I myself have been a victim to racism, by the club Libertine.
It was my birthday weekend; I’d heard about it from some other friends that go to these clubs all the time, so I decided to go. Me, a white friend and another black friend got our names on a guest list through one of the club’s promoters, all was good.
We arrived at Libertine, waited in line for approximately 20-30 minutes (which wasn’t too bad) and told the doorwoman which guest list we were in. She looked at us, looked at her clipboard and disappeared inside for about 5-7 minutes. Admittedly, there was a growing feeling of dread. Everyone else had gotten in perfectly fine, had we done something wrong?
So finally, she came out and says “sorry girls, you’re not on the list”, before beckoning the next people behind us forwards. Of course, were like “???” – even after showing her evidence of our booking & confirmation via Instagram DM’s, we were repeatedly told we would not be getting in.
Interestingly, I went back to Libertine another night with a different group of friends, these ones being all white and significantly well-acquainted with most of the club promoters in Mayfair. The experience itself was different: we queued for maybe around 15 minutes and got our ID’s scanned straight away with no problems.
Whenever we see an article or hear a news heading about racism & discrimination in West End nightclubs the DSTRKT racism scandal (two women were denied entry to the club because they were too dark and overweight), regarding its questionable door policies, comes to mind. Considering that was 3 whole years ago you’d think that with all of media attention it received, these sorts of problems would have at least been decreased if not abolished. But no, in 2019 nightclubs are still denying entry & discriminating people of colour.
Clubbing in the West End attracts a certain clientele. Instead of boozy pubs and shoddy student bars are VIP areas offering world-renowned bottle service to an array of stars, footballers, artists, models and top social media influencers. Gone are the days clubbers would buy tickets for clubs on the door. Exclusivity is becoming a gateway to exclusion, with many places like Drama & Tape making entry judgements based on elusive guest lists.
So, what exactly is the problem?
If you are familiar with central London clubbing hotspots, names such as Cirque le Soir and The London Reign won’t be a surprise to hear. However, if you’re anything other than a slim blonde or brunette white girl, there is pretty much next-to-no chance of you entering. Clearly, there’s a growing pattern.
According to VICE, former head of MTV Base Jasmine Dotiwala states:
“The focus of these clubs has stopped being music and dancing and switched to high-rolling banker & city types.” – because of this switch, club owners target audiences they think are more desirable.
They think that their black guests ‘scare and intimidate’ the intended target audience (i.e. wealthy, white, city banker types). Artist manager Fiona Ramsay says she was unsurprised to hear about the happenings at DSTRKT.
“Years ago, as a black person you knew which clubs would let you in. But you stayed away from Chinawhite, for example.” – she told VICE.
Although that’s not to say no black person has ever set foot in any of these clubs, as if there’s some anti-black laser ready to zap guests as soon as they enter the perimeter. On the occasion that black femaleguests are able to get into these places, its usually either due to the ratio of black to white guests or because they look a certain way.
It’s true that scantily clad females that look social media influencer-glam (with their impeccable makeup, trendy/fashionable clothes and unreal figures) are more likely to be admitted entry as opposed to your average black female who doesn’t keep up with these seemingly impossible visual standards.
It’s almost as if having a token white or ‘lightskin’ friend as a black female is your way in, and one club promoter (who would like to be kept anonymous). “You’re very unlikely to be let in if you’re a black guy with a group. If you’re a black girl and you’re with a pretty lightskin girl, they might let you in. They like lightskin girls, it’s cool nowadays.”
A woman, who would like to be kept anonymous, gives a brief account to me of an experience had by her and a group of 9 friends at the nightclub Drama:
“So, there was a group of 10 of us. They said they would only let me and my other mixed-race friend in, but my other friends would have to leave, which were all black girls. At the door we saw the same thing happen with 3 other groups, we were all dressed up nicely and followed the dress code of the club. Same thing happened at Libertine.”
A spokesperson for Libertine said:
“We can categorically state that we do not have a door policy that is based on the colour of people’s skin. If you went through the records on our scanner, you would see how varied our demographic is.” – it seems that their response to claims of blatant racism is ‘because we have previously scanned the ID’s of some non-white people, that means we don’t judge or racially profile our guests’. Hmm.
What is interesting, however, was a comment made further in the public statement:
“If people write in and claim that they have been turned away on the basis of their skin colour, we have invited them to the club to peruse our records and see the evidence themselves.” – implying that this oddly specific example may not just be an example, but a past occurrence. What is even more interesting is the promise of an invite to ‘see the evidence themselves’, because judging by the countless and effectively rising 1* angry reviews by guests, not many people have had this offered to them.
The worst part about this brazen and outright racism from all of these clubs is that they play music cultivated from black culture. They’re so proud of having artists/rappers such as Drake, Rihanna, Migos, Young Thug, French Montana etc, never hesitate to play rap/RnB/trap/hip-hop music but it’s some kind of unseen horror to have their white/European high-profile clients see black clubbers in the same vicinity?
The real question, at the end of all this, is when will it ever stop?
In reality, it never will stop. We, as a black community, have very little effect on those who are richer and more powerful. A lot of people in the industry don’t speak out, because its merely a thing that gets swept under the rug. To some, they don’t see it as much of a problem because they can’t relate – the all too common ‘it hasn’t happened to me, so I don’t care’ mentality is clearly in place.
It’s just a shame to think that in central London, supposedly one of the main places where difference and diversity is celebrated and embraced – especially in 2019 – racism is still such a rampant problem.