Last weekend, the city of Austin hosted the annual Texas Relays, which is a track and field meet. It is for high school and college athletes. As you can imagine, many of the athletes are black. It has essentially morphed into a social event for black people across the state, especially teenagers.
This year, a number of bars, stores, and a mall nearby decided to close the day of the event: link. The basic argument is that these businesses only closed because the crowd is majority black. The businesses argue that they have to hire additional security due to the crowds but that sales during the event weekend are usually very low. Basically, they are saying that the kids all hang out at the mall, don’t buy anything, and scare away the rest of their customers. Some of the businesses also argue that their employees don’t want to work because they are afraid of the crowds.
Is this a legitimate reason to close, or is it racism? Austin hosts many other large events during the year and businesses don’t close; they look at the events as money making opportunities.
If this is statistically provable on a yearly basis, then they really cannot be faulted for looking after their bottom line. If the cost of extra security isn’t sufficiently outweighed by profits from sales during the event, and this is a consistent pattern, then they’re just being responsible businessmen.
If it is racism, it’s just gonna have to be racism one will have to live with. I suppose the black resident of Austin and sympathetic others could take note of the closed businesses and either boycott or threaten to boycott them the rest of the year.
Of course, if I was a business owner, I’d never say I was closing because of problems with the relay, I’d say it was to give my workers the day off so they could go watch the relay.
That sounds reasonable except … it isn’t. The owners choose to hire security for this event. What has to be statistically provable is that hiring extra security is necessary; has shop lifting actually gone up during this event, relative to other events that draw comparable crowds?
I still won’t shop at Benneton, Cache, or* Eddie Bauer*, and not just because I have no interest in their clothes.
How do you know that the need for increased security is only for this event? I’d expect that anytime a location is expecting vastly increased traffic, they hire extra security to help manage the crowds.
I’ve been there for SXSW, and the hordes of drunk, coke-addled hipsters have to be harder to deal with than a bunch of high school athletes and their families.
We had a similar situation in Cincinnati awhile back; the shops and restaurants that normally stayed open for the primarily-white bacchanals (Bockfest, Oktoberfest, Jammin On Main [where there was an actual riot one year]) all closed down for Jazzfest, which attracted a primarily black audience.
The restaurant owners in question didn’t do much to help themselves after the inevitable uproar. There were a lot of statements to the effect that they were worried for the safety of their staff and black people don’t tip, anyway.
They may very well have had sound business reasons for closing that weekend, but it probably cost them more in bad PR than any money they would have lost by staying open.
Let’s assume that every single business owner is a racist (however you choose to define that term). What should be done about the fact that they closed their business on one day (or weekend, I did not RTFA)? Do you think they should be required to keep their business open?
Money from black people is worth the same as money from white people
The businesses have been open during this event on the past
A large number of businesses are closing during the event despite heavy crowds
I’m inclined to believe the argument that it’s just not financially viable. If it were just a few businesses closing or if the businesses were doing this based on pure speculation rather than previous results, I could buy the racist angle. But too many business owners are interested in the bottom line for this to have racism as the leading cause.
I’d be curious to hear what actually prompted the closings.
(I’m also curious as to whether they published the special closing time before the day or simply ushered out all the customers without prior notice.)
Can’t it be both? They are not mutually exclusive you know. One problem with being a business owners is that you have to cater to people who may or may not share your personal views or morals. If the customers’ or employees’ racism precludes you from running your business, what choice do you have?
I agree. Anyway, the decisions of many, possibly most businesses are informed by race. If you were opening a book store, would you prefer to do it on the Upper West Side or in Bed-Stuy? What about a check-cashing center? From what I hear, even the New York Times is marketed much more aggressively in white neighborhoods than in black neighborhoods.
It seems to me we’ve come a long way from the days of the whites-only lunch counter. At some point, in a free society with a free enterprise system, it’s legitimate for businesses (and individuals) to make whatever decisions they see fit. In my opinion, choosing where to locate a business and choosing whether and when to open one’s doors is well within the legitimate zone of freedom.
I used to work at a club on 6th Street as a doorman and have been through several Texas Relays as well as SXSW and various street festivals. Except for SXSW, they are all pretty much a pain in the ass and bad for business. The Texas Relays seem to be especially bad for two reasons. One is that everyone stays out on the street and no one tries to come in except to use the bathroom (we put up a sign that says “No Public Restrooms” during the event, but I always let them in if they were over 21). They also chase away the regular clientele, mostly because of the crowds and parking, but I also think that a little bit of racism is at work here.
The other problem was the stampedes. This one is unique to the relays and is the biggest problem with them, I think. At the last one I worked at, the crowd suddenly stampeded down the street four times during the course of the evening. Some douche had set off some firecrackers or something and the crowd thought it was gunfire.
Highland Mall is not affected by other big events except this one. I am pretty sure that if they thought it was worth it, they would stay open. There is after all a significant proportion of black shoppers there on typical business days so I don’t think it is a matter of not wanting to do business with black people. I think the NAACP is flying off half-cocked on this one.
I wish that white and black communities in America weren’t so self-segregating.
Here’s an idea: Someone could organize an effort among the athletes to patronize the establishments which remain open; to be extremely polite and respectful; and to leave very generous tips.
The notion that this is racism is just unsupportable. Some places in Florida and Maryland have had the same issue with Spring Break crowds of kids being rowdy and hurting business and they took steps to discourage them from descending on the towns like the plague. And they were not black kids.
Good luck with that. If they can’t behave like assholes then it’s not fun.
Racism? Hardly. Paint the people in the videos any colour and the situation would still be unacceptable to the businesses.
If folks, of any race, want to hang about in large numbers waiting for something exciting to happen, including fights, they should rent a farm in Upper New York State, rather than impose on unwilling shop owners to provide a venue.
