For Immediate Release: My Father’s Place Staff Harasses and Evicts Woman of Color
– Not a safe or good place for People of Color
– Racist and reactionary staff
– Actions of racist staff backed up and defended by owner
On Saturday, February 4th at 10pm a woman of color was humiliated and kicked out of My Father’s Place without just cause by the venue staff.
This person was waiting to perform at the comedy open mic at My Father’s Place. After finding a seat and settling in, they approached the bar adjacent to the performance space to order a drink.
While waiting, they noticed the white femme bartender tell a two white masculine persons in front of them about a special on PBR. This information was conveyed to the white masc person in a friendly manner and served to them promptly. When the person of color approached the bar and asked for the same special, the white femme bartender’s demeanor completely changed. They were extremely short and rude with them and told them, “You have to order that in the other room (where the show was).” The person was taken aback/confused but asked for their normal drink order in a calm and respectful tone. They turned around to leave and a large white masc person was standing directly behind them. Frazzled, they accidentally bumped into the them. The woman of color out of frustration uttered under their breath “beeotch…” and went back in the room where they were about to perform the open mic.
They went to their table, and not a minute later, the bartender came storming into the open mic room, yelled in this very quiet space surrounded by audience and other performers, “YOU CANNOT TALK TO PEOPLE LIKE THAT!” and demanded the person leave the bar. The person walked out and was further harassed by the white masc person outside, who claimed that the person of color had “shoved” them and went on to describe how this incident “wasn’t about race.” The woman of color later realized there was no way the bartender heard them mutter that mild curse word under their breath, and that the white masc person they accidentally bumped into must have gone back to tell the bartender what they had said.
The afternoon of Feb.10th the bar manager of MFP called to respond to complaints the person had made with the owner about the incident, and a request that the bartender simply apologize, stating the following in a voicemail: “Hi this is jackie calling from my father’s place, I’m the bar manager. I just wanted to let you know that Linda [the owner] passed the incident over to me, and I’ve asked around, I’ve talked to the comedy host and the cocktail waitress, and and we are going to back Sara Mangus/Sara Mills [the bartender] up on this. I’m sorry you had a bad experience here, but we are going to back Sara Mangus/Sara Mills up on this, and she will not being calling to apologize. Like I said, I’m sorry you had a bad experience, but yeah, but we are going to back her because we feel she was in the right in this situation. If you have any questions you can call and ask for Jackie. Thank you very much, bye.”
Here are a few things we can be certain of:
-The initial treatment of this person was far worse than the white person in front of them in line.
-The bartender’s reaction to hearing SECOND HAND that a mild curse was uttered under their breath as motivation to kick them out is an unreasonable reaction, and based on the initial and immediate mistreatment of the woman of color vs the white person in front of them, it is logical conclusion to make that the bartender is a racist af reactionary, and jumped at an opportunity to kick this person out.
-The owner’s defense of this employee’s actions, after hearing about the incident from the woman of color, is enabling and one might say even encouraging racism within their place of business.
-This situation can be summed up as this: White people using their racist interpretations of a woman of color’s actions (reading reasonable actions as aggressive) to gang up on a woman of color in order to humiliate them and get them kicked from a bar.
Very frequently, when white people interpret a person of color or woman of color as asserting themselves in any way, this is often, either consciously or not, taken as a personal antagonism to the white person and they act out accordingly. Accepting this abusive behavior within our communities is unacceptable. If we wish to push back against this pattern of abuse in Portland, we must support and believe those that call it out.
CALL TO ACTION
We are asking that folks stop going to My Father’s Place, do not support this bar and tell your people not to either. Copy, paste and share this wide.
Call to let them know you are not supporting their establishment [sample call: Hello, I just wanted to let you know that I will no longer be a customer at your bar and will be telling people not to come into your business for your actions of aggressively kicking a woman of color out of your bar without just cause on Feb. 4th.]
Phone: (503) 235-5494
6AM–2:30AM
Racist Portland 