Friday 10 February 2017

"The world is more beautiful the more you accept"

Online homestay network Airbnb has a clear message: The world is more beautiful the more you accept. Their clip #WeAccept was shown during the last Superbowl, their tweets - followed by more than 571.000 persons - are dedicated to diversity and acceptance. The company also announced that they would offer free housing to refugees and blocked travellers (via).



Here are some tweets:



"Acceptance means being culturally sensitive toward each other and loving our similarities rather than hating our differences."

"If we all wrote down our own hopes and dreams, I think they'd be similar around the world. We're more the same than different."

"No matter how different we are, there's one thing we should agree on: Every human is deserving of equal opportunity and respect."



"Acceptance means being seen, heard, understood, recognized, respected & embraced for one's own truth."

"It is our duty as a progressive and thoughtful society to make everyone, regardless of background, feel welcome and celebrated."

"I think acceptance is the ability to see strangers—people that may not look like you—as potential friends, not as enemies."



"Acceptance to me means having the ability to go anywhere in the world and still be yourself without discrimination."

"Acceptance is when someone knows I’m different, but treats me the same."

“It's always been part of our family's value system to love everyone. We all belong to this world."



And here the clip:



The following message was published by the founders of Airbnb on 5 February 2017

We believe in the simple idea that no matter who you are, where you're from, who you love, or who you worship, you deserve to belong. We know this is an idealistic notion that faces huge obstacles because of something that also seems simple, but isn't - that not everyone is accepted.

People who've been displaced, whether because of war or conflict or other factors, are acutely vulnerable to not being accepted. They are, quite literally, in need of a place to belong, which is why we've been inspired to take action.

We started by providing housing for evacuees of disasters and have since provided housing during 54 global disasters. We partnered with organizations dedicated to the needs of refugees around the world. And just last week, we announced that the Airbnb community will provide free housing to refugees and those recently barred from entering the US. When we announced this, there was an outpouring of interest from our community, and we were inspired to go bigger.

Today we're setting a goal to provide short-term housing over the next five years for 100,000 people in need. We'll start with refugees, disaster survivors, and relief workers, though we want to accommodate many more types of displaced people over time. To help people around the world facing displacement, we'll work with our community of hosts to find not just a place to stay, but also a place to feel connected, respected, and a part of a community again. In addition, Airbnb will contribute $4 million over the course of four years to the International Rescue Committee to support the most critical needs of displaced populations globally.

We couldn’t talk about the lack of acceptance in the world without pointing out the challenges in our own community at Airbnb. The painful truth is that guests on Airbnb have experienced discrimination, something that is the very opposite of our values. We know we have work to do and are dedicated to achieving greater acceptance in our community.

These efforts are just the beginning, and we hope you consider joining us by sharing your home with someone who is displaced or donating to organizations that assist those in need. It’s possible that a child today will grow up in a different kind of world, one where they're accepted for who they are, no matter where they are. Because we really do believe that the world is a better, more beautiful place the more we accept each other.

- The founders of Airbnb

Brian Joe Nate

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