Filipinos denied entry at a PegCity night club – Is it Racism?
Posted on March 7, 2007
Filed Under City Life
This article was written by Lindor Reynolds, from the Winnipeg FreePress.
Tue Mar 6 2007
A young Asian woman is crying foul after 10 members of her extended family were denied entry to a local club Friday night.
The reason? They couldn’t produce two pieces of photo identification. “I got in. My husband got in and two of my cousins,” says Caroline Velasco, 26. “They just wanted to see our driver’s licences. We showed them. “Half an hour later, everyone else came and suddenly they demanded two pieces of ID. I don’t know if it’s racism or stereotyping. I just think if it was 10 Caucasians, there wouldn’t be a problem.”
The family was gathering to celebrate a birthday.
Jamey Paul, general manager of ‘Coyote’s Nite Club’, hotly denies race had anything to do with the situation. “We’ve got a sign at the front door,” he says. “Everyone is supposed to show two forms of photo ID. Unfortunately there’s so many young people who try to get into a bar even though they’re underage.
“You can fake a driver’s licence. It’s a lot harder to fake two pieces.”
Accepted forms of identification include a passport, certificate of Indian status, Canadian citizenship card, firearms licence or a Manitoba Liquor Control Commission ID card.
MLCC rules state that it’s a bar’s responsibility to ensure bar patrons are of legal drinking age. The minimum standard is one piece of government-issued photo ID.
But Winston Yee, manager of inspection services, says bars are free to set house rules to determine how much identification patrons will be expected to produce.
“If a licensee is not comfortable with the minimum standard, they can ask for more. It is private property although we do license them.”
But Paul was at a loss to explain why Velasco and three other members of her Filipino family were not asked to show anything more than just a driver’s licence.
“We’re supposed to get two pieces,” he says. “I guess sometimes it’s discretion, it’s a judgment call.”
Paul says his club is “the United Nations,” employing people of a variety of races.
“I’ve got an Asian guy on the front door. I’ve got a black guy. There’s no way people are being turned away because of their race.”
Besides, Paul says, it’s the right of a club manager to set any rule he wants.
“If I want to ask for 10 pieces of ID I can,” he says. “I can turn someone away for wearing white sneakers if I want.”
Velasco, a soft-spoken architectural intern, says her group chose to leave Coyote’s when they realized the rest of their family wasn’t going to be admitted. The bar staff returned their five dollar cover fee.
“There was no point in staying,” she says. “This was supposed to be a party.”
Velasco went home after leaving Coyote’s. Her cousins, she says, went to another nearby club and were admitted with only one form of ID.
“I can’t help but think it’s racial profiling,” she says. “People of Asian descent get into a fight at a bar. The next time they don’t want to let in people of Asian descent. They figure there’s going to be trouble.
“I really believe that if my cousins had arrived two at a time instead of in one big group they would have been allowed in.”
Did Caroline Velasco’s family suffer from profiling? We’ll never know. The management of Coyote’s vehemently denies that’s what happened. She’s not convinced.
Velasco’s family did the right thing. They were upset, they left and they spent their money at a different bar. They didn’t raise a fuss or get ugly with the bar staff.
End of problem. Or is it? Do you believe bars profile patrons? Do you think the ID rules are enforced selectively?
Source: www.winnipegfreepress.com
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3 Responses to “Filipinos denied entry at a PegCity night club – Is it Racism?”
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Don’t go where you aren’t wanted. The club has rights. The patrons have rights. The patrons, in this case, handled it correctly and did the right thing.
It is never enough to have people other than white working at your establishment. The owner is the person in charge, not the employee.
One important information that wasn’t included in the article is that yes, they claim they have a sign saying MANDATORY 2 pieces of PHOTO ID required, but they failed to say that they only asked for double PHOTO identification for only some of the club goers. There would have only been a hand-full of people if this rule was applied to EVERY SINGLE PERSON. It is the clubs fault for not being consistent with this in house rule. None of this should have happened if they followed this “mandatory” rule. They either have to re-train their staff or re-staff that place. I understand that they’re just trying to keep the young one with the fake ID’s from getting in. But what about the folks of proper age who just want to give them their business?
Reading the newspaper’s blog, another issue brewed from this article. I think people are being confused thinking this is an article about racism. This article is about “racial profiling” . Another important piece of information that wasn’t presented was that the same bouncer that let the asian woman in with one ID, who denied the other 10 asians demanding 2 photo ID’s, is ASIAN!!! Basically, he thought they’d be trouble makers, so he didn’t let them in. You don’t have to be of colour to be racially profiled.
So true. We hate on ourselves.