Before I tell you about my experience at this hotel, know that I usually go back to places because I have had great experiences there previously. I checked in to the St. James Hotel on Friday, Jan 28, 2022, and I noticed pretty quickly that there was no enforcement of masks mandates and no one asked for proof of vaccination upon my entry to the hotel. When I offered it, one of the desk attendants remarked, “Do you know what COVID-19 stands for? I said yes, it means Corona Virus Disease 2019. He said, “No it means Co Vaccine, and 19 stands for AI, like artificial intelligence.”

As you can imagine, I had to stop myself from laughing. I legitimately thought that he was kidding, because who actually believes that? The answer? He does. I had a few interesting chats with this guy, none of them I actually wanted to have. This is a great representation of my frustration and overall annoyance with this man. *see more below* The other strange thing about my visit is that they were remodeling the hotel, specifically changing the locks on all of the hotel rooms regardless of whether there was a guest in the room or not. They didn’t notify us that it was happening and none of the people doing the work wore masks.

Congrats on making it below the picture.

I think the conversation that bothered me the most was one about the use of the N-word in the black community. This man, who is also black did not see the use of this word as a reclaiming of the power of the names that were used to denegrate us. He told me he could only see it as a way to bring our people down. I told him that I could understand his point of view, however, he does not speak for all black people and the way that some deal with generational trauma will look different from person to person. Especially in the black community. He said that any time a person uses the word they are using it the same way, with the same intention of those who enslaved our people. I told him he is incorrect, and that thinking that way is short sided. Each day he worked he pulled me into a different conversation that I didn’t want to be a part of, unfortunately as a woman traveling solo, you can never be to careful about being nice to people. I set boundaries, and then I am really good at avoiding people…

If you made it this far, what would you have done?