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After Vapetoberfest Saturday night, RPadholic N8R and I went to a bar to catch up with some pals from Vaping Ape LA. I was wearing a Yankee jersey for the day’s shoots and didn’t have time to change. The bouncer checked me out and asked the manager if it was okay to let me in. I had no idea what was going on. The manager scoffed at the bouncer and said, “This guy’s cool as sh*t. He’s probably never been in a fight in his entire life.” I still had no idea what was going on, until Nate explained it to me.
Apparently it’s a thing that you can’t wear sports jerseys in bars — or at least nice bars in California. When I was a drunkard in New York, I spent most of my time in Irish pubs (dress code was never an issue). Since I’ve moved to California, most of my drinking has been at posh parties thrown by videogame publishers (wouldn’t wear a sports jersey to one of those) or dirty bars in San Francisco Chinatown (clothing optional). Nate explained that a bouncer friend of his said it was basically to keep certain African-American patrons out of bars. The thinking is that if an African-American wears a sports jersey to a nice bar then he must be some kind of gang banger. The manager essentially said to the bouncer, “He can wear a sports jersey in the bar because he’s Asian-American.”
While I was happy that I got into the bar so that I could see my friends, I couldn’t help thinking, “That’s f*cked up.”
I felt sheepishly ignorant that I’ve never heard of this sports jersey rule. Now that I’ve learned about it, I can’t stop thinking about how messed up it is. With that in mind, I wrote today’s column to see if you’ve encountered the “sports jersey deterrent.” Does it happen where you live? What do you think of the practice? Do you think it’s messed up? Or is it smart for bars to do this in order to keep out a certain element? Share your thoughts on sports jerseys, bars, and racism in the comments section (please!).
We have a bunch of bars and clubs for all walks of life down here and I do mean “ALL.” Each one of those bars/clubs have their own rules and regulations about what is and is not acceptable. That said, you touch very briefly on two very interesting topics:
The first one is statistics. Can statistics be used as a somewhat light shield against racism? If you think about it, insurance companies base your rates on these statistics. If you have a sports car and are a black male living in Miami, you will pay a lot more than a white female (of the same age) with the same car, living in the same City. That’s racist and sexist! Nobody seems to be up in arms accusing GIECO or State Farm of being discriminating because they back up their discrimination with facts. They PROVE, scientifically that they have to pay out more for this certain population of people with this characteristic than another group of people with different characteristics. So, going back to what happened to you; if the owner makes a correlation with violence at his club and thugs wearing jerseys, he’s going to use those statistics to make sure that he doesn’t have to “pay” for any damages that those people do to his club/bar. It’s exactly like your car insurer dropping your policy because you’ve been in too many accidents and they don’t want to pay out anymore. Your policy is costing them money, so they drop you, much like not letting thugs in costs the bar/club owner money, so he doesn’t let them in based on what they look like. However, if he denies black people the right to congregate in his establishment, he could be violating Federal anti-discriminatory laws, so in order to keep from going to prison, he says that it’s not because they are black, but because they are wearing a certain jersey…. but we all know that it’s because they are black (thus, why he let YOU in even though you violated the jersey rule). So, why the pretense if he can statistically prove that one type of group of people are continually harming his business? That brings me to my second topic:
Why can’t a business owner discriminate based on race, sex, religion, sexual preference, etc without consequences? We all allow insurance companies to do it blatantly. The knee-jerk reaction to the questions is because it’s wrong. That’s fine. I agree. It is wrong. But here’s the kicker: I can’t force someone to be a nice person. If someone owns a bar and he doesn’t like Koreans, he should be free to say “I don’t want Koreans in here” without the threat of him going to jail. Why should a bartender be forced to serve someone they don’t want to? If you are Korean, why not go to one of the thousands of other bars that welcome you? Why is it O.K. for someone to sue because they wouldn’t be served by a business? No one is forcing that person to patronize that business and that business owner should not be forced to serve anyone that he doesn’t want for whatever reason. In fact, I would tell that Korean to open up his own bar across the street and put that Korean-hater bar out of business. (That’s how we got Netflix, and look how that turned out). If that Korean had a “no rednecks” policy in his establishment, would people care as much? Forcing someone out of your establishment based on what you look like is equally as bad as forcing someone to serve you when he doesn’t want to.
Discrimination exists, will exist, and has always existed. To think that by throwing a few well-intentioned laws at it will fix the problem is incredibly naive. We can’t force people to be nice and politically correct, so let them be honest. I’ve always said that I prefer to deal with someone who is openly racist than the person who pretends he’s not, but he really is. The truth is always better than a lie. I really wish there was more honesty in society in general. True, there would be a lot of hurt feelings, but better the truth of reality than the ignorance of lies.
-M
Another excellent and thoughtful Iceman post! It’s a really fascinating practice, but I suppose some of the fascination is because it’s totally new to me. I’m sure that I’m going to think about this daily for the next month or so.
Most bars here won’t have that kind of rule. In my experience only the horrible college bars in college towns had entry contingent on attire. For example some won’t let guys wear a backwards cap or a cap that sits crooked on their head. Another one that I had personal experience with didn’t allow skull caps.
Bars around me up here will have dress codes for similar reasons. A number of places have “dress to impress” policies, which are obviously meant to be extremely subjective. I’ve even heard of a bar nearby that doesn’t allow certain brands like apple bottom, fubu, coogi, etc., but never actually been.
I sort of agree with Iceman’s take on things, but when it comes down to it these places are discriminating in a huge way and there is no way to account for any outliers. It takes the individual out of the equation and only condemns the general cultural background. While I understand the sociological reasoning behind arguments in favor of this type of discrimination (i.e. the insurance scenario Iceman mentioned), I don’t agree with that being the clearest barometer. I also acknowledge the limitations which exist in the scenario of admission to a bar compared with insurance rates. There is still no way I would be in favor of veiled racial discrimination. If black people in jerseys really cause that many problems for bar owners, then simply don’t allow jerseys. Let someone else open up a bar across the street that allows people to wear jerseys, because as Iceman pointed out there will always be a market for something that isn’t offered currently.
The place I learned about this from was a bar that had 50 cent drafts on Thursday nights. I didn’t drink, but would be the DD for some friends and then later in the night, I would ask people for gas money and basically play illegal taxi. I made decent money doing that.
Anyway, I got to know the bouncers pretty well. I saw them tell somebody they couldn’t wear a sports jersey when i myself was standing there in a Steeler jersey. When they left, I pulled a “WTF” and the bouncer straight up told me it’s to keep out “the people deemed to be looking to fight”… which through further questioning, I found out that what he meant by “the people deemed to be looking to fight” was black people.
The thing was, jerseys was just a general rule. They turned people away for not having a collar on their shirt, having an untucked shirt, and various other reasons. I always felt for the guys I’d see there with a tucked in polo shirt and me with whatever I was wearing that day. He had to notice… HAD to. It was just wrong to me.
Months later, somebody got shot on the dance floor and it made the local news so nobody went back to that place anyway. One thing I can guarantee though… who ever pulled the trigger on the dance floor… WASN’T WEARING A SPORTS JERSEY!