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The owner of 12 nightclubs in the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex of Texas has pledged to change the dress code at his establishments after a Black man public complained via social media about being turned away from a Fort Worth bar for wearing basketball sneakers.
Eichel Davis, a Black man who works as a social media manager and video producer for Texas Christian University, was turned away from the Texas Republic bar and restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas for wearing his favorite Air Force Ones. The basketball shoes remind him of his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, Davis said.
In a June 20 Facebook post, Davis said he wore "nice jeans, no tears, nice pullover with no sports team affiliations" and his favorite sneakers to the bar when bouncers outside the bar told him he couldn't come in. They allowed his friend—who was wearing a tank top, shorts and old slip-on shoes—to enter.
"Their dress code restrictions are blatantly racist," Davis wrote in his Facebook post. "No Jordans, no Air Forces, no Timberlands, no sports jerseys, only certain chains and jewelry.... It doesn't take a brain surgeon to understand that these policies are designed to keep minority communities out, and white wash our culture."
"We're asked constantly to strip things from ourselves and our wardrobes that society deems 'too black' and too flashy," Davis continued. "These businesses... profit off [Black] music, our style of dance, our artists, and the appropriated white washed version of how we dress. They want everything people of color have to offer, but not actual people of color."
Davis then wrote an email to Sam Sameni, owner of Entertainment Group, a company that operates 12 DFW nightclubs, including the Texas Republic. Two hours later, Sameni called Davis. They spoke for an hour.
"[Davis] said that he didn't feel like he belonged, and that hit home with me," Sameni told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I'm Persian. I was a student at [Southern Methodist University in Dallas] during 9/11. I remember that. It's hard to know how that makes a person feel."
Sameni said that in 2014 he paid a consulting company to draft his establishment's dress codes—a common industry practice—but he now considers some parts of his dress codes outdated.
Sameni also belongs to a local organization that meets with law enforcement officials to learn the latest fashions of "troublemakers." Members of biker gangs and street gangs might wear a certain color, tattoo or cut of a vest, for instance.
"Non-military issued camouflage. Timberland boots we outlawed because they are heavy. We did the basketball shoes because the resale value on them is so high, we feared fights over them," Sameni told the Star-Telegram.
He has pledged to change the rule about basketball shoes at the Texas Republic, but it's unclear if he'll revise the dress codes at any of his other establishments.
Newsweek reached out to Sameni for further information. This story will be updated with any response.
