Memo to the manager of Original Mother

Date:  October 31, 2009

To: HR Manager, Original Mother (and any other relevant parties)

From: Jessica Faye Carter

Re:  Non-Admittance of Black Patrons to Bar After Critical Error in Judgment Became Obvious

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It has come to my attention that you recently refused to admit a group of Black students from Washington University to your bar. Reports indicate that you presented the issue as one related to the dress code because of “gang” activity in the Chicago area. Since you had some trouble handling this situation effectively, I’ve taken the liberty of sharing a few tips below that should help you going forward:

1. Gang members don’t usually wear peacoats. The Black students did not resemble gang members, as evidenced by the picture below, and according to their White classmates. This may surprise you, but I don’t think gang members are “rolling” around Chi-town wearing navy blue, double-breasted peacoats. Time for a visit to the opthamologist, perhaps? A peacoat isn’t exactly hardcore.

2. It was about your ego, not the dress code. If this situation were about the dress code, how did you manage to admit a White student into the bar, after he had switched jeans with one of the Black students? (photo, above):

In his complaints, Murayi says the bar manager would not let him and five other students enter because they were wearing baggy jeans. But, Murayi says, white students wearing comparably baggy jeans entered the bar. Murayi says that he changed jeans with a white student, who was then admitted to the bar.

via Racism Controversy Swirls for Washington University in St. Louis Students – The Paper Trail (usnews.com).

If the problem was attire, then it should have been remedied by the Black students changing into more appropriate clothing:

Cutz [a classmate of the Black students], who is white, said he confronted the manager. “These six [students] were better dressed than I was,” Cutz told CNN.

He told the students to “go back to the hotel and change.” But the manager of the bar stepped in to say that he had made his decision and that the six men could not return to the bar even if they changed clothes, Cutz said.

via Resolution may be near between students and bar accused of racism – CNN.com.

So now we get to the heart of the matter. This situation may have started over some racial confusion (like mistaking a Black guy in a peacoat for a hard-core gangbanger), but it ended up being about your ego. You just couldn’t admit that you were wrong about these guys, even when confronted with evidence of your mistake. No siree, you were determined to sink the reputation of your establishment and draw negative national media attention rather than say three simple words. Hey, my mistake. And then add three more. Enjoy your night. Those words may have seemed hard to say at the time, but considering the media firestorm that followed, they would have been relatively easy, right?

3. One of the guys you refused to admit was paying the bill. Now what is that saying about “biting the hand that feeds you?” Oh, right. You don’t do that. One of the guys you refused to admit to the bar was the class treasurer and would have been responsible for paying your establishment for food and drinks for around 200 kids (although something tells me there isn’t even going to be a bill anymore):

“It’s pretty demoralizing. We had prearranged this agreement” with the nightclub, Murayi tells the Chicago Tribune. “We had spoken to these people prior. We had brought a lot of business to them.”

via Racism Controversy Swirls for Washington University in St. Louis Students – The Paper Trail (usnews.com).

You knew that 200 students were coming and didn’t even ask to meet the people who would be paying the tab? Hmmm. Would have saved you alot of trouble. I guess it never even entered your mind that someone in the “posse” was footing the bill. Well, now you know. And you probably won’t keep a dime of that money. One question: was it worth it?

4. It’s no fun being portrayed as a racist. Now that complaints against your establishment have been filed with the Illinois attorney general’s office, the Chicago Commission on Human Rights, and the U.S. Department of Justice, and every major media outlet from CNN to FoxNews has covered the story, the reputation of your establishment has been sullied. People think you’re a bunch of racists. I’m sure you’ve gotten support from some groups, but most of the media attention has been negative up to this point. And to think, this could all have been avoided if you’d done your homework, asked a few questions and been reasonable.

I could offer you much more advice,* but this should get you started in preparing for future skirmishes. Lucky for you, the guys from Washington U. have a larger vision than the situation at your bar, and obtained legal counsel who advised them to focus on a solution that would work toward rectifying the larger ills of racial discrimination. So everything’s settled.

I would have also advised them to sue the pants off of you.

*No part of this communication is, nor should it be construed as, legal advice.