Joe Wind had seen racial discrimination at nightclubs before, he thought. Groups of black guys would approach a club door, only to be told they weren't dressed right. Sometimes, he chalked it up to racism. But it had never happened to him. So he never felt called to address it.
But then last November he and a group of friends trekked to The Forum, the trendy spot at Sixth and College streets that opened in September to much fanfare. The guys, all Asians, were barred from entry. The reason? Bouncers wouldn't say initially, according to Wind. He couldn't fathom why. Finally, he figured, they must have been left standing out in the autumn air because of their race. "I knew there was no other answer for it," says Wind, a credit manager in the finance industry.
- Radok
- The Forum's dance floor.
That's just one experience with race in Charlotte nightlife. Then there's Tisha Thompson, a 23-year-old Charlotte native who used to work uptown. She believes blacks are harassed by police and frequently receive poor service at nightspots. "You come downtown, you feel like you're out of place," says Thompson, walking with friends down Tryon Street on a recent Saturday. "Anywhere else in Charlotte, you can fit in."
And here's still another perspective on racial dynamics uptown. Frank King, general manager of the nightclub Menage, has worked uptown bars and clubs for years. He says a club can't stay in business and exclude entire races. "There's really no racism at the clubs in Charlotte. That's just the truth," King says.
How can people who spend so much time in one place arrive at such different conclusions? And be so certain they're right -- and others are wrong?
The same month that Wind says he was turned away from The Forum, an allegation against Menage, the popular uptown dance club, brought to boil a long-simmering debate about racial dynamics uptown. For years, many people of color had been expressing concern that uptown -- a place whites once abandoned -- had grown inhospitable to minorities. The Menage allegation, to some, was just another piece of the puzzle, a manifestation of what seemed patently obvious.
What exactly happened at Menage is unclear, but according to an e-mail written by Angie Drakeford, a co-promoter of the Ultimate Aggie Affair slated to be held at the club last Nov. 19, she and co-promoter Willie Ramey canceled the party as patrons were lining up at the door because of what she vaguely refers to as negative comments made by club management and an unwelcoming atmosphere. But Menage owner, Charlotte attorney Stefan Latorre, has countered in another e-mail that he cancelled the party because what he thought was a private party was in fact an afterparty with an unauthorized $20 cover charge (normal Saturday cover is $10 for men, free for women).
Either way, a lot of unhappy African-American clubgoers were turned away from an event they were eagerly anticipating, further fueling charges of racism on the uptown club scene.
Drakeford declined to discuss the incident, saying attorneys were involved. Latorre has denied the decision was race-related and emphasized his commitment to diversity -- a commitment one of his managers, Ty Ussery, reiterated just last week in a Charlotte Observer guest editorial. Some people have questioned that commitment, though, especially some hip-hop fans still angry over the dismissal last spring of a hip-hop DJ on the club's lower level, which had long been devoted to hip-hop and is now mostly used for private parties.
After the Ultimate Aggie Affair was cancelled, radio DJs on hip-hop station Power 98 began to rail against racism uptown, and some people called for a boycott of Menage. E-mails, such as one recounting Wind's experience, circulated among hundreds of people, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Human Relations Commission began an investigation.
The charges stung. For some Charlotteans, the Menage dispute with promoters confirmed long-held beliefs about the Queen City's nightlife: After dark, conventional wisdom goes, few clubgoers cross the color line. Walk down Fifth or Tryon Street on Saturday night, and you'll likely see a color palette that offers strikingly few hues. You'd never know, judging from uptown Charlotte's nightlife, that blacks, Hispanics and Asians make up more than 40 percent of the city.
For those bred in the South, it might be taken as an article of faith that such division is as seemingly intractable as whites and blacks sitting in different sides of a high-school cafeteria. But for non-natives -- whom Charlotte is attracting in increasing numbers -- this sort of division isn't the norm. Cy Gropper, owner of Hoops & Dreams, a sports bar at Tryon and Fifth streets, says his former New Jersey home didn't have the sort of self-segregation seen in Charlotte on a Saturday night. "You don't find a black club or a white club there," Gropper says.
