Bar owner apologizes after Polynesian men turned away
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Willie’s Lounge in Salt Lake City, Utah.
SALT LAKE CITY » A Salt Lake City bar owner has apologized after one of his employees refused to serve two Polynesian men because of their ethnicity.
Patron Frank Maea said he and a friend had just entered Willie’s Lounge and ordered a drink when the bartender checked his ID and asked if he was Polynesian. When he confirmed that he was, she said she couldn’t serve him.
“I have never been treated like that, never,” Maea told Salt Lake City’s KUTV.
Shocked, he took a short cellphone video and posted it online before he left.
“This is wrong. Should they be punished? Of course they should,” he said. “We should not spend our hard earned dollars to go there.”
Owner Geremy Cloyd didn’t dispute the account in interviews with reporters on Wednesday but acknowledged it was a mistake.
He said he has an informal rule allowing female bartenders working alone at night to turn away people who look like they could make trouble, and acknowledged that he has included Polynesian people in that category.
“White people too, you just don’t hear about them,” Cloyd said. “Whether they are Polynesian, just got out of jail, have neck tattoos, look like they are hooked on drugs, across all spectrums, not just Polynesians. It just so happens, our problem has been with Polynesians.”
Maea and friend Stephen Wily said that bars do have the right to refuse service to people making trouble, but they were calm and civil.
Cloyd told The Associated Press today that he’s planning on meeting with leaders of Salt Lake City’s Polynesian community as he tries to repair the damage.
“Anyone that was offended, I will try to make it right. That’s not representative of us,” Cloyd told KSL-TV. “You can come in here every single day of the week and find every single race.”
Maea said he’ll accept Cloyd’s apology, but doesn’t plan on going back to Willie’s.
The Salt Lake City area has a relatively large community of people of Polynesian descent. Originally drawn to Utah by Mormon missionaries in the 19th century, the state today has nearly 27,000 people who identify as being Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, census figures show. That’s more than every state other than California, Hawaii and Washington.
70 responses to “Bar owner apologizes after Polynesian men turned away”
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He better apologize or the family will make a visit to him.
Terroristic threatening is still a crime. You might want to revise your remarks.
Tell that to the repugnican congress!!
That would just support his argument that Polynesians are trouble makers.
onoahu: Totally agree with you. It’s that gangster mentality that creates negative perception of any ethnic group. Mr. Maea demonstrated a class reaction that is more representative of the Polynesian people most of us know.
Some people are afraid of Polynesians because they are so huge and strong and also over-represented in Hawaii’s prison.
Huge? You got that right. Underneath that high BMI is solid muscle.
The Polys now need their own version of Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson to organize protests over there. Maybe Mufi can fill that role? 🙂
Wouldn’t “the Poly’s” be along the same lines as calling a group “the J aps”?
JAP? Jovial At Parties.
That’s right. Union or not, people just want to be treated fairly.
It was a long time ago but I heard the whole family included fighting the Mother too.
pretty sad –
hopefully they go out of business…
and lose alot of patrons due to this
I hope they do not go out of business. His worker made a mistake and could have misunderstood the rule. The owner was apologetic and is trying to make amends. That should not mean people should want him to lose his livelihood. We all make mistakes. It’s how we try to fix them that should judge us. I have no problem with this owner and I am of Polynesian decent.
they should have never practiced racial profiling… how 19th century!
What employer would let a woman work alone in a bar at night! He should apologize to her too!
Business is going to skyrocket! People can feel confident knowing brutal troublemakers are not allowed there. Hooray for the GOOD GUYS!
Dah !
I wouldn’t go even if the drinks are free.
Its a bar. When there are drunk people, there is always potential for troublemakers…especially brutal ones.
@ mxp – It has been my experience that more times than not, it’s the small guy with a chip on his shoulder that starts fights. Alcohol makes anyone believe that they’re MMA Champions.
You have to remember where it is this took place; Salt Lake City Utah, one of the most prejudiced cities in America. Any one who has spent time there and ethnicity is of color, knows what I mean. Sure there are a whole lot of nice, very good people, but there are also more than their share of bigots (and yes this is not just my opinion, but first hand knowledge).
The fact of the mater is, the bar owner will probably increase sales by all the free advertisement.
Oh! It’s Salt Lake CITY, not Hawaii’s Salt Lake. Got it!
Mei Mei – I think you mean “lose a lot of patrons due to this” and THEN “hopefully go out of business”.
If your female bartenders are afraid at night, give them day shifts.
Easy to remedy this situation. Get a big Polynesian bouncer.
BINGO!
Equal employment opportunity! Yeah!
A lot of bars here have huge Poly bouncers. Good example is Chez in Aiea. Plus they have three off duty HPD officers in the parking lot.
