March 5, 2008
Murray Hill Bar Pays $35K for Barring Black Patrons
According to its website, Murray Hill's Tonic East “is the most well rounded sports bar in the area, with an attractive scene of locals.” But it seems black was not deemed beautiful by the management: they recently agreed to settle a discrimination lawsuit brought by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to the tune of $35,000.
Responding to complaints from blacks who say they were denied entrance “based on violations of the unwritten dress code,” Cuomo’s office dispatched two black investigators to Tonic East last September, where they were turned away, ostensibly for wearing baggy pants and sneakers. But two similarly dressed white investigators were warmly welcomed inside the Shangri-La of sports just a week later.
According to court papers, Tonic East has agreed to retrain employees and impose a dress code that will not discriminate. But general manager Lindy Tsetseranos insists they never discriminated, citing a party for Barack Obama supporters in February and the bar's black bouncers. Also, some of Tonic East's top MySpace friends are black, too! And there is even photographic evidence of a black patron on their website, though nightlife blogger Down By The Hipster darkly cries Photoshop.
|
There are plenty of unspoken black-only and hispanic-only clubs in NYC. Why can't there be a white-only?
if they just turned everyone away from tonic the world would be a better place.
First, fuck the blight on the neighborhood that is Tonic East. $35k? How about shut the monstrosity down?
Second, comment #1 has got to be kidding. Though, with the stupidity of people on "the Internets," one can never be too sure.
"I'm not racist! My friend is black! So is the bar we serve drinks on! We love black!"
bars and clubs discriminating based on your attire has been around forever. why is it an even an issue?
Your name is idiot, apparently.
35k seems kind of light...
Leave it open, it least it keeps the collar-popping, abercrombie and fitch douchbags in one concentrated place.
I really hate that bar anyway... I'm glad to see them fined.
"There are plenty of unspoken black-only and hispanic-only clubs in NYC."
Are there? Please, give a few examples of places with a door policy that turns away whites ostensibly because of dress code violations while allowing similarly-dressed people of other races.
There may be plenty of places that you choose not to go to because the crowd is exclusively black or exclusively hispanic, and even where you might not feel welcome if you do enter... but that's a different thing.
Gotta love those internal server errors. Anyone over there at Gothamist HQ knows how to run a website?
Anyhow, this is yet another example justifying my hatred for the entire east side above 14th street.
This bar is in Murray Hill? would be more appropriate North of 72nd. Is MH the next up and coming neighborhood?
Did they send in the investigators from Seinfeld when elaine complained? Anyway, glad they did.
Now where am I supposed to get my drink on?
So, racism only costs $35K these days?
Looking at the photos, I can't imagine any black people would want to go and hang out with a bunch of white college kids who are probably from Kansas.
Lily-white joints like TE and the other lame haunt on the upper east side make me want to hurl my fritos.
I love comments like "this is why I don't go to bars in *neighborhood X*."
Newsflash: the bars wherever you live are full of fuckheads. They might be abercrombie, or gangsta, or wall street, or hipster. They might be black, white, asian, indian, or some kind of space elf from under the sea. Could be a sports bar, a club, a dive, a wine bar, an underground venue, your your friend's house ... Doesn't really matter. Places where people drink, the world over, are full of fuckheads.
Welcome to humanity.
Actually there are some places in Queens I prolly couldn't have gotten into as a Whitey without my Mexican escort.
This isn't such a clear cut case. Patrons were turned away based on dress code, and perceived it was based on race. A week later, a couple of white investigators got in wearing similar clothing. Could that suggest racism? Absolutely. It could also just be a failure to enforce a dress code policy. I'd be more interested in knowing if blacks wearing business casual attire, which seems to be the standard claimed by the bar, were excluded.
There are African Americans, Mexican Americans,
Asian Americans, Arab Americans, etc., and then there are just Americans.
You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction. You Call me 'White boy,' 'Cracker,' 'Honkey,''Whitey,' 'Caveman' ... and that's OK.
But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towel head,
Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink ... You call me a racist.
You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?
You have the United Negro College Fund.
You have Martin Luther King Day.
You have Black History Month.
You have Cesar Chavez Day.
You have yom hashoah.
You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi.
You have the NAACP.
You have BET.
If we had WET (White Entertainment Television) we'd be racists.
If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists.
If we had White History Month , we'd be racists.
If we had any organization for only whites to 'advance' our lives we'd be racists.
We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce. Wonder who pays for that?
A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant, but any color can be in the Miss America pageant.
If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships you know we'd be racists.
There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US. Yet if there were 'White colleges' THAT would be a racist college.
In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights.
If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists.
You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.
You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.
I am proud. But you call me a racist. Why is it that only whites can be racists?
This is just more Affirmative Action the entitled.
35k is a very slight fine.
Pray for snoopy.
"You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us."
You enslave us for hundreds of years, rape our women, children and wipe out entire generations of our people and destroy an entire continent to help support your economy, and still treat us like 2nd class citizens.
I say we're about even. =)
You enslave us for hundreds of years, rape our women, children and wipe out entire generations of our people and destroy an entire continent to help support your economy, and still treat us like 2nd class citizens.
