Lana H

access denied because of skin color

Dear Hello Peter - Team I´ve always hoped I would never have to take this step to report an incident on social media but what happened yesterday at your club must be spread amongst as many people as possible. Yesterday I was to meet my boyfriend at about 10pm at your establishment. My boyfriend is black. It shouldn´t be necessary to mention this, however, is this story it plays a huge role. I was about 30 minutes late. In this time my boyfriend was waiting outside your club standing on the island across from your club. He could see numerous people walking into the club problem-free. When I finally arrived and got out of the Uber I wanted to enter the club to see if my boyfriend was inside. The bouncer let me in, smiling, when I saw my boyfriend wasn´t there. I turned around and could see him standing across the road. I walked towards him, we greeted each other and proceeded towards the entrance. Again the bouncer wanted to let me in but suddenly, when he saw my boyfriend walking behind me, he suddenly asked for our IDs. We asked why we suddenly had to show our IDs and the only thing he said was: “Sorry, but we need an ID and Copies won't do”. My boyfriend confronted him with the fact that he was standing outside watching Uber after Uber of (white) people entering the club without showing their IDs. I'm almost 30 by the way and my boyfriend in his mid thirties. I'm sure we didn´t look under aged to the bouncers. We spent our evening at a different Bar, but I couldn´t stop thinking and talking about what had just happened. It literally brought me to tears to see someone you love have to go through **** like this in 2017. Before going home, my boyfriend suggested that I go back to your club and he would stay down the road just to see if they Would let me in and like clock work they did let me in without asking for my ID. Dear Arcade team, what we experienced yesterday didn´t just mess up our whole weekend, it made me realize how messed up this world and its people still are. Things like that must not happen any longer, especially in a country with that kind of history South Africa has. P.S neither My boy friend and I are from Africa. I usually party at your establishment with my girls (white people) and we have never been asked to show our IDs and I have a bad taste in my mouth about coming there now. I'll also spread the word to my friends more to come there or to support and established that supports discrimination. The funny thing is this isn't the first time I'm hearing of something like this happening at your establishment. Since others in the pass have kept quite about it, I'll be the first to put it out there. I know what happened is probably not directly the owner´s fault, however, it´s him who needs to make sure that people are being hired who are intelligent enough to know that you don´t deny somebody access to a club because of their skin color.