This is getting out of hand.
A group of African-American women were allegedly accused of being prostitutes after a man offered to buy them drinks during a girl’s night out at the Standard Hotel in New York City.
According to New York Magazine, lawyer Kantaki Washington and her two friends, Cydney Madlock and J. Lyn Thomas, both educators, attended Le Bain, the bar on the roof of the Standard Hotel in August.
While enjoying their night, they were approached by a few men who wanted to buy them drinks. While one man approached the women, security stepped in and told them to stop soliciting.
Washington explains:
“After the security guard ushers the brotha away, he comes over to me and my friends and says, ‘Come on, ladies. You can buy a drink but you can’t be soliciting,'” Washington told AlterNet in an interview. “We were like, soliciting? He said, ‘Don’t act stupid with me, ladies. You know what you’re doing. Stop soliciting in here. We were like, ‘Soliciting what?'”
Shocked, she asked the security guard if he was accusing them of prostitution. “Don’t act stupid with me, you know what you were doing,” Washington recalls the guard saying.
“Dude, I’m a lawyer and these women are educators,” she said in reply. “Why the hell would I be in here soliciting prostitution?” Washington said he answered, “I don’t know but that’s what you’re doing.”
Washington reported the incident to management. A few weeks later, Washington received a letter in the mail about the ordeal. In an effort to make things right, the women were offered a free bottle of champagne and a free dinner for four.
“While the profiling incident was not referenced directly, a follow-up message from a staffer read, “Again, I want to apologize for what happened to you here that evening. We are extending this table for 4 as a gesture of goodwill for you and your friends, plus one more person. Please let me know when you would like to come back.”
Thomas, a dance teacher, says she was shocked that the incident even happened.
“I’m just in shock that, in 2014, this is something that I had to take time out of my night to handle,” she said. “It’s beyond what I can imagine could happen in 2014. Three black women, and the only reason why we could be there is because we’re soliciting for sex? That’s ridiculous. A lawyer and two people who teach kids for a living. It was very dehumanizing and very degrading. He did it in front of the entire restaurant and they were watching the whole scene. It was humiliating. I’m still in shock. I still can’t believe that happened.”
The Standard released a statement straying away from the allegations, but acknowledging that a third-party was involved.
Both the misinformation and comments made were provided by third parties, not employed by The Standard. The Standard has zero tolerance for any type of discrimination at any of our properties and profusely regrets the situation.
The ladies brushed off the hotel’s gesture for a free meal.
As for that misguided $400 olive branch, “we all have careers,” one of the women involved told AlterNet. “That’s nothing. We can afford that ourselves.”
And recently, Black Django Unchained actress Daniele Watts was also allegedly accused of prostitution after engaging in PDA with her white boyfriend in a car in L.A.
SOURCE: New York Magazine | PHOTO CREDIT: Facebook/Handout
