I never thought in a million years, after living on this planet for more than 33 years, I'll be here writing about my experience, relating to race in this day and age. But, it happens to me. I want to make sure if anyone with the same skin color as mine wants to go to this establishment, then the least i can do is warn them.
On Sunday, November 26th, 2017, about 8:00 P.M (or a bit later), a friend of mine and I decided to go to the Sandbar for some drinks. Not, my idea to go that particular bar, since my friend wanted to go there, I agreed. Boy, did I regret that decision. Anyway, I walked in the main entrance and I was greeted by a Delray Beach Officer and he asked for IDs. Of course, my friend and I obliged to the request and we proceeded to have a seat near the wall, closest to the ocean (east side).
When I walked inside the restaurant, I saw at least four (4) waitresses standing by the bar, just a few feet from the main entrance. My friend and I sat down, patiently waiting for someone to approach us, but for some odd reason no one ever did. So, after waiting for more than 20 minutes, I began to look around to see what was going, giving the fact that the restaurant was not that busy.
I decided to wait a bit longer, thinking the restaurant staff may have some type of issues that they were trying to resolve. As I waited, I noticed a white couple walked in the restaurant and sat just two tables to my west, about six or seven feet. Immediately upon the couple sat down, a waitress quickly approached them to take their orders. At that point, I got the attention of one of the waitresses that was walking by and I asked how come no one has approached me to take my orders. She replied, I'll get somebody for you. As I was waiting for the waitress to come back, an african american couple that was occupying the table directly to the rear of my table said to me "Look, they did the same thing to me. No one approached us, but they attended to the other white couples.
Now, as an African American man, I quickly noticed a pattern. If this incident was a mistake, why it only happens to african american people. On the same night, it happens to the black couple behind me and me and my friend. When one of the waitress finally came back, five minutes later, I politely asked to speak to a manager. My whole intent was to make the manager aware of the situation, so that kind of incident doesn't happen again.
The manager, who i can 't remember his name, showed up about five minutes later. The moment I saw him walking towards me, his demeanor, the eyes rolling, I knew he did not want to hear anything I had to say. I'm not an expert in body language, but it was clear to me that he knew what my complaints might entailed. I explained the situation to him anyway. Before, I can finish explaining the situation to him, he yelled "Nice try, playing the race card is not going to work on me." He then slammed his fist on the table and waled away.
My friend and I got up and began to exit the establishment, when I saw him chatting with another person, as if the whole situation was a joke to him. I approached him and I asked him if I can get his supervisor's name. He went off on me, yelling and screaming at me, calling me a drunk, asking me what do I do for a living, who's my boss. He then called the officer and threatened to trespass/ban me from the restaurant. Other patrons in the restaurant was in disbelief as they witnessed the MANAGER of the store, acting in that manner. The officer that was there, noticed what was going, he approached me and asked to hear my side. I spoke to the officer for a few minutes and then I left.
From the beginning to the end, I felt this was something that either that establishment encourage or that particular crew with that manager agreed to do. I lived right on the edge of Delray, my whole family live in Delray, my friends lived in Delray. For anyone or business to think that they can encourage that kind of racist behavior and get away with it, they have another thing coming.
as an Haitian American, if that kind of place is till exists and the City of Riviera Beach allowed that kind of place to operate within the city, then the least they can do is put that sign "NO BLACKS ALLOWED". that way we can deal with that establishment properly. It seems to me, lately people are more open to being separatist. But, I'll be damn to ignore such disgrace so close to home. read more