Joe Russo, who is white, owned Funky Buddha until 1998. Today he owns The Shrine, a club and live music venue in the South Loop. Its name is homage to late Afro-pop superstar Fela’s Nigerian club. On this Tuesday afternoon, Shrine employees move furniture to prepare for hip-hop group Dead Prez.
On many nights, The Shrine boasts a diverse crowd. Russo says other nightclub owners don’t always see the value of diversity.
RUSSO: The biggest obstacle in creating a diverse venue is conquering the fears that have been sort of set up in society to keep people divided. A lot of times people, if they don’t know what something’s like, they go on the typical stereotypical opinion of what things should be.
Fortunately, again, with The Shrine live music helps conquer those fears.
Across town, Joel Barnes is the general manager of Lumen, a nightclub off of west Fulton Street. It’s the middle of the day, lights on, slate-colored couches in full view. They’ll be danced on later. Barnes has worked in the club scene in Chicago for years and says there’s a troubling undercurrent to the racial profiling he’s seen.
BARNES: I know that there are racist owners. I know there are racist managers, racist bartenders, racist servers, racist people in Chicago period. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, unfortunately. Unfortunately, what people don’t understand is that people that are put into the power in these businesses sometimes are just doing what the population of people want.
Barnes says he works hard to maintain a coolness factor at Lumen and that brings diversity.
Teddy Gilmore, the longtime black promoter, has had his share of run-ins with law enforcement and skittish venue owners. He once picketed a downtown Chicago hotel that reneged on a contract because he says management feared so-called gang activity.
Gilmore says he has an easier time when he throws parties across the country and overseas.
GILMORE: I’d be a millionaire ten times over if Chicago wasn’t the way it was.
But the issue is bigger than money for Gilmore.
GILMORE: People say ‘oh, it’s just a party.’ And while that may well be true, there’s more to it than that. Because you have to also be able to see the different things that are going on. How the people are actually looking at you, how people are judging you.
Gilmore says some club owners really believe their business will be undermined by having too many African Americans inside. That, he says, is a messed up state of mind.
Article Appeared @ http://www.wbez.org/series/race-out-loud/chicagos-segregated-nightlife-why-dont-we-play-together-101272
Also Appeared @ http://blackubiquity.com/