White T-shirts can be worn at Jaberwoke again, at least for the time being, co-owner Anderson McClure said yesterday, announcing that he will remove the portion of the restaurant's official dress and behavior code pertaining to patrons' clothing.
Outrage concerning Jaberwoke's dress policy came to a pinnacle yesterday during an open forum for members of the community to air their grievances about the dress code. The forum, organized by McClure, was held at the Corner restaurant and bar.
Many members of the University and Charlottesville communities said they felt the dress code applied more directly to black customers than customers of other races.
"The subtle message is you really don't want black folks at your bar," said M. Rick Turner, president of the Charlottesville-Albemarle chapter of the NAACP. "This is a racist agenda."
Others in attendance said they did not believe the dress code was inherently racist, but expressed concern that black violators of the code were asked to leave the restaurant more often than non-black violators.
"I don't have a problem with the dress code," said Chase Emanuel, a third-year Engineering student who works on the Corner. "I have a problem with the case-by-case basis with which it is implemented."
McClure said his staff failed to consistently enforce the code but noted that all patrons, regardless of race, were allowed to enter the establishment as long as they followed the code.
"At no point has anybody not been allowed to come to the restaurant as long as they weren't wearing the clothing on the list," McClure said.
The reason the dress code was created, McClure said, was because people dressed in a certain fashion consistently had been causing problems in the restaurant over a long period of time.
"A lot of the people acting disrespectful to us were wearing similar clothing" McClure said.
McClure said he implemented many other policy changes, including increasing security before creating the dress code, but said "nothing seemed to get better."
People in attendance at the meeting said the dress code was a superficial way of addressing the behavior problems that have occurred.
"I can act a fool no matter what I wear," third-year College student Sigh Hardison said.
McClure said there are many other Charlottesville establishments that use dress codes as a way of preventing unruly behavior.
Whether other restaurants have dress codes is not the issue, fourth-year College student Gregory Jackson said, adding that by presuming a correlation between dress and behavior, McClure was acting prejudicially.
"There are a lot of establishments that do this," Jackson said. "But that doesn't make it right."
Third-year College student Sage Garner said the specificity with which the code was written did little to improve Jaberwoke's atmosphere and seemed to target black people more than others.
McClure said he in no way intended to target any one race or ethnicity with this code.
"I don't associate clothing with a particular race or creed," McClure said.
After hearing comments from those in attendance, McClure decided to eliminate the dress code from the restaurant's policies.
"Take the top part of our dress code [and behavior policy] and put a big 'X' through it," McClure said. "That is no longer our dress code."
McClure said he wants student leaders and others who were in attendance to work in conjunction with the restaurant to create a more socially acceptable policy.
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