That’s because Chez is owned by an ex cop.
It’s not only the bars up there. We had family move there a few years ago. They started attending the LDS services until they were told they were not welcomed at that service and had to attend the Samoan (language) services even though they were Hawaiian.
Unfortunately the Hawsaiian Mormon town , Iosepa, that was created in the middle of nowhere for Hawaiian settlers closed done 100 years ago…………
Why bother with a religion that isn’t welcoming? Why bother with religion at all?
It’s NOT a religion. It’s a cult like Scientology, except Scientology is less racist.
Seek out another cult!!!
I agree. Brown people, mixed, asian, etc, get hassled in Salt Lake City. Not ski resorts there in Utah. That was one place I was followed in stores by security, told to make a purchase or leave, virtually refused service, and a lot more. Never going back there ever again. Hope they burn in whatever purgatory they believe in. Civil rights movement didn’t necessarily change things there I think.
You were asked to leave. You can’t go back.
Guess that bar also has no sort of security. They are basically being racist in place of normal security measures when owning a business like a bar. Hope they go out of business.
Try turning away Mr. Bumpy…He ain’t gonna turn his back until the apologies to him happen.
This is not all that dissimilar to Donald Trump’s position that all Muslims should be banned from entering the United States simply because of who they are and their choice of religion. And down the hill we go …
“He said he has an informal rule allowing female bartenders working alone at night to turn away people who look like they could make trouble, and acknowledged that he has included Polynesian people in that category.” Why single out people by ethnicity or if they have tattoos? If you’re going to determine who might be troublemakers, it should be by their demeanor.
Why does he have females working at night if that’s the problem, Tupit.
That’s when the females have loose lips for yakking all night long.
Racism is not shocking. What’s shocking is that there are bars in Salt Lake??!! Are they serving soda and juice?
lol
Exactly! I thought Utah was a “dry” state, like how Laie is a “dry” city. I learned something new.
alot of non-Mormons are moving into Utah so booze laws in the State are getting more loose.
needless to say the old timer Mormons are hating how things are changing.
“A Salt Lake City bar owner” — AHAHAHAHAHAHAAA I stopped reading right there.
But the Mormons only drink chocolate milk.
It appears this bar may have experienced negative issues involving Polynesians.
Not surprised that Polynesians have a bad rep especially in the western states.When I was in Vietnam my 1st sgt. Told me that he would take any local he could into his unit because we were more adept to the jungle and that we always loved a good fight.
Pali Lookout still has many bones from the Hawaiians pushing each off of the cliff, during King Kamehameha days.
actually they do not have a right to refuse anyone based on their race.
What would Mr. Maea like to name his new bar?
Rename it white is right?
I’ll bet that 90% of the problem customers are people who’ve drank too much. The other 10% are customers who are told they can’t have a drink because they don’t look right.
Ah, now we have a race mentioned. Next question in what do they do for a living? Criminal history in their past hometown, Utah, and USA? Gang membership? Own a Harley? History of adultery, pimping, or abuse of women? What else are Mokes synonymous with?
Hey this story should be used for recruiting purposes and may keep our local athletes home more. BYWho against Polynesians. They will cheer for you on the field, but ask you to leave the premise if you one braddah.
And of course don’t forget how American Indians were excluded from drinking in bars altogether, maybe still in some places around the country maybe?
What do the Indians drink?
Why is this news? Discrimination against ALL minorities and nonmembers of the sect is the norm there.
Wow! Call the American Civil Liberties Union! The bar should be prosecuted for discrimination!
Potential trouble makers or ethnicity? Which is it?
So what’s with the sign “we have the right to refuse service to anyone”? Do businesses legally need a reason?
Maybe call it a Club and only chosen members will be allowed in.
Refuse service to trouble makers. These people didn’t even make trouble.
Warrior Football HC should use this for his recruiting the poly players up there.
Nobody has ever turned my fluffy puppies away.
Somewhere along the evolution trail, a subspecies hit a dead end. The subspecies consisting of certain sect and it’s members. Thank God for culling these dead end mutations.
People…. In this country as long as you abide the law (commmon law, state,city level) If you are the owner of your own establishment, He/she has the right to refuse any services he/she wishes too. Thats America, I would be pissed if a get racial profiled but that does not mean the ower should get punished for having a idiotic belief that all Poynesian is trouble makers. Its his Idiotic Belief is wrong but he has the right to think any which way but loose… He’s a Moron with stereotypical views in life. Most likely never left his town.
Have compassion and forgive him for being a Idiot. Go eslewhere to get a drink. Remember everyone…freedom goes both ways… Thats America.
They weren’t LDS that’s y lol