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Thursday, November 17, 2005
Street gear ban not necessarily racist
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thomas Hutton likes Kangol hats, and he likes to wear them the way they were intended: turned backward. Mack Daddy style.
One night, he threw on a Kangol and bounced over to Barnacles near Gwinnett Place mall. He got stopped at the entrance. Turn your cap around, a bouncer told him. The sports bar off Market Street prohibits patrons from wearing do-rags, and caps must be worn to the front.
Begrudgingly, Hutton obliged. As soon as he got inside, though, he flipped his cap backward again. Two hours later, a bouncer busted him. Hutton was given an ultimatum: Turn the hat around or leave.
He left.
Hutton of Lawrenceville told me about the incident in an e-mail.
“Rick, does this sound like racism to you?” he asked. “Or am I just overreacting?”
Certain fashion styles conjure up images that aren’t altogether positive. All too often, do-rags, flipped lids, baggy sweats and chains get aligned with thuggery, violence and malice. They send the wrong message.
This season, the NBA adopted a minimum dress code that requires players to wear casual business attire when they participate in league or team activities. Out with the do-rags and gold chains. In with the sport coats and dress slacks.
The NBA is trying to clean up its image and the message it puts forth. Just because a majority of the players happen to be black doesn’t make its actions racist. It’s smart business sense.
Which brings me to Barnacles. It has a dance floor that cranks up at 10 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Because of that, you must be 21 to get in after 9 p.m.
Until then, though, this is a family-friendly joint. A place where Mom, Dad and the brood can eat and play a few games.
“Latinos, blacks, Asians, whites — we get it all,” Ed Subko, the day manager, told me at lunchtime. “We don’t want families to come in here and see people all gangstered up. If they do, they aren’t going to come back. If you walk in here with your family, and everybody’s got their hats turned backwards and do-rags on, would you come back?”
Probably not. Street gear conjures up images of lots of things. Family isn’t one of them. You can call it a style, but it’s still thuggish. Nobody wants to be around it. It gives the impression something unpleasant could jump off at any time, and in any place. Something you don’t want to witness or be a part of.
Like the NBA, the policy at Barnacles definitely targets a fashion that’s been cultivated and embraced by a particular group of people — blacks. But there still appears to be even-handedness. The staff apparently knows not to discriminate, to apply the policy to everyone.
How else could you explain Hutton’s experience? He got stopped twice — at the door and in the establishment. And he’s a white man.
At Barnacles, you either adhere to the rules. Or stay away.
Which, by the way, is exactly what Hutton plans to do.
• Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Reach him at 770-263-3875 or by e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
