Dear Readers:A182310

In our December issue of ONYX (BLN), we ran an account of the "encounter" at Ollie's, a woman's bar in Oakland, CA, in which a racist bouncer called police on six black women. As reported at that time, four of those women met with Ollie. Throughout that meeting, Ollie continued to make racist remarks. However, she did agree to all of the demands made by the women involved. To our knowledge, only one of the demands has been met. Ollie did acknowledge that she knew the bouncer in question was nasty and hateful towards black women. What has happened since that time has been a very sad tale.

In the February issue of both Plexus, a nationally distributed women's newpaper, and Coming Up, a lesbian and gay Bay Area newspaper, there appeared a letter written by Bea Morris, who is a black lesbian. Ms. Morris' letter in both papers put the blame of the incident on its victims (i.e., the black women). Her letter clearly de- fends Ollie and her business.

We have no question that Bea Morris, like many other people of color, was used as a pawn by a white person, in this case Ollie, one of the owners of Ollie's. Ms. Morris is certainly not the one to bene- fit by anyone believing her letter. It is Ollie's business that would gain.

For the benefit of our readers, we would like to respond to some of the out- landish claims made by Ms. Morris. We must preface this by stating that she was not even at the bar the night of the incident.

1) She states that she did her own investigation of the incident. In fact, she did not interview any of the Black women involved or any of the Black or white organizers of the bingo game.

2) She states that the original dispute revolved around the Black women refusing to show I.D.'s. The fact is the women were never asked to show their

I.D. s. T They were only asked whether they had them with them. Everyone said "yes" well in advance of the bouncer calling the cops.

3) She makes two contradictory claims--that the Black women were rowdy and deserved the bouncer's treatment, and that Ollie should be commended for firing the bouncer. In fact, neither is true. The women were just enjoying each other's company. Ollie fired the bouncer only after she received pressure and realized that women were not going to keep quiet about being abused.

We have to accept the fact that bla- tant lies are told and are printed in so- called feminist publications. We realize that Coming Up and Plexus chose to print Ms. Morris Tetter without ever investi- gating its claims and without giving ONYX adequate time and information to respond in print in the February issues. These papers have the responsibility for publi- cizing Ms. Morris' letter. By doing so, they helped legitimize Ollie's racist ac- tions and continue the Bay Area's long tradition of racist journalism.

The fact that the letter was written by a Black lesbian, however, is particu- larly sad. It raises issues about unity in the Black lesbian community that few of us have confronted so directly.

How do we deal with the sad truth that there are Black lesbians who have learned the lesson of "the man" all too well? And that sometimes "the man" is a woman (i.e., Ollie in this particular situation)? How do we identify as lesbians without being fooled by the white lesbians who are "the man" in drag? Can we not hold any white person responsible for a racist act because a person of color defends her?

We are going to have to deal with the answers to these and many other questions before we can begin to move toward unity. We of ONYX (BLN) have chosen to take action in dealing with Ollie's refusal to meet the demands she agreed to and her contin- ued accusations and slander against the women who spoke up. We are officially calling for a boycott of Ollie's includ- ing Radclyffe Hall. We are asking all women who want to show their support against racism to participate in the boycott of Ollie's. -ONYX (BLN)

I have enclosed $5 for a one-year sub- scription to ONYX (BLN).

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