The 'Hangin' With Mr. Cooper' star shared a video documenting his experience on Instagram Friday.
Mark Curry has accused a Colorado Springs hotel of racially profiling him while he was in town for a comedy show over the weekend.
On Friday, the star of the '90s sitcom Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper took to Instagram to document his experience at the Mining Exchange A Wyndham Grand Hotel & Spa, located in Colorado Springs. In a series of videos uploaded to his page, the comedian is seen sitting in the lobby of the hotel where he's approached by two white men who demand he verify whether he's a hotel guest.
Curry asks the man who says he's an employee for identification but he refuses, stating that he won't leave until he can determine that Curry is a guest. Curry asks why the only Black person in the lobby is being targeted, saying into the camera, "You cannot be in this hotel lobby if you're Black and you're in Colorado Springs."
The second man standing watch accuses Curry of using the "race card" when he questions the surveillance.
Later in the video, Curry documents the men following him around the hotel and heading to a guest services area. He approaches the front desk to inform a woman that he would like to contact the police since the man who identified as security refused to show any identification and was following him. "I would like to call the police on this guy for following me. I don't know who he is," Curry tells the woman while streaming the incident live. The woman at the desk tells Curry that the man was one of their engineers and asked if the comedian was a guest "for safety."
Curry then vows to check out of his suite that night, telling the camera that "a Black man can't go nowhere in America," from his hotel room. The comedian said he would be leaving the hotel and incorporating his experiences into his next set.
"Black man and a hotel lobby it's impossible that he has a room here," he captioned the video. "No, I have a suite! He walks up to me with no badge on. I don't know who this man is."
ET has reached out to Curry's rep for comment, as well as the Mining Exchange A Wyndham Grand Hotel & Spa.
In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, a hotel representative said the Mining Exchange is "committed to providing a safe and inclusive space for all guests and employees." The statement continued, "We deeply regret this incident and have reached out to Mr. Curry to offer not only our sincere apologies but a full refund of his stay and an invitation to return, at no cost, anytime in the future."
The hotel is also "using this opportunity to revisit training with our staff, helping to ensure all interactions are reflective of our company values," the statement said.
Holly Robinson Peete, who starred opposite Curry on Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, sent her support for the actor on Twitter. She called the incident "so disrespectful" in a Twitter thread posted on Saturday, writing, "There was no reason for Mark to be singled out except for the fact that he's a Black man. I'm so sorry this happened."
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