How old do you think we white people are, anyway? I'm pretty sure none of us were alive during the incidents you describe. Hell, my ancestors weren't even in America at the time.
Ahh, this place is awful. I was roped into going there once for happy hour, never, ever again. I'm certainly not surprised about the charges that are being brought against this hellish place which belongs within a gigantic mall in middle America. Ew. Their only saving grace was semi-decent pub grub. But the horrible music and clientle, ack.
Wow Snoopy, who knew that exposing a crappy club for blatant racist practices would provoke a diatribe right off of one of Jerry Springer's "I'm in the KKK and Proud" episodes.
I guess letting black people into Tonic East was just the last straw huh?
I don't know about you, but I remember getting stuffed into a slave ship bound for America. Getting ripped from my family and sold into bondage can be kind of a bummer.
"You have BET."
Unfortunately ...
Yes.
"I'm pretty sure none of us were alive during the incidents you describe. Hell, my ancestors weren't even in America at the time."
And yet you're still a racist.
You are my hero Snoopy.
And to Kojak, stop acting like second class citizens and they will stop treating you like that.
They could have spent far less than $35K by just installing a metal detector at the door, which would have solved their problem and avoided all this bad press.
"And to Kojak, stop acting like second class citizens and they will stop treating you like that."
Its common for the acts of some to reflect badly upon an entire race, an idea you seem to be reinforcing.
you guys are fighting about racism in a shitty bar? move on.
Why would blacks want to go into TE? Cute girls...
This "sting" by the AG does smell of entrapment, especially if the groups were sent a week apart.
Why would blacks want to go into TE? Cute girls...
This "sting" by the AG does smell of entrapment, especially if the groups were sent a week apart.
Snoopy, since you and LLama seem incapable of understanding the basics:
Things like BET and Black History Month, etc were created after generations in which every month was white history month, and every channel would be the white channel. But you knew that too.
Calling you a whitey or a honkey is not okay. It's racism. But you knew that. You were just hoping it would give you permission to be a racist. Which, surprise, surprise, you are.
I've walked by Tonic East many times and a number of their absolutely gigantic doormen are black. I wonder how they feel about this. Did anyone ask them whether management said, "Don't let any black people in because your kind are unwelcome. Oh, and keep up the good work"?
Murray Hill is for douchebags who think they are better than everyone. I agree, keep the place open so that they are concentrated in one place.
Several readers have been challenged to name a bar that discriminates against white people.
Try wearing Abercrombie and Fitch and getting into Escuelita (a gay club with a primarily black and latin clientelle in midtown). You will be told the club is full. Watch ten people come out, and ask if there is room then, and you will be told it is still full. Walk away, and watch other people get in.
It happens (probably not as often as the other way around).
you're kidding right?
I don't believe that Snoopy's diatribe is racist. It rightfully espouses a disconcerting and divisive double standard. There really is no such thing as 'race'. 99% of the world's human population come from Asia Minor, so there is only one human race. The concept of race is a purely human construct which divides us people. It is a sordid business, as groups and classes of people form without any true biological basis, with the resulting groups clamoring for attention to the exclusion or detriment of others. A world of one race would liberate all of us.
A week later? A day later? How about trying the same thing hours later? What the fuck.
Tonic East may be the worst bar in the entire city.
They're really doing black people a favor if they don't admit them.
i walk with a limp from a spinal injury and they didn't let me in because the bouncers made a decision i was wasted and was lying to them. mind you it was 8pm. i threatened to report them to the better business bureau but ended up not doing anything. I'm glad they got fined although 35k is nothing.
That place is just a(insert your favorite long island or new jersey town) high school reunion.
fuck em.
Randomdilemma; if they're really keeping you out because you're white, and not because they're snobbish about your A&F prepster style, then that's racism, and if it upsets you enough, you should fight it. Seriously.
What white people don't seem to understand is that no one out there is saying that racism against whites is good (except for racists, of course); it's just that you have to come up with real examples of racism, not the existence of Black History Month, or BET, for pete's sake, because that just makes you sound like a whining Klansbaby.
Geez, and here I thought Snoopy was just your run of the mill instigating troll. Turns out he's a white power asshole?
snoopy please leave us asians out of this. we get discriminate by everyone and by the state(affirmative action).
poor, oppressed Snoopy. I had no idea that white people getting called "Cracker" was OK until I read his post. Guess you learn something new every day.
Armchair,
I really didn't mean to bring in the whole oriental (oops I meant Asian) thing, I'm sorry. I really feel sorry for all those delivery guys that work hard day in and day out, unlike some other ethnic groups that don't work at all, unless one considers criminal activity a job.
Kojak and Virg,
Get a plane ticket to Liberia.
Thanks for the support Llama.
Why, what's in Liberia, Snoops, ol' bean?
Snoopy, the National Association for the Advancement of White People was founded in 1980 by an associate of David Duke, former KKK Grand Wizard. I would suggest you look into joining--you'd fit in well there.
I know of a restaurant- bar that only serves
Koreans in the shadow of our Empire State building.
No English menu's .
Is that as bad as Tonic?
"Tonic" is French for "douchebag" . If black people want to mingle w/ white people, there are far better places to go.