Our Demands

We demand:

The bouncer, be fired immediately.

A public apology from the management and involved employees. This will take the form of

a) an apology to appear in Ollie's next month's events calendar. b) an apology to appear in Plexus and Coming Up.

c) a full-page apology ad in the Feb. issue of the BLN.

That all who come into Ollie's be treated equally, in other words, all must show ID's or none must be asked to show ID's.

All current and future employees of Ollie's be informed that racist treatment of any patrons of Ollie's will not be tolerated.

All current and future employees of Ollie's be taught how to determine when calling the 0.P.D. is and isn't necessary.

A larger percentage of juke box mu- sic reflect the taste of women of color. It is clear to us that one subtle ploy to discourage us from pa- tronizing bars like Ollie's is the lack of music we feel comfortable listening and dancing to.

As we go to press, a mediation meet- ing with Ollie and some of the black wom- en involved in this incident is planned. During that meeting, we will present our list of demands to her.

Update

жолоконо

A meeting between Ollie and four of us whose lives were jeopardized in her bar on 11 November, was held on 17 Nov- ember at the Pacific Center in Berkeley. The following account is as detailed as space allows.

The racism exhibited by the bouncer and the bartender on 11 November was re- peated by Ollie herself throughout the meeting. Her racism was demonstrated by the fact that she

1. Attempted to diffuse our anger and deflect our outrage by constant- ly dropping the names of other black women she knows. We failed to see the point of this.

2. She blamed us for not supporting the black woman D-J who works at the bar. She then pretended sur- prise when we told her it was her bar we didn't support because of its history of racist treatment of women of colour.

3. She tried to shift responsibil- ity for her bar policies onto her employees. Employees do not set policies, they carry them out. By Ollie's own admission, the bartend- er on duty that night was her se- nior staff person, the bouncer work- ing under her. At no time did the bartender exercise her legitimate authority over the bouncer whose re- sponsibilities DO NOT include call- ing the police. That is the bar- tender's job. The bouncer's job, according to Ollie, is to stay with any trouble that might arise.

Ollie freely acknowledged that the bar's policy concerning the po- lice is that if the bar wants to keep the customer(s), no cops. erwise, call in the 0.P.D.

Oth-

Further, Ollie told us that we (black women), are her "best custom- ers" because (are you ready for this?), we dress so nicely and be- have well. If we rate the Oakland police, what do her less than "best customers" get?

Ollie said she fired the bouncer on That's the Monday after the incident. not enough. We insist that all our de- mands be met. Ollie has agreed to that. If she doesn't keep her word (she told us we'd be able to see the changes. Yes, we will see, one way or another.), we in- tend to organize a boycott of the bar and all its facilities by women of colour and their supporters.

What happened on 11 November was nothing new. We've all been there be- fore. Racism is as thick in the Bay Area as it is every place else. What is different is that we didn't just shut up and let this one slide by. It's time we let people know we won't keep quiet any- more when we are the targets of racist behaviour. For sure we don't have to pay money for such treatment. We can find it for free any day.

The BLN will continue to keep you informed about this and other similar Occurrences. Please help by letting us know about these kinds of incidents. can stop them if we stick together.