Gropper's impression ("as a northerner") is that segregation uptown is a Southern thing, not a local phenomenon. But uptown Charlotte has undergone a makeover in recent history that sets it apart from many Southern cities still struggling to revitalize their central cores. Dozens of bars, restaurants and clubs compete for customers. More upper-middle class and affluent whites have returned to the center city, and luxury condos have replaced old, predominantly black, working-class neighborhoods. Everybody wants to stake a claim -- but that's getting harder. "Everybody's focused towards being uptown," says G-Mitch, a promoter. "I don't care what color you are."
- Radok
- The colorful bar at Menage.
Nowhere was that more visible last summer than on the main drags uptown. Cruisers clogged traffic on Tryon Street, and teenage boys -- mostly black -- in long, white T-shirts hung out with friends. All the while, well-heeled -- mostly white -- couples walked to upscale spots to sip martinis and eat tapas. But police cracked down on the cruisers and the teens, denying that race was a factor.
As the weather cooled, the issue diffused somewhat. But then the Ultimate Aggie Affair party was cancelled at Menage, prompting new charges that everyone isn't welcome uptown.
The promoters took their grievance to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Human Relations Commission, whose director expects to finish an investigation within a few weeks. If recent history is any indicator, Menage isn't likely to suffer a stiff penalty even if the charges prove valid. Though the commission may levy a small fine, the more likely result would be an agreement to stop discriminatory treatment, commission director Willie Ratchford says. The city's public accommodations ordinance bars public places from denying a person full accommodations and privileges because of race, color, religion or national origin. But the commission investigates only five or six allegations a year, and an investigation yielding proof of bias is even more rare, Ratchford says.
The commission is waiting to see if Wind files an official complaint before instigating an investigation against The Forum, Ratchford says. It's not likely they'll receive one -- Wind says he just wants to move on. "It's kind of blown over," Wind says. But that last weekend of November he was angry and frustrated. After being told they couldn't enter, Wind claims, the club sent an Asian employee out to talk to the group who told Wind and his buddies that an incident the previous week involving Asians had left the club reluctant to allow Asians in. Wind couldn't believe the bouncers thought they might cause trouble. "I'm not a huge guy," he says. "I don't dress extremely thuggish or look like I could be a liability to anybody."
The Forum's spokeswoman, Carol Adams, didn't want to comment on the record about Wind's complaint but did say three members of its management team are Asian. "They want it to be an all-inclusive club that promotes diversity," Adams says.
The Forum sounded a conciliatory tone in an e-mail to Wind, which stated: "We apologize for the treatment you experienced outside The Forum. The atmosphere that we intend to promote in our venue is one of inclusion, not exclusion, and I'm sorry if you were treated in any manner that made you feel unwelcome. As owners of The Forum, and members of an ethnic minority as well, we can appreciate your concern that you may have been singled out due to your ethnicity ... let me assure you that we have no policy that would exclude anyone due to their ethnic background."
Drakeford won't comment on the Menage or Forum incidents, but she did say she believes clubs are segregated by race, although -- the incident at Menage aside -- she doesn't think it's intentional. "It's just where we are. If you go downtown on a Saturday night, there's still black clubs and white clubs. That's just being honest."
How does that affect perceptions? Well, it can color how people feel they're treated. When Thompson and her two friends received poor treatment at a sports bar, the trio thought racism was to blame. "She wasn't even finished eating," Thompson says, pointing to her friend Keisha. "They just took her food and threw it in the trash." (A handful of bar employees who wouldn't permit us to use their names said some African-Americans may experience poor service because some servers believe black patrons don't tip as well as white patrons.)
Several white club and bar owners declined to talk with us for this story, but a few were refreshingly candid. Gropper of Hoops & Dreams says he's tried to build a diverse clientele but believes many business owners aren't color blind -- and neither are their customers. He describes one fear this way: "If a business owner has too many black people in the establishment, a lot of white people will walk out."
Many factors contribute to the realities and perceptions surrounding segregation in Charlotte nightlife, and theories abound.
One thing that contributes to the perception of racism, says King, is that there are many promoters out there who want to host parties at local clubs, but their party concepts aren't necessarily money-makers so club owners turn them down. "So what happens is, people can't figure out why they keep getting rejected and denied. So obviously, there must be racism," King says. "That's where it all starts."
