I witnessed racial discrimination today

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I live in Eugene, Oregon which is full of decent liberal minded people, but tonight I went to the neighboring town of Springfield with my friends for drinks. If Eugene was New York, Springfield is New Jersey (no offense to people from Jersey). If your not American, think of a pleasant little town....with a really trashy low class one right next to it. We went to the trashy one last night

I myself wasn't discriminated against at first, the most I got were a few short stares (Im Asian American but I'm pretty sure anybody will stare at an unfamiliar face. Its not racist its just natural).... and neither were my friends who were all white.
We just ordered our first pints when an Arab couple came into the bar. The man had a lot of facial hair and the woman wore a partial headdress so they looked very distinctive; everyone in the bar including my friends and I turned to look at the newcomers. I admit I stared for a little bit too, but thats only because I never ever expected any Arab people to be in Springfield Oregon.

What the bartender/guy at the counter said shocked me. He said he doesnt serve ' their kind' here and holds the right to refuse service to anybody he chooses. The d**khead called them terrorists and pretty much called them the enemy. I turned to my friends who all looked at each other with "Are you f**king serious!?" look on our faces. The other patrons (non college students) were faking not watching but were all listening pretty closely. I heard a few trucker guys say things in agreement with the bartender but a balding middle aged guy got up from his meal and started BRINGING THE HAMMER DOWN on the bartender....rattling off constitutional rights and human morality and shaking his finger around the guys face. A pretty blonde woman put her hands over her face when the man said, " I refuse to serve terrorists in my bar". She was so upset she and her friend got up and left the bar. An old man got up and gave a short lecture on the American way and that the bartender was a disgrace to the country. He offered the couple seats at his table with his wife but the bartender was having none of it and told us to all leave. The angry old man shook his fist at the man and told him hed take his business elsewhere and wasn't going to pay the bill if it supported such a Un-American establishment.

As a minority myself my blood was boiling to see other minorities being treated so unfairly. I know firsthand what they were feeling, though nothing on the same level, i just faced stereotypes not full on discrimination. My grandparents and parents suffered just as the Arab couple after Pearl Harbor....well actually they got all their land and businesses stolen and were sent to internment camps.....but nevertheless my peoples time has past, but for Middle-Easterners that time is now. Who the f**K was this bartender to judge a nice couple coming in for dinner just because they are Arab/Muslim? I couldnt sit still and got up to the counter to join the balding guy in giving the bartender a piece of my mind. I asked him, "so do you hate me because I'm of Japanese ancestry? Im an American like my father before me. who the f*ck are you to judge people like that?" He had the nerve to say my grandpa was responsible for Pearl Harbor and I shouldnt be in this country. I lost it. My grandpa fought in the US Army 442nd Regiment against the Nazis in World war II even though our family had been locked up in internment camps along with hundreds of thousands of other Japanese-Americans. The injustice of that statement was so great I was at a loss for words. I simply could not believe that this still happened in our country. He still kept plowing through our arguments and continued to refuse service to the Arab couple and told my Jap ass to sit back down. My friends got incensed at the Jap comment and started cussing out the man in anger.

At this point five men got up and threatened the bartender that they'd call the cops and called him all sorts of names like 'jerk' "scumbag" "a$$h*le", "racist inbred f*ck. Now these men were all rural Oregon types, meaning white, wears lots of flannel and basically look like lumberjacks.... as rednecky as they come so I found the last insult really funny. British people would call them, "Country Bumpkin" or something like that. I was touched by how many people stood up to defend the Arab couple and even more so when people got angry when the guy said things about my grandpa and said I shouldnt be here in America.

We all stormed out of the bar, save maybe 7 or 8 people and I couldnt say anything except apologize to the Arab couple. There was really nothing I could say.... One older gentleman who left the bar in protest was a little teary eyed and profusely apologized for the bartenders behaviour. He was in shock that he had just witnessed what we saw and truly felt terrible for the couple. In our newfound group kinship we went to another bar/pub and talked over some pints for a few hours. Made a few new friends and got new numbers including the Arab couples.

Nothing brings people together like witnessing injustice.

That does sound like really nasty bigotry on the barman's part.

All too often in the UK we have immigrants screaming about how Britain is 'racist' and continually trying to find offence were none is intended but…

…this sounds like the real thing to me. a***hole.

I hope that news of his racist outburst spreads far and wide and business suffers as a result - i.e. if you really hate people just because of the colour of their skin, expect most people not to want to have anything to do with you.

That bartender should be fired for refusing to serve paying customers.

I hope so too.

Maybe the bartender can get a job cleaning toilets instead.

That's horrible. If I heard that, I'd never go to that bar again. I'd also stick up for the Arab couple.

The arab couple have witnesses to the exhange, and this bar tender could be in for a world of legal hurt by making it abundantly clear the service requested was denied soley because of their ethnicity. If this indeed took place, you could be called as a witness in a trial. I am not sure if Oregon has any state laws concerning this, like California does, and a few other states. But regardless, the owner/bartender violated the 1964 civil rights act, and private businesses are held legally responsible in a public accomodation setting. Their are instances where an owner can deny service, but from what you have said and what transpired in the bar, none of that was the case...

The Arab couple did nothing wrong at all. They came in, immediately was recieved by 'we dont serve terrorists here' and proceeded to ask why not. they refused to leave, demanded service and angry patrons who couldnt listen to that crap jumped in to aid them. they didn't even curse at the man while everyone else was. they were very nice people, sure the Arab man looked somewhat like Osama but thats no way to treat a man!

If I saw a man who looked like Hitler I would treat him with respect (and sympathy). Co-incidentally....my cousin is marrying a man w the last name Hitler.....and he's said the name alone (he looks nothing like Hitler) hs caused him so much grief. The name of a person is no reason to discriminate, let alone someones race! You can choose and change your name (which i really hope my cousins fiance will do) but you can't chage your race!