7 Handy Tips For The Gaslamp And Other (Allegedly) Racist Nightclubs
Tips from Tamara Tabo for a Houston nightclub embroiled in a race-related controversy.
The owner of the Gaslamp, a Houston nightclub accused of asking three black attorneys to pay a punitive $20 cover charge not charged to white patrons, now says that he wants to “step out of the whole business.”
However, owner Ayman Jarrah also said in the same statement, “I want to tell people that this story has hurt me more than anybody else.” This sounds like Jarrah may be thinking primarily of economic harms, without appreciating the moral and legal weight of the civil rights violations alleged.
If it’s practicalities Jarrah wants, then it’s practicalities I’ll offer. Below are tips for the Gaslamp’s owner or anyone else running a nightclub that just might be intentionally excluding or discouraging non-white patrons.
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Tip 1: If a novice attorney suggests a “bold” public relations strategy for your blighted business . . . think twice.
Hand-delivering a gift to online commentators, Gaslamp attorney Tim Sutherland posted a YouTube video statement on behalf of his clients. Although Sutherland avers that the Gaslamp did not discriminate on the basis of race in this case, he cheerfully admits that the nightclub discriminates on plenty of other shallow, tasteless bases.
Statement Part 2 from Sutherland purportedly shows security video footage of the three laywers who brought their complaint to the media, though, as attorney and blogger Mark Bennett points out , the footage appears to be strategically edited.
Last week, Jarrah said that he plans to release his own video statement to explain why he now hopes to close down the Gaslamp.
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The truly disastrous never leave “bad enough” alone.
Lesson: Is your lawyer Alan Dershowitz? Gloria Allred? If not, then keep TV and video out of your case. It will not go well for you, no matter how giddy your attorney gets about trying out his new iMovie editing skills. Don’t litigate your case in the court of YouTube unless you are willing to be convicted in that court.
Tip 2: If your novice attorney responds to your legal woes by shrugging and saying, “I don’t get it. I don’t think any laws should even apply here” . . . think twice.
Bless his heart. In his video for the Gaslamp, Sutherland either misapprehends or misrepresents so much law, from local ordinances to 50-year-old federal civil rights law, that one wonders whether he is the Gaslamp’s legal advocate or its worst enemy.
Lesson To Learn: Is your lawyer Clarence Darrow? Have you hired Thurgood Marshall? If not, then get a second legal opinion before trusting that your attorney’s unorthodox legal analysis won’t get you in deep trouble. This isn’t the Scopes Monkey Trial. It’s you trying to keep your business on the right side of the law and the cheaper side of settlements and fines.
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Tip 3: Anybody can be racist.
Gaslamp bouncer Mike Ross responded to accusations earlier this month by posting on his Facebook page:
“My step dad (who’s black if you didn’t already know) and Our family Attorney are addressing the situation. For anyone who actually knows me on a personal level, knows that I am the furthest thing from racist or prejudice .”
Ross also appears in a video showing a separate incident of possible racial discrimination at the Gaslamp. In it, a flabbergasted white woman says that she entered the club for free, but the black women behind her were charged $20.
A bouncer, resembling Ross, blows kisses to the camera and says, “Have a good night in the ‘hood. Tell Tyrone I said ‘hi.’”
No word yet on whether Mike Ross charges his stepdad a cover charge to come over for Thanksgiving dinner, while letting his mom in for free.
Lesson: Do you believe that you or your employees are immune to racist remarks, beliefs, or conduct? Do you believe that a black friend or relative neutralizes all possibility of racism?
In the words of Justice Sam Alito, “Not true.”
Saying “tell Tyrone I said ‘hi’” may not be as virulently racist as four centuries of chattel slavery. But if you think it is “the furthest thing” from racism, you may be confused about where racism is located.
Tip 4: Like the queue for admission to a trendy nightclub, the memory of anyone who believe you wronged them will be long.
Phaedra Cook of the Houston Press investigated other allegations against the Gaslamp and its owner, Ayman Jarrah. Former employees and customers stepped up with accusations including but not limited to withholding wages, slapping a female employee across the face when she tried to quit, paying different wages based on the color of employees’ skin, and, yes, promoting race-based entry policies at the Gaslamp and other establishments run by Jarrah.
Jarrah’s wife served him with divorce papers in July 2015, along with a temporary restraining order. Jarrah was charged with assault of a family member in 2001, though the case was later dropped.
Lesson: Have you possibly mistreated people in the past? Know anyone with an axe to grind? If so, don’t be surprised when these people from your past reappear in your future.
Bonus Tip: Tim Sutherland is listed as counsel in Jarrah’s pending divorce. So, see Tips 1 and 2 tips above.
Tip 5: If the lawyer who says that Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 doesn’t apply to nightclubs tells you that Title VII doesn’t apply either, see Tip 2 above.
A former employee at another of Ayman Jarrah’s bars, Lindsey Schenk, says:
The bouncer/door person was instructed by Ayman to let the white men and women in for free, and to charge anyone black or dark skinned a $20 cover. Ayman would nightly hire pretty girls to dance in the windows of O2 to attract business. White girls were paid $50. Dark skinned/black girls were paid $20.
Lesson: Perhaps you, as a club owner, think, “Hey! At least those black girls can afford to pay the $20 cover they’d be charged if they tried to enter my club as a customer! That’s fair enough, right?”
Trust me: the answer is “no.”
Tip 6: A Screenshot Is Worth A Thousand Words.
Ryan Matthew Matte, a former Gaslamp employee, posted on Facebook screenshots of text messages he claims he exchanged with Ayman Jarrah.
Matte says that Jarrah wanted to give Brandon Ball, one of the three black lawyers raising the controversy, $2,000 to “back off.” Matte also writes in the same post:
I am former management and can testify, and have proof, stating that both Ayman, as well as management gave direct orders to the door staff to not let minorities in, except he used much more vulgar terms.
Lesson: Have you suggested to anyone that you would pay hush money to someone who has accused you or your business of race-based wrongdoing? If so, keep in mind that text messages are not the best medium.
Tip 7: Racism is bad. Ironic racism is worse.
The owner of the Gaslamp is Mohammad Ayman Jarrah, often identified as simply “Ayman Jarrah.”
Jarrah, however, has recently been using the handle “Dave Yurman” in the nightclub business.
Dave Yurman sounds like the kind of guy who might charge Mohammad Ayman Jarrah a cover charge.
Lesson: Are you considering adopting a professional pseudonym that strips away signals of your ethnicity? Are you worried that narrow-minded people might avoid a nightclub run by someone with an ostensibly Muslim or Middle Eastern name like “Mohammad Ayman Jarrah”? Are you one of those narrow-minded people?
If so, expect things to look doubly bad if you implement racist or xenophobic policies yourself.
Tamara Tabo is a summa cum laude graduate of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the school’s law review. After graduation, she clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She currently heads the Center for Legal Pedagogy at Texas Southern University, an institute applying cognitive science to improvements in legal education. You can reach her at tabo.atl@gmail.com.
