NEWS
EVENTS
London Nightclubs Are Still As Racist As Ever
It was only in 2015 that DSTRKT turned away Reshia McFarlane-Tapping, 27 and Tasha Campbell, 28 for being too "dark" and "overweight." Since then it seems as if nothing has really changed.
When four members of the American football team Orleans Saints, and two of their friends arrived at Crique Le Soir in Soho this February they were turned away for being "Too Urban." Mark Ingram took to Twitter to say, "They told us that they were '6 big guys' that are too 'urban,' but nobody (was) taller than 5'11."
If NFL players are 'Too Urban,' then what about the rest of us?
Of course the club has denied Ingram's claims with their own statement , "We would not dismiss anyone as 'too urban' and we would not turn anyone away on the basis of their ethnicity," but DSTRKT also claimed the same thing in 2015. Even though the evidence clearly pointed out the opposite.
But this is nothing new, you just need to take a look online to see stories of clubs discriminating against black people, like Edward Adoo, or YouTube personality Nissy Tee, and this is just naming the ones who come forward. So who knows how many more stories are really out there.
Fortunately artists like Stormzy are bringing these issues to light. In his recent album Gang Signs & Prayer. He raps on the song First Thing First, "Fuck DSTRKT and fuck all these nightclubs / Fuck giving money to people who don't like us."
As Stormzy points out, perhaps the real issue is that we don't have enough black owned businesses. Whether that be clubs or any other commercial businesses.
In comparison to other cities London's black economy is almost invisible, if not non-existent, and seeing successful black people in power is rare to see.
So let's start building up our economic power, let's get to the core of the problem and we can start to see less stories like Ingram's or Tee's.
