I wrote the following on 1/25/15 and waited to post:
Celebrated my daughter's 4th birthday here. It was really a 5 star experience in terms of what I was paying for.
Keoni was handling the party. He was great! Engaging, funny and he remembered many of the kids' names. A really good balance between free-play and organized activity. The kids were laughing and seemed to have a great time - the zip line, trampoline and the slide were very popular. If you have a party here, I would recommend asking if Keoni was available to lead it without hesitation.
They set up everything before we got there, cleaned up and even brought the presents out to my car.
We booked the party online and never having been here or talking to anyone about this specific location. We had been to a different location for a birthday party before. My wife stopped by once just to check the place out a few days before just to get an idea of the space we were working with. She was told we could drop off plates, decorations, whatever anytime beforehand.
This party was really amazing. Relatively stress and complication free.
Why is this only a 1 star review?
I went to drop off some decorations, paper plates, chips etc. a couple days before the party. I was wearing basketball shorts, T-shirt, my long hair and brown skin. There was a class going on so I stood around a few moments hoping to catch the attention of somebody working there. A Caucasian woman who worked there, approached me and says "You can't solicit here."
I let her know I was dropping off some party stuff and she put her hands up to her face and expressed her embarrassment. I just kind of looked at her while she worked on pulling her foot out of her mouth. I left the basket of party things with her and exited.
What happened to asking somebody who walks into a business "Can I help you?"
Perhaps greeting somebody with a "Hi" and getting a feel for why they walked in the door.
We had a great party and came when we were packing stuff up in the car. The girl who insulted me admitted being embarrassed to show her face. I took my basket back and told her I wouldn't be back to solicit anymore. This girl said she was genuinely sorry and explained that somebody had come in to sell stuff to parents during a class before. I told her to take care and left. I let her off easy because I didn't want to ruin a good day.
So despite having what would be a 5 star experience for a birthday party, I am docking off four stars for the RACISM I experienced.
This would not have happened to my very Asian looking wife or any of the White parents of the other kids who attended the party. It probably wouldn't have even happened to me if I was wearing a suit (which I happen to wear everyday for my job as a lawyer where I fight institutionalized racism daily).
I am NEVER returning to this location because of this experience. While people are racist in this way everyday and do not even realize it, this woman probably thinks she is not racist and her explanation that came with her genuine apology allows her to continue believing that she is not. That is why I didn't accept her apology.
For me returning means that I am accepting this apology with explanation. There is no such thing as pleading "guilty with an explanation" when you break the law.
Sorry for ranting on yelp. If I confronted her, my words and tone would have made her cry.
They have great birthday parties here. I just thought you should know this about my experience before you have one for your kid there.
On 1/27/15 I write the following:
I found myself experiencing a great deal of emotional distress over this microaggression against me.
Giving myself a couple days to cool-off, I e-mailed this business and asked to have a meeting with the owner and the person who insulted me. I wanted to explain to them how hurtful this experience as for me and hoped they would appreciate what this interaction truly was - racism.
I received a call from the owner indicating that he did not see the benefit of a meeting. He counseled his employee and they felt really bad about this incident. I was advised that they had solicitors of several ethnic groups come in before (he may or may not have mentioned my specific ethnicity on purpose) and that the employees were instructed to kick said solicitors out. The error involving me is that the employee did not wait to see what I was doing there. The owner indicated that a meeting would just be setting up his employee to an attack.
That was never my intention.
Anyways, I tried to be nice by having a sit-down after my outrage subsided because I believe in listening to other people's perspective.
Being denied this opportunity, I must resort to ranting on the interweb.
I don't think these are bad people or that this act was out of malice. It was an act of racism by a person who may not be a racist. Acknowledge that, apologize, learn and change. read more