turbans at the annex: serious business
Feb. 3rd, 2008 02:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
substituteOur local lame bar, Pierce Street Annex, has revised their policies to allow turbans in the bar, after a Sikh complained and asked for an apology.
The article says: "Sanjum Paul Singh Samagh, 24, accompanied friends to the Pierce Street Annex bar last year, only to be turned away because his turban was deemed to conflict with a rule prohibiting hats."
Good, he can enter with his turban now.
What's not mentioned is why bars ban hats: it's to keep out black guys. American black guys almost always wear a hat going out at night. It's an old, known technique for keeping their presence to a minimum. It's similar to gay bars banning open-toed shoes "for safety" to keep down the number of women who show up to dance with gay guys.
For some time now, Pierce Street has been a destination for black guys from Riverside County who drive out here to be in Newport/Mesa instead of Riverside. I guess the management decided there were too many of them.
Bars are just a disaster in Southern California. Everyone drives home, and a bar can't make money unless you have at least two drinks, so the entire business relies on drunk driving. And then they make desperate attempts to keep a money-making "demographic" in the bar, which they can only achieve by violating discrimination laws and acting like assholes.
I liked the bars in SF and NY, where you could walk home if you wanted. I bet they have similar issues with the "mix of the crowd" though.
The article says: "Sanjum Paul Singh Samagh, 24, accompanied friends to the Pierce Street Annex bar last year, only to be turned away because his turban was deemed to conflict with a rule prohibiting hats."
Good, he can enter with his turban now.
What's not mentioned is why bars ban hats: it's to keep out black guys. American black guys almost always wear a hat going out at night. It's an old, known technique for keeping their presence to a minimum. It's similar to gay bars banning open-toed shoes "for safety" to keep down the number of women who show up to dance with gay guys.
For some time now, Pierce Street has been a destination for black guys from Riverside County who drive out here to be in Newport/Mesa instead of Riverside. I guess the management decided there were too many of them.
Bars are just a disaster in Southern California. Everyone drives home, and a bar can't make money unless you have at least two drinks, so the entire business relies on drunk driving. And then they make desperate attempts to keep a money-making "demographic" in the bar, which they can only achieve by violating discrimination laws and acting like assholes.
I liked the bars in SF and NY, where you could walk home if you wanted. I bet they have similar issues with the "mix of the crowd" though.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-03 11:11 am (UTC)Again though, most of the places I drink at frequently don't tend to discriminate on any basis whatsoever as long as you don't lay your head down upon the bar and go to sleep, and even then it's generally forgiven, so my view is somewhat limited.