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I know that this is not anywhere near as serious as many
problems we have experienced in this community, but I'm still really angry about
it. This past weekend I was at a conference being held at the
Holiday Inn Metrodome on the West Bank. A total fool who was working as
the night "manager" accused one of the dancers from the fabulous Hip Hop
show [sponsored by the Walker at the Southern] of stealing some alcohol --
the "manager" was abusive and the dancer he accused was not happy and
told the "manager" that. The dancer went to his room. The
manager called the police, who were verbally abusive to the dancer and
continued to be so, including searching the dancer's room without asking his
permission -- which I don't think is legal. [A person has the
right to the expectation of privacy in their hotel room as I
understand it.] Of course they didn't find anything in his room [since he
was performing at the time the booze was stolen if anyone had asked] and
then they kicked him out of the hotel on a saturday night at 10:00 -- where
everyone else from the troupe was staying. The whole thing was
disgusting. Did I mention that the dancer was African American? Did
I mention that the "manager" was white and the cops were white and that one of
the things the "manager" said was, "how many black people do you think are in
this hotel and how many have backpacks?" when the dancer asked him
why the manager was so disrespectful when the manager approached
him. The poor guy, who had just walked into the hotel after
performing for a couple hours. When I apologized to the dancer
and told him I hoped he didn't think that everybody in Minneapolis was so racist
and that our police have a reputation for being obnoxious and nasty, he said he
already knew about the police, people had warned him. It's
disgusting. It's not brutality, but it was humiliating for the
dancer and for all of us there -- and totally bad for our community. I
know a lot of organizations go to the Holiday because it is union, and arts orgs
use it for their performers. I hope that people will make it clear to the
Holiday that they cannot have people working there who are so incredibly
insensitive and racist, and I also hope that somebody from the city will call
the Walker and apologize to them for the police's part.
Diane Wiley
Tangletown
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