A Baltimore woman has retained a civil rights attorney after she and her son were denied service at a restaurant due to her son’s “athletic” clothing.
According to BET
, Marcia Grant has retained civil rights attorney Dallas Mills after she and her son Dallas, 9, were denied service at The Choptank Fish & Crab House on June 22. The manager told Grant her son’s clothes were too athletic when they asked for a table.Making matter worse, the video showed two white children wearing similar clothing in the restaurant. The manager could not explain why those children were allowed in but Grant and her son were not. Grant captured the moment on video and shared it on social media and the video went viral quickly receiving more
than 800 likes and retweets on Twitter. The restaurant apologized four days later.“We are sickened by this incident. We sincerely apologize to Marcia Grant, her son and everyone impacted by this painful incident,” Atlas Restaurant Group said in a statement.
Atlas added “While dress codes across Atlas properties are the result of ongoing input from customers, in no way are they intended to be discriminatory.”
The restaurant has been under fire since September 2019 for its dress code, which banned “excessively baggy clothing, sunglasses after dark and bandanas.”
Atlas said children under 12 accompanied by a parent will no longer be subject to a dress code. The company also said two managers have been placed on “indefinite leave.”
Grant and Mills have yet to file a lawsuit but said it’s still an option they’re exploring.
Many brands have been pushed to make statements denouncing discrimination and racism or risk losing customer support. Even the social media giant Facebook has been pressured to change its policies due to Starbucks Pepsi and Coca-Cola pulling advertisements from its sites. The advertising ban has cost Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg $7 billion in personal wealth so far.