About The Call
City Releases Dress Code Test Results
Eric L. Wesson
This article is located in the archive.
By Eric L. WessonCALL Staff Writer
The City of Kansas City released its findings from a test that was conducted over the summer which confirmed that racial discrimination does exist when enforcing or not enforcing the Power and Light District’s dress code.
On Thursday, Nov. 4, a few moments after it was announced that a Kansas City family was seeking permission to file a discrimination suit against the Power and Light District and Cordish, the release of a study from the weekend of September 18 and 19.
The Civil Rights Division of the Human Relations department of Kansas City conducted a dress code test of the entrances of the Kansas City Live area (also known as the “Living Room”) and to Lucky Strike Bowling lanes in K. C. Live.
The tests were conducted because of continued claims of racial discrimination in the enforcement of the dress code by K.C. Live employees.
In April 2009, the City Council enacted an Ordinance which restricted the K.C. LIve from enforcing the dress code as it was originally established.
Their area of focus was:
• The length of the sleeve of a shirt of the leg of a pair of pants or shorts;
• The wearing of T-shirt (dress code may prohibit tee-shirts of an inappropriate length);
• The wearing of jewelry or the manner in which it is worn.
As a result of the Ordinance the K.C. Live area amended its dress code to comply with the Ordinance.
After the dress code was passed the Department continued to receive complaints about the acts of alleged discrimination.
The targeted areas were chosen because they were the ones who the Department received he most complaints about.
The test employed 11 males between the ages of 22 and 32. Five of the males were black, three were Caucasian and three were Hispanic.
The testers were instructed on what to wear and when to go. They were required to wear the following:
• Long, loose fitting shorts- calf length;
• Long shirt (any style) - length to bottom of pants zipper;
• One person in each group will need to wear a long necklace or chain;
One person in the group needed to wear Timberland-style boots;
• No hats or other accessories.
The tests were conducted after 9:30 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday nights.
Out of all of the tests conducted for those wanting to enter the K.C. Live area on the Grand street entrance, Caucasians were allowed access into facilities 100 percent of the time even though one had on athletic wear.
Of the blacks three were allowed in while two were denied and of the Hispanics two were allowed in and one was denied.
Lucky Strike was the same with 100 percent of the Caucasians being allowed access while three blacks were allowed access and two were denied. Only one Hispanic was allowed access while two were denied.
The City wanted to do a balanced report and had asked five males for each group to participate but only three Caucasians and three Hispanics showed up.
The City noted that two of the black testers who were denied entry into K.C. Live were told to try other “black oriented” clubs in the area.
Mrs. Trudy Harrison said that she was not surprised by the report but wondered what took the City so long to make it public.
“We should have known the results of the study as soon as the data was collected,” Mrs. Harrison said.
“It really doesn’t tell us anything that we did not already know. But the question is what is the City and Power and Light District officials going to do about it?” she said.
THE CALL left messages for Human Resources Director Phillip Yelder to contact us to find out why it took so long to release the report. At press time Yelder had not returned our call.
THE CALL did learn however, that the one Caucasian that was allowed access to the Lucky Strike did so by telling the employee that he was with the radio station and that he just wanted to go to the restroom.
A demonstration is being planned for the District on Saturday.