Of course, music formats play a huge role in determining demographics. Ri-Ra, for example, books live rock acts sometimes; other times, traditional Irish fare plays over the restaurant/bar's speakers. Neither, one hostess says, attracts many black customers. But that's a far cry from intentionally excluding people of color -- all people are welcome, she says.
- Angus Lamond
- Promoter Angie Drakeford and her band the Queen City All-Stars.
Drakeford cites another factor contributing to division: The ubiquity of the so-called "black night." Several clubs are predominantly white three or four nights each week until the night when hip-hop becomes the format du jour. Crowds between the separate nights aren't likely to overlap. "Someone that comes [to a club] on a [predominantly white] college night, you're not going to find that person there on a Power 98 night," says Drakeford. "It's just not going to happen."
Menage general manager King, whose club plays mostly hip-hop and house music, disagrees, saying format doesn't segregate clubs as much anymore. "What drives a club's business uptown is college kids," King says. "Young college kids. Guess what young college kids listen to? Nothing but hip-hop. If I open up a club in Charlotte and I play rock music, I'm dead. If I play white music, I'm dead. It's all about hip-hop. So it would be ridiculous to say that somebody wouldn't play a certain type of music or not want black clientele, you know, for a reason like that." But rock, of course, is hardly dead uptown: Witness Dixie's Tavern or Buckhead Saloon, among others.
Too, there's an unwillingness among many people to step outside their comfort zones, Drakeford suggests. "People in Charlotte are still uncomfortable when they are in the minority -- that's black people, that's white people," she says. "People still harbor stereotypes about a crowd when they see it." Like Gropper, she believes some people will leave a club if they aren't in the majority. "Sometimes that can be based on race."
Michael Smith, president of Charlotte Center City Partners, a publicly funded organization that promotes economic development uptown, says the complaints are something the organization tries to address. "Any time that someone feels something, it's real. You never discount it," he says. "If people are feeling it, perceiving it, then there's something there that is worth understanding. Do I think there is systematic discrimination against any race? No, I don't think there is."
Clubs uptown have "a heavy responsibility," he says. "They have a business that's built on exclusivity. They're trying to remain exclusive. They're able to choose which customers they allow in and which ones they won't. What they're not allowed to do is choose that based on race."
Smith says his organization has followed the complaints closely. "I've talked with the owner of The Forum and the owner of Menage to help them understand that this is an issue that's important to us. They've affirmed that it's important to them."
This month, uptown business owners' commitment to diversity will be put to the test. With the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament coming to Charlotte Feb. 27, bringing with it more than 110,000 fans (and their wallets) from historically black colleges, uptown's image is as important as ever. Bars uptown expect to be packed, Gropper said, and the tournament is expected to inject more than $12 million into the local economy before it ends March 4.
Will visitors be able to find places to party? Historically, Gropper says, black professionals haven't had many options in Charlotte. But King says the presence of thirty-something black professionals at Menage has increased since the now-notorious afterparty was canceled in November. "They all give me the same feedback. They say, 'We think it's great there's no thugs in here, and there's somewhere for us to go," King says. "'Because black professionals, married, mid-30s, we don't have any options in Charlotte.'"
Who's really responsible for the divide? "I do think that the clubs are racially segregated," Drakeford says. "But I blame that more on the people that are here than the club owners. If I'm a club owner, and I put a specific DJ on and I market that event, then I really don't control who comes in.
"If you go to the club, it really should be about the atmosphere and the music. It shouldn't be racially divided," Drakeford says. "I really don't think that a lot of the club owners have intended it that way. We're just a Southern city and things are starting to turn around."
Crush, for instance, recruited DJ Rham from CJ's, the club in the Adams Mark hotel that was an institution among black partygoers. Fridays and Saturdays at Crush once were predominantly white, while Sunday nights were mostly black. But the club is trying to attract an "upscale urban" crowd. The last time Drakeford went there a few weeks ago, there was a new DJ and a racially mixed crowd.
"I was floored," Drakeford says. "Everybody was just having a good time. The crowd was about 50-50, which is rare here. Believe me, I was so happy."
But the biggest catalyst for change could lie in the hands of African-American business owners, says Gropper. "We need some young professional black entrepreneurs downtown. If some black professionals come into Charlotte, open some clubs, maybe that will change."