“No Brown Bowling”
I’ve been meaning to post this for days.
The lovely and talented Phillygrrrrrrrrrrl got a faceful of the old-fashioned bigotry this past Sunday at Thunderbird Lanes on 3081 Holme avenue:
[I]f you walk into Thunderbird Lanes with a group of brown kids from your church’s youth group on a Sunday and they tell you all the lanes are booked, even though there are clearly 20+ lanes available, you’ll need a backup plan.
And when you tell the manager and his employee, both who are clearly panicking at the influx of brown kids, that you called yesterday and they said they don’t take reservations and that it’s first-come, first-served and it shouldn’t be a problem and they shake their heads, you’ll need a plan. And although the lady on the phone said it’s never a problem to bowl on a Sunday, lanes are always free, they shake their heads and you realize something’s a bit off. And when they say, “Sorry! our bowling league is practicing today” and you look around and nobody’s there except for some families in the corner who are all staring at you, you realize you’re not welcome. And that it’s time to find a new bowling alley.”
If, like me, you happen to know phillygrrl personally, you’re probably shaking your head and muttering WTF? Seriously, i know this person, and she’s about the most demure, low-key, friendly person you could hope to meet. She’s also a facebook friend, and if her photo album is any indication, her friends are of the same caliber. Suffice it to say, there is nothing remotely thuggish or criminal about this young woman or her friends. NOTHING.
But it seems that, like the guy who came to check my pipes and instead gave me advice to put bars on my windows to prevent the Attack of the Deadly Black, the management didn’t see potential customers with money to spend: they saw the Invasion of the Brown People. Oh the humanity, those people look different than me, they will scare off the customers.
I have absolutely zero tolerance for racists. I think it’s a despicable and lazy frame of mind. If you drop by Phillygrrrl’s link, you’ll see the owners of Thunderturd lanes have dropped by making all sorts of excuses for their inexcusable behavior, when what they should be doing is offering an unconditional apology, gift certificates, and a pledge to teach their less-worldly employees about the concept of diversity
Until i read an update at Phillygrrl, I have one thing to say to Thunderturd lanes: there are plenty of other bowling alleys in Philadelphia.
February 12th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
[...] Lee Mathews wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAnd when they say, “Sorry! our bowling league is practicing today” and you look around and nobody’s there except for some families in the corner who are all staring at you, you realize you’re not welcome. And that it’s time to find a … [...]
February 17th, 2009 at 1:50 am
[...] No Comments A bunch of folks were outraged after reading my post last Sunday. Last Wednesday, Brendan Calling [...]