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Public Affairs coverage from our award-winning staff |
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Students Settle with Bar Accused of Racial Discrimination
Produced by City Room on Thursday, October 29, 2009
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Photo by Lobstar28 |
A Chicago night club has agreed to apologize publicly to six college students from St. Louis. The students gained national media attention when they were told they could not enter the Original Mother's on Chicago's Near North side because their jeans were too baggy.
But the six African-American students say white classmates with baggier jeans were admitted. Student Regis Murayi says the settlement was never about the money.
MURAYI: This isn't about power, this isn't about leverage, this isn't about fighting and kicking and screaming. This is about really raising the issue about racial discrimination in America and really opening this discussion moving forward.
Managers at the night club will undergo diversity training. The bar is also planning to participate in an anti-discrimination rally in Chicago in late November.
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Mike, Garfield Park // Thursday, October 29, 2009 @ 12:08 PM
Racial bias in Chicago is as bad as ever. The only place I know of in the city that one can feel welcome, regardless of their ethnicity is Hyde Park.
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Noah L. Holcomb, Jr., Gary, IN // Tuesday, November 03, 2009 @ 11:00 PM
I am a black man who has frequented Mother's many times. The over 50 basketball league to which I formerly belonged has a gathering there every year prior to the start of our season, and over half of the players are black. I have had job/internship applicants approach me and have had to tell them that their gangbanger type attire/appearance does not promote the image that I want for my law office. For years, many school districts across the nation have gone to mandatory school uniform policy because it has been shown that uniforms make for improved behavior. I'm sure that Mother's decided that a legal fight would be too expensive, and caved in. But, if I go there and see young males looking like gangbangers, Mother's will lose me and folks like me as customers.
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Christian, South Loop // Thursday, November 05, 2009 @ 10:37 AM
I am also a black man that has been to Mother's a couple of times. I understand looking professional - that is one thing. But this case was not about applying for a job at a law office. This was a casual event at a casual venue and black men should not have to worry more about their clothes than others. When this dispute first aired, there was a web site that showed the attire that both groups (white and black students) wore and the black students were NOT dressed like gang-bangers. This is the problem. I have been out with black friends that had lose-fitting/relaxed jeans, not baggy and hanging down, that were denied entrance. Even as it was pointed out that the Filipino patron inside was wear in "baggy" jeans large enough to fit another person, the decision was final. This is not about keeping an image if you let some people slide in against the rules. What has happened, unfortunately, is this: non-blacks + baggy = safe; black man + baggy/relaxed fit = probably a trouble-maker.
I don't want to put this 100% on Mother's or the other bars as I do also understand there are those that help create this perception of black men. We've got societal issues on both sides, but I don't think the exclusion practices that the bars exhibit are acceptable.
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