Two lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union are speaking out against a California bar they feel targeted them for being Black.
Abre’ Conner and Novella Coleman both serve as attorneys for the ACLU Northern California chapter, and wrote of their experience on the ACLU’s blog on Thursday [March 24, 2016], hoping to eliminate the notion racism has somehow gone away.
Their account states the pair went to Fresno bar The Brig with a third companion on March 12 to sing karaoke. They were told by bar employees before their song was called they needed to buy drinks if they planned to stay.
“But before our song was called, a bar employee came up and said we had to buy drinks to sing karaoke. Another bartender lunged at us within inches of our faces and shouted ‘Buy drinks!’,” they explain.
The two reasoned there were other patrons standing around with no drinks, and the response was bar employees can’t keep an eye on everybody.
While one staff member went on to call the police, a server attempted to talk things over with the ladies. When they explained they were being discriminated against, the server exclaimed, “It’s not fair to bring up race!”
When Fresno Police finally arrived, other patrons tried to explain to them what they’d witnessed, stating that no drink rule existed, even offering to buy the ladies’ drinks, but the bartender wouldn’t allow them to be serviced.
The police seemed to be siding with the bar employees, ultimately escorting the two women out.
“The bartender and police claimed to be exercising the business’ supposed “right” to refuse service. This sounds too much like when the country still had “colored” sections and racially segregated water fountains. But this happened in March 2016.”