Mother's Bar Racist? Club Accused Of Denying Entry To African-Americans

A popular Chicago bar is facing allegations that it denied entry to black patrons on account of their race.

Six black students at Washington University in St. Louis claim that bouncers at the Original Mother's bar on Division Street refused to let them in Saturday night because their pants were too baggy, even though similarly dressed white people were admitted.

The six black men reportedly offered to change their clothes, but still were not allowed in. They were part of a group of nearly 200 classmates in town for a senior class trip.

In a press release posted on the Windy Citizen, class president Fernando Cutz claims that a white student switched pants with one of the African-American students who was denied admission as "an experiment." According to Cutz, the white student wearing the supposedly offending pants was let in without any problems.

"I think it's because we were a group of predominantly black men and they felt threatened," senior Blake Jones told Student Life, a school paper.

Club representatives told the Tribune it refused to let the men in because of security concerns, citing recent gang activity in the area.

When called by the Huffington Post, a Mother's employee, who did not identify himself, said the company was waiting on its attorneys to make a statement and hung up.

An anonymous review of the bar on Citysearch from 2008 made a similar allegation of racism.

"The bouncers are ignorant and biased against people of color," the reviewer wrote. "They denied my husband access due to his wardrobe my husband changed his clothes and meanwhile they allowed a white man to enter even though he had on gymshoes like my husband did."

In response, the Washington University students filed a civil rights complaint with the Illinois attorney general's office and additional complaints with the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and the U.S. Justice Department.

Comments

[pakibrat]

08:54 PM on 11/11/2009

I am from Chicago. This is an extremely diverse city, yet sadly so so so sooo segregated­. I just don't understand how the management had the audacity to claim the decision had no underlying racist attitudes attached to it. If it was not racist, they should have let those Black students in who were willing to change their clothes. I am studying the effects of racism in American society today and it sickens me how common it is. People use cultural references and stereotype­s to justify their covertly racist attitudes. There are gang members of every race. Yes, some African -Americans have some gang affiliatio­n. But, they make up such a SMALL percent of the Blacks in America as a whole. That's like saying all Muslims are terrorists­! There are 2 billion Muslims in the world, yet less than 1% of them participat­e in terrorist activities­. But, what you see in media outlets are just Muslims being terrorists­. And that is so parallel here. We all just see Blacks as violent thugs committing heinous crimes and being violent. People need to understand that one cannot make a judgment on a person based on PRECONCEIV­ED NOTIONS. There are people who live in upper middle class, wealthy suburban BUBBLES-- who judge those around them. Make friends with these people, learn about their beliefs and ways of life. Being cultured will easily arm you with the tools to deal with people of many different walks of life! :)

[boogieoogie]

08:54 AM on 10/27/2009

Now the entire country is staring at them and watching their every move. Do you really think that after everything calms down that they will not go back to the same behavior??­??
I want to know if the bounce got fired or not.

[eyepatch]

07:54 PM on 10/26/2009

This has been practice on Rush and Division since
the 70's, most of those bars in area do that to most
black MEN.....Bl­ack women on the other hand that are
"appropria­tely dressed" are let in....

They say they do this to deter trouble...­..
but that truly has never been a problem down there

[zeke67]

04:16 PM on 10/26/2009

In the famous words of Chuck D, "Shut 'Em Down!!!"

[Silas Barnaby]

04:54 PM on 10/26/2009

Actually Chuck said "Pull 'Em Down!" And he was talking to Flava Flav.

[zeke67]

11:37 AM on 10/27/2009

I bet you were there for sl0ppy sec0nds.

[D0705]

03:04 PM on 10/26/2009

I think that it is extremely disappoint­ing that so many of you are so quick to judge. All of the facts have yet to be released and as of now this is a one sided story. If anyone has been to that bar before, you would know that there are African American's in there all the time... The week before, a young man was shot in the face to death at a nightclub in Chicago. If that were the case here, everyone would be saying how security isn't tight enough.

Just think everyone shouldn't be so quick to judge until all of the facts are released.

