Red Onion Says It Will Investigate Bias Charges
The Red Onion restaurant said Friday that it is looking into charges that its employees discriminate against minorities by not allowing them entry to its popular Fullerton and Santa Ana discos.
Ron Newman, Red Onion president, met with 10 company officials and attorneys for three hours Friday morning to discuss allegations attributed to Martin Reichman, a Red Onion manager, in an Orange County Register article.
The Register reported that, as part of his job, Reichman said he routinely barred black and Latinos from the night spot and taught subordinates how to do it without getting caught.
‘Heavy Demoralization’
Reichman said he was prompted to come forth by feelings of “heavy demoralization” caused by the practice of “cleaning up the crowd” and discriminating against non-whites during the three years he has been with the company.
Numerous attempts to reach Reichman Friday were unsuccessful.
“It was decided by Mr. Newman to investigate all the allegations of racial discrimination,” said Ralph Saltsman, an attorney for the Red Onion. “He does not want any wrongdoing to be ongoing in his restaurants. He wants to be assured that there isn’t any impropriety going on.”
These new developments follow a Los Angeles Times report on April 8 that the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing was investigating complaints of racial discrimination filed by six men--two black, two Latinos and two Middle Easterners--who were stopped at the Santa Ana disco’s door because, they were told, their identification or attire was not acceptable.
Since The Times story last month, about 50 more complaints of racial discrimination have been received by the state agency, according to Dorothy Davis, the department’s district administrator in Santa Ana. An employee who filed a complaint, Andrew Huskisson, 26, said he worked as a door host in the Fullerton Red Onion last fall. In an interview, Huskisson said he was subsequently fired because he was unwilling to go along with company rules.
“I was furious,” Huskisson said. “I wouldn’t stand up for their policy. I would let people in.”
Huskisson, who is currently studying mathematics at Fullerton College, said he was told by management to find something wrong with customers’ IDs or with their clothes. He said he then was fired.
Interviewed last month by The Times, Newman, who is head of the 14 Red Onion restaurants in Southern California, said that since the restaurant serves alcohol, it must be very careful not to allow anyone under 21 inside.
‘Tough on Everybody’
“It doesn’t matter if you’re white, black, yellow or whatever,” he said. “We are tough on everybody.”
Newman refused to talk to a Times reporter at his Carson office Friday.
A sign posted in front of the Red Onion disco entrance indicates that proper dress code is required. When asked what that means, a Red Onion employee in Santa Ana said Friday, “For women, it’s overall appearance, but for guys, it’s no jeans, no tennis shoes and a collared shirt.”
Red Onion attorney Stephen Solomon, who will be in charge of the company’s investigation, said company officials were puzzled by the statements attributed to Reichman in the Register Friday.
No Intent to Discriminate
“There is no intent on anybody’s part to discriminate against anybody,” Solomon said. “We will get the facts and then hold a press conference of our own.”
Solomon said Reichman, 24, has not shown up for work since he was transferred to the Beverly Hills and Wilshire Boulevard locations several weeks ago.
He added that a letter was mailed to Reichman’s Long Beach residence on Friday, requesting him to report back to work on Wednesday at 9 a.m.
Red Onion lawyers said, however, that Reichman “will not be terminated for expressing himself. There is no action underfoot to fire him or do anything to terminate him.”
Told to Find Cause
Fullerton resident Paul Dunfee said in an interview that he went through the Red Onion management training sessions in 1984.
“I was told that they didn’t want to become a black club, so they told their door hosts to find something wrong with people’s ID or dress,” said Dunfee, who recently contacted The Times. “I get so angry. It’s the sneakiest kind of prejudice.”
Dunfee ultimately decided to take a job with another firm.
Other Orange County residents who told The Times that they have been discriminated against by the Red Onion include Michael Anderson, a black lieutenant stationed at El Toro Marine Air Corps Station who said he was turned away from the Santa Ana Red Onion because he had an out-of-town driver’s license, and Jerry Garcia, a 23-year-old Latino and manager of a Santa Ana car wash who was told his driver license photo did not look like him.
Class Field Trip
Wacheera Gethiga, a black Afro-American studies professor at Cal State Fullerton, took his class on a field trip to the Santa Ana Red Onion after reading about discrimination allegations in The Times.
Although the black women students who were part of the field trip were allowed in, Gethiga, 37, was stopped at the door, he said, because he was wearing designer blue jeans.
“I said to them, ‘You are letting other people in with jeans, why not me?’ ” Gethiga said he and another student noticed others already inside wearing jeans. “I just felt that they were arbitrary in terms of what they wanted.”
One of Gethiga’s students, Russell Hullinger, said he is organizing a protest in front of the Santa Ana Red Onion on Thursday night to “let everybody know that discrimination is happening.”
