COLUMNA de AZTLAN

On May 31 I was at the Garage Door Saloon on the corner of Atwood Street and Sennott Street in Oakland to watch Game Four of the Stanley Cup Finals. One patron had left his driver’s license inside the bar while he stepped outside to speak with a friend, and the bouncer was not letting him back in. The male patron, who had dark curly hair and a large nose, appeared intoxicated, spoke rudely to the bouncer, and even tried to physically force the bouncer out of the way. I will admit that the patron’s actions may have been out of line, but after threatening to call the police, the bouncer screamed across the bar, "Get this fucking Jew his ID already!"

The patron's friends, who were inside the bar, told the bouncer that the patron was not Jewish. They also told the bouncer that even if he were Jewish it was not an excuse to be a racist. The bouncer responded that he had every right to be a racist, that he had every right to deny patronage to his bar to anyone, and that he had every right not to deal with this "fucking Jew." He used the F-word about 5 times loudly in the bar in reference to this "Jew."

I am a Jewish student at the University of Pittsburgh, and I was a few feet away from the entrance when all of this unfolded. My friends and I were very offended by the bouncer’s words, and I approached the bar tender and asked if a manager was on duty. The female bartender said "You are looking at the manager," so I began to tell her what I had just heard from the bouncer. I told her that I was Jewish, and I told her that I found this bouncer's words very offensive. She adamantly responded, “He [the bouncer] is my husband, he was talking to me, and he said nothing wrong!” My friends and I left the bar immediately to watch the remainder of the game in a less anti-Semitic atmosphere.

The Garage Door Saloon has received negative publicity this year after its creation of a “Wetback Wednesday” special featuring Coronas and tacos. “Wetback” is a derogatory term describing Mexican immigrants, and many students boycotted the bar until the special was renamed. The management of Garage Door Saloon has once again shown that it is both intolerant and ignorant. I encourage students to resume the boycott to show that Pittsburgh will not tolerate racism!