What was supposed to be a quiet birthday dinner quickly turned into an incident after a Black man was kicked out of Umi Sushi in the Buckhead area of Atlanta for wearing sneakers.
Before he and his wife could be seated at the restaurant, they were asked by staff to leave. On their way out, they noticed a white customer wearing sneakers being served by the bar.
Footage of the incident was captured by the man’s wife, Kaylan Colbert, who told Fox 5 Atlanta, “If you are going to have rules, they should apply to everyone and not just some people.”
Her husband is seen in the video wearing all-white Nike Air Force One sneakers. When the couple made it outside the restaurant, the situation escalated because they demanded answers about the difference in treatment they received versus the other customer also wearing sneakers.
Dress codes and their discriminatory enforcement have long been used as discriminatory practices used to keep marginalized groups of people out of certain spaces.
Umi Sushi’s owner, Farshid Arshid claims the restaurant’s dress code is posted outside. Arshid said in a statement, “This was completely 100 percent an operational mistake on our end,” adding “When they got upset, we should have investigated that.”
Arshid said he reached out to the Colberts but the couple has not made any guarantee that they’ll be returning.
Photo: Getty Images