head trophy mounted on the wall. Cotton was one of the main crops grown by enslaved people in the South in the 18th and 19th centuries, and monkeys are often used in bigoted depictions of Black people. The video earned more than two...