YouTubers Say Their Coachella Influencer House Was Segregated

A group of YouTubers who stayed in an Instagram-ready house at Coachella sponsored by fashion app Dote say that white influencers were grouped together and given better rooms.

According to Buzzfeed, YouTuber Daniella Perkins posted a video from the house titled “The Truth About Coachella Ft. Mental Breakdown” in which she hinted at the segregated bedrooms, saying that the white influencers were on a different side of the house.

Another guest, Keisha Shadè Akinyemi, who goes by ItzKeisha on YouTube, posted her own video in which she claims white influencers were given beds, while women of color slept on pull-out couches.

Other guests say that Dote also put the white influencers together in photos and left guests of color out of some photo shoots entirely.

The statement Dote released in the wake of the accusations does some pretty interesting logical gymnastics, both saying the brand didn’t intentionally segregate the influencers and that they won’t do it again:

“‘We’re devastated to hear that girls on one of our trips felt that they were treated differently because of their race. I want to make sure you all know that we did not — and would never — intentionally group girls together based on any racial characteristics,’” [ founder Lauren Farleigh] wrote.

Farleigh vowed that the company is “committed to doing better” and is in the “‘process of gathering all of the details of what happened so we can create an action plan to make sure it doesn’t happen ever again.’”

Fifteen-year-old YouTuber Vereena Sayed, one of the guests in the Coachella house, says that she was also the only person of color invited to a previous Dote-sponsored trip to Disneyland:

“I felt out of place. … It was kind of weird for them to throw me in there,” she said.