Also, don't think that anyone else realized, that those jeans aren't the "same" pair of jeans that they are insisting. The bottom of the white guy's are all ripped up. You would have noticed that in the other picture if they were in fact the same pair.

[zeke67]

04:18 PM on 10/26/2009

I don't think the pictures on the flyer are of the same people from the night in question. I could be wrong.

[Roshnika]

10:09 PM on 10/26/2009

As a student at Washington University in St. Louis, I can assure you that the students in the picture are the ones who tried the exchanging pants experiment to see how the club discrimina­tes with their so called "baggy pants policy".

For Do705's comment, Washington University­'s senior committee arranged this event beforehand with the bar, so this bar knew that approx 200 students were attending. Yet they still refused to let 6 black males enter, even though 2 of them organized this trip.

[LisainNYC]

08:16 PM on 10/26/2009

Couple of things:

The article does not claim that the individual­s pictured are the ones who switched pants.

You write: "The week before, a young man was shot in the face to death at a nightclub in Chicago." Inclusion of this irrelevant fact implies that black men are more likely to shoot someone in the face.

The reason this is a one-sided story is that the bar refused to comment while it waited for advice from its attorneys.

[CobaltMoon]

01:20 PM on 10/26/2009

Mother's? Really? They did the same thing to a group of us 22 years ago. A racially mixed group of folks, after work, in corporate drag, trying to take advantage of the 50 cent per shot happy hour. What a comfort to know that some things remain the same......­...

[BlueFloyd]

01:08 PM on 10/26/2009

no surprise that the raycyst bar is on RUSH Street!!!

[lackey]

01:32 AM on 10/26/2009

What?!? Racism still exists??? Who knew?

[PhineasGage730]

02:09 PM on 10/26/2009

You're right, we should just stop reporting it.

Id!ot...

[LMPE]

10:49 PM on 10/25/2009

Hey Mother's Bar! Shouldn't you move to South Carolina or something?

[sski74]

09:48 PM on 10/25/2009

What?!?! A bar/club turning people away based on ra ce, gender, looks, perceived se xual orientatio­n, perceived amount of money in their pockets?!?­!? NO WAY! I am SHOCKED! (rolls eyes) It's so sad that this is allowed, and even more sad that people continue to support these establishm­ents when they know there is dis criminatio­n.

[That Jerk]

09:04 PM on 10/25/2009

If you wanna know how lame this bar is watch the lame 80's Demi Moore/ Rob Lowe/ Jim Belushi flick "About Last Night." Many of the same people that were 25 years ago are still there except they are now 50 and on their 8th marriage. Sad sad.

[TrueBlueDemMI]

09:00 AM on 10/26/2009

Amen and thank you! Mother's and just about every bar on Division and Rush are the most pathetic hang outs for overgrown frat boys and shrieking sorority women.

Racism is a serious issue, but those bouncers did those six men a favor.

[jclaireburke]

08:56 PM on 10/25/2009

Does not surprise me one bit about any bar in the Rush Street area.

[Silas Barnaby]

04:49 PM on 10/25/2009

I think people should have the freedom to allow whoever they want into their establishm­ents.

[mamalisa38]

05:59 PM on 10/25/2009

Do you think we should have separate drinking fountains too?

[Alexis Dixon]

07:02 PM on 10/25/2009

This made me lol & smh simultaneo­usly. Silas, you need to go somewhere. Mamalisa, nice one!

[Silas Barnaby]

09:14 PM on 10/25/2009

There's no such thing as public drinking fountains anymore. I wonder why?

[milliebill]

11:46 PM on 10/25/2009

you suck.

[donna16]

03:23 PM on 10/25/2009

Damn, When I used to go to Mothers Mr. T was the bouncer.
wow that was like a million years ago.

[Mafdet]

11:50 AM on 10/25/2009

My niece and her freinds - young white profession­als - lived in that neighborho­od and I asked them once, when I wanted to entertain clients there, what they thought of Mother's. As a chorus they sang: Tedious.

I thought that was hilarious - not a word one usually hears in a pub review. But now it makes sense.