From Jim Crow To Dress Code
How Bars & Clubs Use Dress Codes To Keep Out Young Black Men
Between 1876 and 1965 the United States of America lived by some repugnant and nasty laws called Jim Crow Laws. These laws mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in Southern States of the former Confederacy. In other words, if you were black and in the south between 1876 and 1965, you weren’t permitted in any establishments that were deemed “White Only” by ownership. It wasn’t until the Civil Rights act of 1964 that Jim Crow Laws were banned in the United States, but contemporary establishments have found a cynically creative way to make Jim Crow laws a modern day issue that gets swept under the rug every single day of every single weekend that we decide to party here, or have a drink there. They call it the “Dress Code.”
We see the signs in windows all over the country.
DRESS CODE:
No Knit Hats
No Hoodies
No Timberlands
No Du Rags
No Bandanas
No Baggy Clothes
No Sports Jersey’s
No Skull Caps
Bars, restaurants, and night clubs all over the country create dress codes to keep unwanted people out of their establishments. These unwanted people are young black men who, without any fault of their own, are being discriminated against because of the clothes they choose to put on their backs. Even though we know it’s not just young black men who wear knitted hats or Timberlands, the perception is if you want to keep the young black man away from your store, bar, or nightclub, ban the articles of clothing we see them wearing.
A college bar in Madison, Wisconsin was recently called out by Lisa Wade, a guest contributor for Racialicious.com. She talked about an experience she had at a bar called Brothers Bar, when she took a glance at their dress code and was appalled. They used symbolic codes to warn especially Black members of the non-college community that they’re not welcome: no crooked hats, no skullcaps, headbands, or bandanas, and no sports jerseys.
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She sat outside the bar for a few minutes to watch how the dress code was enforced and found that the dress code was only “strictly enforced” when it came to young black men. But students wearing UW sports jerseys and Bucky the Badger athletic wear were permitted entry with no issues.
Like many young black men, I’ve also encountered the Jim Crow Dress Code. I tried walking into 45th Street Pub in Edgewater Park, NJ to have a few drinks with a buddy, when I was stopped at the door and told I couldn’t enter with the hat I was wearing. I looked around the bar, which was filled with all kinds of hat wearing drinkers. Cowboy hats, hoods, baseball caps, Jeff’s, trucker hats, etc. I just couldn’t understand why my hat was so bad? Do knit hats kill people? Do they start fights? The only crime my hat committed that night was being a popular head garment for young African American men.
Discrimination comes in all shapes and sizes. In today’s society most of it is hidden within secret racially-coded dialogue, which slide under our radar. If a dress code offends you or you feel it could be discriminatory, take a picture, put it on Facebook and get the word out about how you feel. No, you can not make them change their rules, but you can hit them in the pocket and that’s better than sitting alone in your room, hurt because all you wanted was to be treated like everyone else.
words by: Blogzworth Wordsmith
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