Joseph Ross, a Dayton, Ohio, resident, was planning on attending a Cincinnati jazz festival and checked into a Motel 6 in the nearby town of Sharonville. Upon entering his room, he switched on the television only to be greeted with an on-screen racial slur: "Hello Nigger!" "I turned the TV on and when I laid back on the bed I just happened to see something on the screen and I was like, 'Ah, that ain't there, so then I focused my eyes and I couldn't believe what was on there," Ross told WCPO in Cincinnati.

Ross immediately complained to Motel 6's corporate office and reached out to the president of the Dayton chapter of the NAACP, who confirmed the on-screen slur to WCPO. The Cincinnati NAACP said that the Dayton chapter "independently called the location to ask if the Motel 6 had on their TV broadcast 'Hello Nigger.' The person who answered the phone confirmed the information was true but provided no explanation or clarity of why." Currently, the Dayton/Sharonville police are investigating the incident, with Police Lt. James Nesbit leading the charge, saying, "We are taking this very seriously and we are looking into it."