New businesses do not need bad press. Unfortunately, ReBar, a fresh from the womb gay bar in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, is at the center of discrimination allegations after a number of posts claim patrons were being racially profiled by the club's bouncer.
The complaints have become a veritable social media movement, with many threatening to boycott the bar, as well as encouraging others to, with hashtags like #boycottrebar, #rebarsowhite, #rebarnycnotforme.
The Facebook comments from one patron, Ian Alexis, have been shared the most about Rebar.
Edugaytion.com did the leg work and sought out a response to the allegations from Rebar and found …
After catching wind of these disturbing allegations against Rebar NYC, Edugaytion.com decided to reach out to their management for a statement. A self identified manager of Rebar NYC said over the phone:
"We have no statement. The situation is not real… We're not going to give it credence at all…"
And when asked to expound upon 'the situation':
"We do not want to expand upon that. If we did, we would do it online." – edugaytion.com
We haven't seen anything online except … well just one hour ago, Rebar posted:
We understand that patrons were made to feel unwelcome during our opening weekend. That was never our intention.
We invite you to experience REBAR and welcome any feedback. – Rebar Facebook page
With people trolling them pretty hard, with one commentor typing on every post "They hate black people," do you think the minority crowd will give Rebar another chance?
Many are speaking of the archaic dress code policies and no hats after a certain hour, seeing pics of opening night with all white crowd present, as well as pics of the all white staff (I thought a couple might be Latino, but I don't want to rock the boat).
Before we share some of the other comments from out on the web …
Do you think all bars needs to have a mixed staff?
Does a bar in 2017 need to have a dress code shunning things like hats?
Do you think it is the bar's mentality to have less minorities represented?
Have you been racially profiled and not let into a gay bar?
Click on images for larger view.
Comments placed on Rebar Facebook page and around the web.
h/t: mic.com, edugaytion.com
I’m getting really tired of
I'm getting really tired of ppl of color thinking it's a race thing when in photo there are no ppl of color. Well there are black bars and you don't hear anyone crying about that so come one now get over it.
People keep confusing
People keep confusing privately owned businesses with the Federal Government. If it's YOUR business…you can run it the way you want. You want an all white staff…it's your business who you hire and why. This push to make everything into a rainbow of progressive ideology is getting out of hand. Where does it all end ? Should everybusiness be required to hire someone of color, plus one disabled person, (2) women, (1.5) unwed mothers, (3) Muslim immigrants and someone who suffers from mental illness ? What about PRIVATELY OWNED business do people not understand ? If you don't like the way they run it….DON'T GO ! * simple*
News flash: when people open
News flash: when people open a bar or restaurant they usually want to attract people who are like themselves because that's who they want to be with. Maybe you think no hats is ridiculous but they're entitled.
There's a lot of big problems here: discrimination is a horrible thing, but just to talk about this situation in terms of discrimination is naive and stupid. Straight bars and restaurants get away every single day of the week with catering to one ethnic or social group or another, not because they set out to discriminate but because birds of a feather like to flock together. In a more Ideal World there would be bars run by every ethic and social group for people like themselves AND there would be bars for people who like to mix in with everybody else. Certainly if a gay bar is for cruising you're going to leave that most of the people are not people you want to fuck,
“We have no statement. The
"We have no statement. The situation is not real… We're not going to give it credence at all…" This is short sighted. I seems as though something did happen intentionally or unintentionally. Fix it or your business might not be profitable and end up being short lived in any case, the bar´s reputation is is not very positive. Nof off to a good start.