Testers find racial bias by nightclubs in New Orleans
About 20 young men squared their shoulders and accepted the assignment: to crawl French Quarter nightclubs for weeks while drinking and soaking up the pulsating beats and spirited crowds. Their jobs are nearly finished, but the men, half of whom are black and half of whom are white, haven't had the same work experience. For example, signs at some clubs proclaimed a one-drink minimum, but the white customers were neither reminded of it nor required to abide by it. But a doorman pointed out the rule to black customers. So did the waitress they encountered a few steps inside the joint, and the bartender they approached at journey's end. The double standard on drink minimums was one small measure of discrimination uncovered by the men, technically known as "testers." In the wake of an African-American college student's death after a scuffle with white Bourbon Street bouncers, Mayor Ray Nagin wanted the moles to find out whether discrimination was rampant in the French Quarter. The results could perhaps best be characterized as predictable but not shocking, according to the nonprofit group that the city's Human Rights Commission hired to conduct the study. Preliminary findings show that while black customers were not denied entry or alcohol at any club, they were subjected to more withering attention and sometimes a sliding price scale, Perry said. For example, Perry said that at one establishment a bartender charged different amounts for a Long Island iced tea to white men and black men ordering the drink about 10 minutes apart. The white customers got the popular concoction for $7.25; the black customers paid $9. [more]