In Spokane

Most everyone is black, and races mix together in harmony.

On the way to Seattle, we stayed at a Wyndham hotel in Spokane. Wyndham is the largest hotel franchiser in the world with over 9,100 locations, so they make sure their advertising represents the reality of the world around you. It’s gotta be real if you want to capture the attention of the public.

These are literally the first 7 images I ran across on the Wyndham hotels website.

Mom likes strawberry glaze but wouldn’t you know it Junior likes chocolate with sprinkles. Hilarity ensues.

Wyndham hotels, where Ketchikan and East Camden meet and find luv.

Tonight it’s high-jinks in the hallways, but tomorrow we’re off on our wilderness survival adventure, which is me and dad’s regular thang.

Jen with shoulder-width Reich-Eagle tat and Omar with standard neck-blob tat.

Hang on a sec- East-Asian and white? Aren’t these privileged groups? There must be a mistake…ah, it’s the business section of the webpage.

After all the vibrant diversity, I came upon this page.

Hmmm. Would the DEI theme be as prevalent in the Distinctive hotels category? I clicked Registry hotels and found the first pic of a northern-European-type male and his girl, who looked positively potentially-white. Diversity for thee, plebs!

That’s not dirt. It’s brown-marbled granite.

In any case, at our hotel and out in the street I only saw one black guy. False advertising, Wyndham! Where’s the advertised diversity I came for? At breakfast the only other diners were a couple white guys- sure, Ukrainian truck drivers but white nonetheless, so vibrancy factor zero.

To be fair, though, the night clerk was a man of color.

Dan- Where are you from?

DeShaun- Atlanta.

Dan- That’s a long ways.

DeS- Yeah, it is.

Da- Do you like it here?

De- Yeah. I like it. I like the cold.

Da- What brought you all the way to Spokane?

De- My parents. My mom’s from Michigan originally.

Da- And why did she come to Spokane?

De- She missed the cold.

Well, Spokane is certainly colder than Atlanta, but it aint no Michigan. I let that pass and asked DeShaun whether the neighborhood was safe. The hotel is in downtown Spokane, right next to the freeway in the old section with the turn-of-century brick buildings, like the one the Spaghetti factory is in. I can see it out our window.

Festive holiday scene from Baymont by Windham window. Spaghetti factory is at two o’clock from Chevron station.

De- Yeah, I guess it’s safe. There’s a lot of homeless.

Da- But they don’t bother people.

De- Naaa.

DeShaun was apparently in a festive mood. He wore a Christmas-themed hoodie and lights on his headband. It was dark, 41 degrees and raining outside, so I suppose he was doing his part to up the holiday cheer. Viva Spokane.

Grok is going to put forensic sketch artists out of business. Upper right dude is quite close in looks and attire to last night’s DeShaun.

Advertising photos by Wyndham. DeShaun and Santa/Star of Rempham hoodie by Grok.