In news worryingly reminiscent of South Africa’s apartheid, a Barcelona club night has been accused of racist door policies.
A group of black British guys had booked tickets to an ANTS club night at Barcelona’s Plaza de Toros Monumental on June 16, but when they showed up they were stopped, along with many other black people, while their white counterparts walked in with no issue.
At first they didn’t think anything of it, but the colour line across the door to the venue became overwhelmingly obvious, and when they asked for an explanation, they were reportedly told, there were to be ‘no black Muslims or black Arabs’ allowed in.
Here’s some of the footage from outside the club:
Speaking to UNILAD, one of the guys who filmed the shocking situation, Josh Orie, said:
On entry into the venue, either side of us were groups of two to four black lads, standing in frustration on the left and right hand side of the queue, but I didn’t think anything of it until we got closer to the front.
On entry into the club there was four of us, three black lads and one white. My white friend was the first to walk past security, no problem.
Then we followed right behind him until we got told to stand to the side for no reason, and someone would come and tell us the reason why we can’t enter – but my white friend had no problem.
After standing around waiting for an explanation, we started to see a similar pattern of the type of people they weren’t letting in, and it was people of colour, mainly black people.
When Josh and his friends asked security for reasons as to why they were refused entry, they were allegedly told there were to be ‘no black Muslims or black Arabs’.
They were also allegedly told: ‘you don’t fit our profile because you have tattoos’, this is despite hearing others being told: ‘you guys can enter because you don’t look black’.
Josh also remembered a security guard sniggering while searching a ‘big athletic black man’, saying, ‘I’m surprised no knife’, racially profiling him with prejudiced stereotypes.
Here’s more footage showing white people entering the event while black people were stopped at the door:
Josh continued to UNILAD:
One security guard even said his boss doesn’t want us in the venue, and that none of us are deemed the right of entry except the white people.
You could tell the Spanish people were mocking us, with their language, their mannerisms and how they would approach us – which was aggressively.
I felt more shocked than surprised at how they did it so causally. It was like what they were doing was normal and not a problem.
After waiting for an hour, watching dozens of black people get turned away, Josh and his friends were offered a refund and left feeling extremely uncomfortable and mistreated.
Josh attempted to reach out to ANTS events, which describes itself as ‘an underground movement originating from Ibiza’, but is still waiting for answers.
In a statement given to UNILAD, ANTS events said:
ANTS are aware of the alleged treatment of guests at a show at La Monumental on 16th June, where an externally promoted event was taking place.
We take claims of this nature very seriously, and the welfare of customers is our number one priority.
We are in contact with the promoter and their security and door staff to investigate this further, and have been made aware that the promoter allocated refunds to those that were affected, as well as a “hoja de reclamaciones” complaint form to those wanting to provide a statement about the situation.
We do not condone any form of discrimination whatsoever, and always seek to unify partygoers without prejudice.
Unofficial racist nightclub entry policies have been prevalent in the news recently.
London’s Park Lane Drama night club was recently accused of charging black girls double the entry price of their white counterparts.
Until 1965, it was legal to turn away black people from pubs or clubs simply because of their skin colour. For this to still be an issue in 2018 is concerning and extremely important to note.
Hopefully in this case, the people responsible are aware a refund is the very least they can do and in no way makes up for any alleged discrimination and prejudice.
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