The People is a section of The TRiiBE for opinion pieces on trending topics regarding Black Chicago. In this op-ed, former Chicago bartender, Ashley Nycole Smith, shares the importance of supporting what she calls the Black bartenders renaissance.
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I truly believe in the saying, “go where you’re celebrated, not tolerated.” That’s why I left Chicago, where I worked as a bartender for six years, to serve up drinks in West Hollywood – where being Black and a bartender isn’t a foreign concept. Chicago is currently the fifth most racially and economically segregated region in the nation, according to a Metropolitan Planning Council and Urban Institute study released in March. Unfortunately, my fellow Black brothers and sisters behind the bars in Chicago feel the brunt of this segregation on a daily basis.