Red Onion Promises to Cooperate on Bias Charges
Officials of the Red Onion Restaurants, ankle deep in allegations that the chain has consistently barred minorities from its nightclubs, met with state investigators for the first time Wednesday and pledged to “cooperate fully to resolve the problem.”
Company officials said the 90-minute, closed-door session with Bertha Ruiz, Department of Fair Employment and Housing investigator, was the first of many meetings “to take a hard look at the problem and hopefully resolve it.”
“We basically talked procedure, not specifics,” said Red Onion attorney Ralph B. Saltsman. Saltsman said Ruiz gave him copies of seven complaints filed with the state and told him more would be forthcoming.
Ruiz declined to comment on the meeting. But the department’s district administrator, Dorothy Davis, said earlier that the agency hopes to resolve the allegations without going to court.
Many Complaints
Last month, The Times reported that the department was investigating allegations by six men who claimed that they were stopped at the door of the Red Onion disco in Santa Ana. The two blacks, two Latinos and two Middle Easterners complained that they were told that their driver licenses were questionable or that they failed to meet the Red Onion’s dress code.
Since that time, dozens of other complaints have been lodged against the Southern California restaurant chain, including some from former and current employees who said their bosses told them to “clean up the crowd” when it became “too dark.”
And last week, Sam Crawford, 25, filed a $2-million lawsuit against the company, alleging that his civil rights were violated when he was refused entry for a tattered but valid driver’s license. Crawford is black.
Company officials say that they do not have a policy of discrimination but that they are sufficiently concerned that such a perception exists. To show good faith, Red Onion officials recently announced that they will begin offering internships to minority students at their restaurants and awarding scholarships to needy Santa Ana students.
In addition, the company has begun keeping records of those turned away from their doors. It also has hired Nat Trives, a professor from Cal State Los Angeles who was once appointed by a judge to oversee integration of the San Francisco Police Department, to come up with a “racially neutral” admission policy and a “needs assessment” study for the company.
Earlier on Wednesday, Red Onion officials invited about 30 community leaders to the Santa Ana restaurant to meet with Trives “to open up lines of communications and make sure the community realizes everyone is welcome” at their 14 establishments.
But reactions were mixed.
“My honest belief is that they are more concerned with their corporate image than the people that they have injured and humiliated in the process,” said Joyce Owens-Smith, president of the Orange County Urban League. “But I will give them the benefit of the doubt for now.”
Assailed as ‘Sham’
Joseph Gatlin, a Santa Ana businessman and the executive director of the Orange County Sickle Cell program, said that although the meeting was a “smart” business move, it was nonetheless a “sham.” He questioned the wisdom of bringing Orange County’s “middle- and upper-class do-gooders” together instead of the “young people who have been discriminated against.
“It’s a front so everybody can feel good about eliminating discrimination,” Gatlin said. “I wanted to holler out that they don’t have a problem. The management just got caught by trying to maintain certain standards for what they think is the norm for our system.”
Another community leader, who asked not to be identified, described the hourlong meeting as “the most inane public relations effort I have ever seen. All we are talking about here is putting people in a restaurant. They reminded me of ‘Bring out a cannon, we got a fly in the room, Mable!’ ”
Company officials were more upbeat about the morning meeting.
‘Learning Experience’
“You have to be responsible and responsive,” said Stephen Solomon, Red Onion vice president. “This is a challenge we feel will make the corporation better, make us grow larger and increase business at the same time.”
“We are making progressive steps in taking a problem that doesn’t sound nice and using it positively for a learning experience for this company and every other company in Orange County,” Solomon said.
He urged the group and the media to “walk with us and give us a chance to be judged by our actions. This company is starting out from Day One in terms of being responsive.”
But, he cautioned, “we are still going to keep out the riffraff and people who don’t meet the dress code.”
Protests continue. The Orange County office of the Anti-Defamation League said it will join some of those who claim they were victims of discrimination, plus members of a local Latino group, at a press conference Friday night outside the Santa Ana Red Onion.
