Foodie Rant - Properly Sauced? Try Properly Ripped Off.
Oprah-geddon: Winfrey To Quit Show In 2011
Daley Blames - Who Else? - The Media For Oprah-geddon
NYT Preps For Chicago Edition
Chicago Gets Googled
Six African American seniors from Washington University in St. Louis filed a civil rights complaint with the Illinois attorney general's office against Mother's Night Club Original bar after allegedly being denied entry to the club. Students claim they were told it was due to their failure to comply with the bar's "baggy jeans" policy; however, white students who had already been admitted came out to demonstrate that their jeans were more "baggy".
One of the students denied admission was Senior Class Treasurer Regis Murayi who helped organize the Chicago class trip for 200 seniors and negotiated a $25 all-you-can-drink package with the bar in advance. Another senior already allowed into the club, traded pants with Murayi and still got back into the club while Murayi was denied. Murayi and his friends even offered to change pants but claims the bar manager still refused entry.
One student claimed that Mother's saw a group of predominantly black men and felt threaten. Bar representatives told the Chicago Tribune that it was security concerns, not racism, that led to their decision to not let the group of men inside and said gang violence was common nearby, pointing out in the security video two men in the group wearing backward ball caps. The students also filed complaints to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and the U.S. Justice Department. The Anti-Defamation League is drafting a letter on their behalf to Mother's.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Of course, the backward baseball cap - everyone knows that's the de rigueur gangster accessory.
pathetic.
I hope those ivy-league gangsters get a nice, fat settlement.
...to answer the question in the headline, 'racism'
Tales of the, um, "selective" admittance policy of Rush Street bars have been going on for decades, including one of the most famous involving former Bull Artis Gilmore being denied admission to the long-gone Bombay Bicycle Club for never-clarified reasons. I've been to maybe two Rush street bars in my life (hanging out with a small group of sports reporters that included Jay Mariotti - spent the whole night talking about himself, but that's another story) and got in without incident probably because I was with them. But, yeah, it is kinda weird to hear this still goes on there. Screw it, the bars there suck anyway. Buncha 57-year-old frat boys....
The fact that the two guys traded pants and had the same result is pretty damning if true.
My answer: racism.
And here I thought racism was dead, but hey I'm sure it dosen't go deeper than a dress code, right? The last Vestiges of American racism has been erased except for discrimination in dress. I just wish Black people would realise that race( besides for baggy pants) is no longer an issue. In fact Black people have more opportunities than whites, so say 78 percent of all white people.
Is this why hipster wear tight pants?
Man if the info in this article is correct then f--- that place. That bar manager is punk ass chump. Sad. sad.
"Security concerns" my ass. Considering all the baggy pants, backwards cap frat-boy douchery that can be had there on any given Saturday night, I'm gonna go with racism.
Sucks that this bar is racist and all, and they deserve all the negative press with this story. But...can anyone actually sue a bar for not letting them in? I didn't think that was possible. Most businesses reserve the right to refuse anyone's business for any reason...or so I thought...
The bar has a right to not let you in, but not if the reason they let you in was because you are a member of a protected class; that is, because of race, gender, and one or two other categories [age I think is one].
As for issues like this, I've seen more stories like these in Kansas City than anyplace else [and even more complicated is that it involves a city-led "renovation" of a downtown area into a pedestrian street filled with bars, nightclubs, etc.]. In KC a few months ago, maybe even a year, one music venue invited DJ Jazzy Jeff in, then threw him and his entourage out because he was playing hip-hop.
They aren't suing, they're filing a civil rights complaint.
I was once denied admittance to a bar in Grand Rapids, MI for wearing a hat and a hoodie (1. the hat was a fedora, 2. it was a designer hoodie, possibly the nicest thing I own, 3. that combination looks a lot better than it might sound)
I used to Dj at Rush Street. The bar owners I dealt with were obviously racist, and more than a little bit out of touch. They warned me not to play hip-hop because it draws the wrong element, but it was a Top 40 crowd and all ANYBODY wanted to hear was hip hop and rap. It was...difficult.
I was denied entry to a bar in DC because of my shoes. They knew we were coming, and when my friend asked them over the phone about the dress code, they never said anything about shoes. My shoes were brand new, so it wasn't a "no ratty ass shoes" thing, and there were other guys being admitted who were wearing shoes that looked an awful lot like mine. We ended up giving our money to another bar and probably had a better time than if we had been admitted to a bar as lame as that one.
I hear that Mother's banned people who actually live in Chicago from entering their bar in 1999. However, it has gone unnoticed since no one who lives in the city ever sets foot in there.
Baggy pants are banned because it is easy to carry concealed weapons in them, which as we all know don't mix well with alcohol (see Burris, Plaxico). That sort of ban is fine, so long as it is applied to everyone equally.
Is this the new, "Whatcha Wearin" post?
For the record the guy behind the white guy is black,so not sure how racist it is if there is a black guy in the club already.
Ha ha. You're right.
I believe that's a black woman Cienna..
Of course this is blatant racism. Welcome to Chicago! I am so sick of people glossing over incidents such as this and defending the practices of these bars around the Rush street area(even though most are actually on Division street). This happens throughout the Chicago area. Whether it is bars or restaurants or movie theatres or whatever I still see an America where there is obvious racism. People with blinders on need to wake up. Walk a day in these students shoes and you tell me how you would react? I myself have been with African American friends who were denied entry to bars around Chicago. We would complain to no avail and our only alternative was to leave. My friends would say, "Let's just go". Go? I would carry on and complain more then they would. What century are we living in? I can tell dozens and dozens of stories that I and my friends have experienced such as this. Chicago is still a very segregated city. Shameful!