This week, a group of black women are blowing the whistle on a trendy London nightclub after they were denied entry for being too fat and too dark.
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Lin Mei (29) alleges that she was invited to the “high-end” restaurant and bar DSTRKT in the city’s West End by a promoter who later told her that if her friends were black they would find it “harder to gain entry” as they were usually “not good enough”.
Miller says that when she and her friend showed up to the club, they were turned away because the club had reached capacity.
“I work for DSTRKT, I promote in DSTRKT, on Friday when I was working at DSTRKT, I actually took my personal friends and put them on my table”, said Norton, who is White.
The women were told that staff felt that one was “too dark” and another “too fat” to enter the club.
They claim that when they arrived, a club employee disappeared into the venue, where they have a video monitor, to verify whether they could be admitted into the club. Extra embarrassing – and unusual – then, that the women – all women of colour – then saw other people get into the club with no problem. After “careful” evaluation, the promoter of the club gave his “approval” for Miller and her guest to attend.
More people were alleged to have been given entrance into the club following their refusal said Miller.
To fight back against a policy, which sees skinny light-skinned women prioritised over larger, dark-skinned women, the friends started a hashtag: #DoILookDstrkt and protested outside DSTRKT where Chris Brown’s ex Karrueche Tran did a live PA.
“It hurts me to the point where I get emotional because we are seen as “less than” just because of the way we look”.
Demonstrators were photographed holding banners with the hashtag #DoILookDstrkt?
Karrueche Tran has responded to the protest, telling the BBC: ‘It’s unfortunate to hear about something like that especially something that I’m part of. According to Norton, she was advised by a senior staff member not to invite “too many Black girls” going forward.
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She added: “It really pains me – that’s why I don’t really come to this sort of club any more”.
