“The Best Western” was one of the top trends on Twitter this morning, and many people were wondering why. Thousands of tweets with the hashtag #bestwestern and #itsaboveme filled up social media, along with GIFs and jokes about the famous hotel chain.
In fact, The Best Western trend doesn’t have anything to do with the hotel itself. The trend can be traced back to a racist phone call, a tearful woman, and a hotel staffer who said he wasn’t going to put up with racist language any longer.
On Sunday night, a Twitter user calling himself NoFriday (@craignofriday) put up a video of himself talking to a would-be guest at the hotel where he works in Texas. The tweet quickly went viral. You can see that clip here:
I called a FUCKIN NIGGER at work… this how it played out 😂 #KillEmWithKindness
A woman’s voice, off screen, says “I need to stay here. My mother died.”
Craig replies, “I understand that, but you called me a f*cking n*****.”
“I’m sorry,” says the woman.
“No, you’re not sorry. You weren’t sorry when you said it on the phone,” Craig replies.
That’s when the woman starts to make excuses. “There were people screaming…” she starts to say.
“No,” Craig says, calmly. “At the end of the day, the climate we live in, today’s society…”
“I’m sorry,” the woman says again.
“I understand that, but it’s above me now.”
At some point, the woman’s daughter joined the conversation. She tried to make excuses too, saying, “Sir, my grandmother died.” Craig stuck to his guns and didn’t give the woman a room.
So what did all of this have to do with The Best Western?
The woman started to plead with Craig. “Oh please. Let me here. I need a room,” she said.
“Well, The Best Western is next door,” he said. And that’s when the hashtag started to take off.
Craig later posted an update. He wrote that the rest of the woman’s family was staying at his hotel and said that they all “had an attitude.” But, he said, he clocked out at 11.