On Thursday, an NBC affiliate from Los Angeles published an account of a law student named Dyne Suh who was rejected by an #AirBnB host at the last minute because she was Asian. The name of the host Tami Baker Sutter was floated around on social media, but was eventually confirmed by users on social media who contributed information, who doing some investigative work of their own as a result of triggered outrage.
The initial incident took place in February when Suh was on her way to an Airbnb winter cabin she reserved in Running Springs, California.
Up to the day of her stay, the media source detailed that she added two more people to the reservation with other reports saying that she added a few pets as well. The Airbnb host had been notified of the changes and also okayed them, revealing that Tami was fine with the adjustments. The weather was terrible on the night they traveled to the cabin on Feb. 17, Suh used the Airbnb app to contact Tami, letting her know that she was nearby and asked how they would pay for adding two friends. As the Washington Post said -- as they also picked up the story, “that's when their trip took a turn.”
Tami Barker Sutter's racism
While various reports on this incident provided the back-and-forth between Tami and Dyne, Dyne took a screenshot of the chat and posted in on Facebook immediately after it happened.
But the exchange has two “highlights” which capture the vitriol instigated by #Tami Barker Sutter. The first is when she said: “Go ahead. I wouldn't rent to u if you were the last person on earth. One word says it all, Asian.” But the second “highlight” was her follow up to Dyne's protest against her racism when she said, “It's why we have Trump.”
Dyne is 25-years-old and has been in America since she was three.
Despite this, Sutter made two things very clear in her final message to Dyne, that she was contributing to some cause driven by a nationalist, nativist agenda and that Dyne's ethnicity made her a foreigner and outsider; or someone she felt didn't belong under that agenda. “And I will not allow this country to be told what to do by foreigners.” Dyne Suh would be fortunate enough to find a reporter in the area who was covering the winter storm with a crew from CW affiliate KTLA 5 who would eventually release the report.
Identifying the host
In all of her posts, the law student did not want to reveal Tami's full name but would only say that the Airbnb host was an ESL teacher at a college in the area. This would appear to be enough to go on to not only confirm her as the host but to also learn more about where she actually teaches ESL. Airbnb has already permanently removed Sutter from the Airbnb program but Dyne recalls when she told Tami that she would report her to the company, Sutter didn't just say that she didn't care but she was also not prepared for the backlash to be so great. According to the information collected on the former Airbnb host, Tami Barker Sutter is listed as an adjunct professor for 2016 with Chaffey College.
It's suspected that she might also be currently employed at Mt. San Jacinto College and perhaps even the University of California in Riverside. One person on social media reached out to ETS Global where Tami was employed as a test scorer for K-12 standardized tests since Jan 2015 and spoke to one of the executives.
The person who spoke with the executive – who wishes to not be identified – were told that they would conduct an internal review. They were also able to collect and post a series of cached links of Tami's Internet profiles that have been deleted since the story went viral. They also published contacts to the colleges and demanded that people pressure them and the California Board of Education to get rid of Tami.
It was also discovered thatTami's husband Jonathan Sutter, also worked at Chaffey College as a chemistry professor. While trying to confirm this information, it was discovered that his LinkedIn account had been deleted, just as his wife's had.
It should also be mentioned that comments left on at least one of the College Facebook profiles were being deleted by the page admin and that those leaving reviews on the page about Tami Sutter were being blocked. Those reviews, however, cannot be deleted, resulting in what might very well be a stressful situation for the college. It was also discovered that someone went to the Wikipedia page for Chaffey College and added Tami Baker Sutter's name under the Notable people section that read: "White supremacist, ESL Instructor and Substitute Teacher, Airbnb Host that discriminated against an Asian-American woman.
Tami Barker Sutter, former @Airbnb #MAGA #BigBear, #RunningSpring, #CA racist now a notable person on @chaffeycollege's @Wikipedia page. pic.twitter.com/R5ShZBzwK7
— Survival Journalism (@SurvJourno) April 9, 2017