Restaurant fires two managers for barring black child over clothing

[groundloop]

Source: CBS News

A restaurant group has fired two managers and apologized for what the company calls "an incredibly disturbing incident" at one of its Baltimore eateries in which a black woman and her nine-year-old son were denied service due to the boy's clothing.

In a video posted lated Monday on social media, Marcia Grant said she and her child, Dallas, were repeatedly told by a manager at Ouzo Bay in Baltimore's Harbor East neighborhood that they could not eat there because of its dress code prohibiting athletic wear. The video, which shows Grant's son wearing sneakers, gym shorts and an Air Jordan T-shirt, also recorded another child, who was white, in a similar outfit at the end of his meal at an outside table.

"It's hard" Grant said on Instagram of having to see her child "upset because he knows he's being treated differently than a white child."

Two managers involved in the incident have been fired following an internal investigation, according to Atlas Restaurant Group, which operates Ouzo Bay as well as 19 other restaurants in Florida, Maryland, Texas and the District of Columbia. The Baltimore-based company had also tried to connect with Marcia Grant and her son, but had been unsuccessful, it added in an emailed statement to CBS MoneyWatch.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/restaurant-fires-managers-barring-black-child-clothing/

[Lonestarblue]

1. This sentence just explained things.

“Atlas is co-owned by brothers Alex and Eric Smith, whose father, Frederick Smith, is a vice president and director of the Sinclair Broadcasting Group, an operator of conservative-leaning television stations around the country.”

[PSPS]

2. Sinclair has purchased most of the ABC TV and radio affiliates in the US

And, as usual, they send out "must broadcast" (propaganda) pieces daily to their stations that the on-air talent has to read or they get fired.

[onenote]

16. Sinclaiar is the biggest owner of ABC TV affiliates, but it doesn't own "most" of them.

There are over 240 tv stations affiliated with AbC. Sinclair owns and operates around 40 of them. Gray Broadcasting, the second largest owner of ABC affiliates, has around 30 such stations.

[cstanleytech]

3. To be honest I kind of doubt that they had anything to do with it as

it could expose them to alot of legal problems.

[jayfish]

4. Yeah, And They Get Off Scott-Free By,...

exempting "children under the age of 12 from its dress code". While the, probably barley above minimum wage, managers who attempted to interpret and implement the rules get f'ing fired. Despicable.

[getagrip_already]

7. but those managers aren't just victims here....

There were two kids dressed in similar ways. Only one was thrown out.

That is what is despicable. Now if there are reasons that blame should be shared, go for it. But the decision by the managers was racist and it doesn't matter how confusing the rules were.

[jayfish]

8. I Was Just Going To Leave This At "We Disagree". Now That You've Garnered Some Support, However,...

Last edited Tue Jun 23, 2020, 07:08 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm going to try to get real here. The idea that anyone on DU would support the owners of these establishments over the rank and file who work there is surreal. And make no mistake, if you aren't the owner you are rank and file. You think the people who have been affected more than anyone by COVID, in a shite industry to begin with, are going to bite the hand that, barely, feeds them by loosely interpreting the rules? The same people who didn't work from March to June and are probably on reduced hours now? These rules, from another restaurant owned by the same group, were posted on Twitter long, long, ago and were roundly ridiculed. You know what? They kept the rules in place. The disconnect from reality here kills me sometimes. Have you ever worked in the restaurant business? If not I invite you to watch a couple videos on the subject. Though not to the same extreme, the idiosyncrasies exhibited by these owners match what I've seen at every restaurant I've worked for and what I've heard, anecdotally, from others.

&list=PLFtpZ659RpvEuqJ-hr7lUxVt2h5AWJEH0&index

[artemisia1]

14. Chill, Dude. The managers had a CHOICE not to apply a racial double standard. /nt

[cate94]

9. +1000

Edit to add: I agree with getagrip already,

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

11. I HEARTILY second your agreement with Getagrip! I remember the things my family told me about NOT

being able to eat at cafes, diners & restaurants. My Grandparents, mom, (Rice TX) & her siblings were born in Navarro, county TX but they relocated to Tulsa OK. When they wanted to go back to TX to visit their relatives, my grammy would fry up a couple of chickens, bake loaves of bread, (later on, she would buy a few loaves of "wonder bread", [EWWW!!}), make up potato salad & raw veggie salad, cut up fresh fruit, (Grandpa was a MASTER gardener), sometimes, bake a sweet potato pie & make up lemonade & sweet tea. Why?, you might ask? Well, it was because they WEREN'T allowed to stop off to rest &/or buy anything to eat.

Grandpa would drive STRAIGHT through to TX & was so used to doing that that he could & DID drive STRAIGHT through with a couple of rest stops to catch a few &/or relieve himself & stretch his legs from TULSA OK TO LOS ANGELES CA, to visit my us, (I live up north now but I was born & spent the majority of the 1st 13 years of life in SoCal).

[brush]

12. Nah. Those two idiots needed to be fired. A white kid in similar attire was already...

eating there. That's called racism.

[artemisia1]

15. Exactly. Double if they were "just following orders"... /nt

[tulipsandroses]

5. When I first saw this video, the first thought that came to my mind was - I wonder if this manager

considers himself as racist, along with the employee who first told them they could not dine there. I bet they belong in the I'm not racist, I don't have a racist bone in my body camp. And probably really believe it. Probably really thought, hey we are just doing our jobs enforcing the company policy.

What speaks volumes though, is how oblivious they are to the white child's clothing vs their heightened awareness to the black child's clothing.

Its the same mentality that results in the disproportionate # of blacks arrested.
Whites more likely to be hired over blacks when qualifications are the same
Whites more likely to get loans when credit is the same
We can go on and on.
But hey. We are not racist right?

[Sucha NastyWoman]

6. When I watched the video I thought the employee realized halfway through that

The mother was right, that her argument was obviously correct, but he had already committed and would be too embarrassed to admit he was wrong and apologize, I think he probably now wishes he had swallowed his pride and done just that.

[MuchBetterThanThis]

13. I concur.. If you can't understand what happenned then you haven't been a black person

You don't need identify as a "racist" to be one. Much of it is inbred or a result of one's upbringing. You treat others unlike you differently and in this case, negatively

[dem4evah]

10. buncha vermin...

Kids of a Sinclair Broadcasting big wig? About explains it....money can't buy you love or class.

[Maraya1969]

17. Here is a list of their restaurants...............restaurants to avoid.

Founded in 2012 with the opening of

Ouzo Bay in Baltimore’s Harbor East neighborhood, Atlas Restaurant Group now includes

Azumi,
The Bygone,
Tagliata,
Italian Disco,
The Elk Room,
Harbor East Delicatessen,
Ouzo Bay

(Baltimore, MD and Houston, TX) and

Loch Bar (Baltimore, MD, Houston, TX and South Florida).

EDIT: You might want to leave a review for one of the restaurants and specify that they are owned by racists. A friend just did.