*Umi Sushi in Atlanta is catching heat after a Black couple was refused service due to a dress-code violation.
Kaylan Colbert, an attorney, captured the moment on her cell phone camera when she and her husband (Steve) were escorted out of the restaurant because her hubby was wearing sneakers.
Steve, who is wearing white Nike Air Force 1 shoes, points out to the staff that another patron (a white woman) is sitting at the bar and wearing Adidas sneakers but the managers seeming act like they don’t see her, or at the very least, make clear the she has the complexion protection.
“This is pure racism, she has on Adidas,” Steve says in the video, which the couple posted on social media.
“We were standing by her, but they are refusing to look down at her shoes to confirm that she has on sneakers,” Colbert tells Eater. “At one point, someone does look down and says, ‘They’re high-end sneakers.’ The lady actually kicks her foot out and she said, ‘Yeah, these are Adidas.’”
Watch the madness undold via the nearly 10 minute video above.
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WOW. BLATANT racial discrimination by this Atlanta restaurant, refusing service to a Black man due to his sneakers… yet a white woman who was also dining there wore Adidas sneakers! So what is the real reason?? pic.twitter.com/dupssYX77X
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) October 29, 2020
The clip was also shared by fame civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
“WOW. BLATANT racial discrimination by this Atlanta restaurant, refusing service to a Black man due to his sneakers… yet a white woman who was also dining there wore Adidas sneakers! So what is the real reason?,” Crump wrote on Twitter.
Once the couple exit the eatery, they are confronted by the Iranian owner, Farshid Arshid, who huffs and puffs and damn near blows the house down to make clear that Blacks wearing sneakers are not welcome at his restaurant.
“He’s going to go to jail tonight,” Arshid says of Steve in the clip. “I’m not letting Air Force 1s in my establishment.”
Steve and Arshid get into a heated debate and have to be physically separated by staff. Near the end of the clip, Arshid calls Steve a “zero.”
Once the clip went viral and Umi Sushi was slammed by on social media and flooded with angry phone calls, Arshid sang the apology song to USA TODAY, claiming he regrets how the situation was handled.
“We absolutely mishandled it,” Arshid said. “I’m ashamed of that … we should’ve managed the situation much better.”
Arshid said he called Colbert after the incident to apologize and invite the couple back to the restaurant.
Colbert said in an Instagram post that she has not accepted his apology, and we hope she never does. Get them coins, sis, via a discrimination lawsuit!
Rapper T.I. has called for a boycott, check out his Instagram post below:
