“When in doubt, blame Black folks” has seemingly replaced the business mantra “the customer is always right” in Old Dominion.
According to PEOPLE, nine Black friends were told they had to leave a Chesapeake, Virginia restaurant called Cork & Bull for what they allege was racial discrimination. Shakoya Somerville-Holt and eight other sistas were gathered for a Friendsgiving dinner when a fight broke out between two women outside of their party. After employees broke up the fracas, Somerville-Holt and her friends were told they had to leave the venue. At this point in the night, they hadn’t even received the drink orders they had just placed.
Here’s the kicker.
When she asked if the entire restaurant was being closed due to the fight, here’s what she was told by one of the staff:
“No, we’re just not servicing you all because y’all like to fight,”
“Y’all”?! Who the f—k is “y’all”?!?! To make matters worse, when police responded to the scene, the restaurant asked Somerville-Holt to give a statement as if she knew anything about what was going on between the fighting ladies.
“We definitely made memories, but those memories are memories of pain, hurt, embarrassment, confusion and humiliation,” Somerville-Holt told WTKR.
The Chesapeake NAACP has taken up the cause and has been counseling the women in the aftermath of their disturbing experience.
“To whomever it was that thought they had the authority to walk up to this group of women and direct them to leave with the response of ‘you people like to fight,’ should be immediately counseled, if not dismissed, and the restaurant should issue an apology,” Rev. Cozy Bailey, the president of the NAACP Virginia State Conference, told the outlet.
The ladies are considering legal action, and we hope they sue this racist restaurant for so much money that they own it by the time a settlement is reached.
