A girl's night out turned ugly when three women say they were mistaken for prostitutes inside a swanky New York hotel. INSIDE EDITION spoke to the women about their ordeal.
Three women say a girl’s night out in New York ended in tears when they were mistaken for—of all things—prostitutes.
Kantaki Washington told INSIDE EDITION, “The security guard comes up to us and says, ‘Ladies you can have a drink, but you can't be here soliciting.’”
Watch More of INSIDE EDITION's Interview with the Three Women
Washington is no hooker—far from it. She's a lawyer. And her friends? They're both school teachers.
Washington, Cydney Madlock, and J. Lyn Thomas went to the bar at the Standard hotel in Manhattan. They say that a man started to hit on them and almost immediately a security guard came over and accused them of soliciting.
Madlock said, “I said, ‘Soliciting what? Please be clear' and he said, 'Don't play dumb with me.’”
They claim they were singled out because they were the only African-American women in the bar.
Thomas said, “I felt mortified. Something as small as an accusation of prostitution, I could lose my job for that.”
The swanky Standard hotel has been in the news before. It's where Jay Z and Beyoncé's sister got into a violent confrontation in an elevator last May.
This is the second incident to come to light in the last week involving women falsely accused of being hookers amid allegations of racial profiling.
The women are comparing their experience with Django Unchained actress Daniele Watts who says she was mistaken for a prostitute and handcuffed by a Los Angeles cop because she was making out on the street with her boyfriend.
Now, these women say they know how Watts must be feeling.
Thomas said, “My reaction was just feeling sick that this is a prevalent image of African-American women who are younger and it's disturbing.”
In a statement the Standard hotel said, "They are deeply sorry for what happened,” adding that “The security guard who made the comments is no longer welcome to work at the hotel."
