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Baltimore Restaurant Accused of Racism as Dress Code Gets National Attention

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It seems like one of these stories comes across our collective news feeds every few months.

A restaurant or a nightclub posts a dress code somewhere on the premises. Someone spots the dress code and takes a picture of it, then posts it to Twitter or Facebook and talks about how racist it is.

An extreme outpouring of conspicuous wokeness ensues. The establishment either apologizes or says “sorry not sorry.”

The answer doesn’t really matter since the wokeness will just be ratcheted up. If the answer is sorry, sorry isn’t good enough. If they don’t say sorry, well, they should have!

And this goes on until the whole thing ends up in the news.

This latest case is special because the restaurant in question has barely even opened yet and it’s pretty much getting canceled online.

The Choptank, a Baltimore eatery, opened to the public just this week, according to its Twitter feed.

However, a sign noting that its dress code proscribes “excessively baggy clothing, athletic attire, jerseys, brimless headgear and backwards or sideways hats” has already gone viral, and not in a good way.

It was first posted on Twitter by J.M. Giordano, who said that it was “CODED.” (You can tell he really meant it because it was all in caps.)

“An image uploaded on Twitter of the sign said to be on the restaurant’s gate shows an apparent dress code,” Fox News reported.

The Choptank, meanwhile, noted that its dress code was the same as that of other restaurants in Baltimore’s Fells Point neighborhood.

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Atlas Restaurant Group, which owns The Choptank, echoed this in a statement to Fox News.

“Our policy is no different than countless other bars in Fells Point, Federal Hill and many other bar/restaurants around Maryland including Seacrets and Tiki Lee’s both posted on their websites,” the statement said.

“There are also national properties such as Wynn Las Vegas (XS) that have similar dress codes in their entertainment venus. The most prominent African-American nightclub in Baltimore, Select Lounge has a stricter dress code as well. Baltimore City Public Schools has a similar dress code and language for their students.”

The restaurant group provided Fox News with a version of the dress code which was slightly different inasmuch as it didn’t ban baggy clothes. Still, same basic principle.

If you thought that was the end of this, you clearly haven’t experienced one of these dress code controversies before:

Now, granted, there were plenty of other messages of support. But here’s the point: None of this should have been controversial in the first place.

Do you think that this dress code is racist?

I suppose the general answer in cases like these is that if you don’t like it, don’t go there.

That’s how capitalism works.

However, I find it somewhat curious that this outpouring of wokeness is directed at The Choptank by individuals who somehow think people of color all dress similarly and that they’re somehow being made to dress like white folk — people who also dress monolithically, and apparently all out of a Gap commercial from 1998.

There are plenty of white people who wear gym clothes or have sideways hats. There are plenty of white people who think that a Peyton Manning jersey is acceptable attire for any restaurant. Baggy clothing can — and is — worn by individuals of all races.

But, hey, let’s just abandon dress codes entirely. There’ll be no more restaurants where jackets are required.

You should be able to go into Le Bernardin wearing your gym shorts, a tank top and a ratty Yankees cap on backwards. Fancy restaurants will be a thing of the past.

Now, in the name of racial harmony, we can all go into any nightclub we want with flip flops and baggy cargo shorts.

By the way, if The Choptank is racist, they’re apparently very bad at it:

Ah, but I bet those were just token musicians to make them look good, right?

I guess I wasn’t woke enough to spot that. My bad.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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