What’s up Chi-town? This is how they play up there??? Camila Klinger, 27, was fired as general manager for a popular bar in Lincoln Park in 2010. Two weeks ago, she filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that Anthony Anton, the owner of Fuze (formerly known as Skybar) at 2242 N. Lincoln, routinely used illegal tactics to limit the number of African Americans in the club. Anton did not return several phone calls seeking comment about the lawsuit. His attorney, Michael Ficaro, also did not return my phone calls. But this is not the first time that someone has accused Anton of discriminating against African Americans. In 2007, a Caucasian male contacted me after he allegedly witnessed four black patrons being denied admittance to the Mark II lounge in Rogers Park, another bar that Anton owns. The African Americans walked away after being told the bar was closed to the public for a private party. The white patron overheard the false claim and was so outraged, he chased the group down and advised them of the scheme. The lawsuit specifically names several instances and examples of discriminatory behavior on the part of the club owner. Among other things, Klinger’s suit alleges that Anton’s discriminatory practices included: Telling her that there were too many black people in the club; ordering her to tell the DJs to stop playing African-American music so black patrons would leave, and raising the club’s cover charge and cost for party packages for black customers so they would choose to go elsewhere. “Anton made it clear to Klinger that certain racial minority groups, particularly African Americans, were not welcome in the club,’’ the suit states. After sometime it became too much for Klinger to accept and she decided she had to do something. “Something inside of me felt that this was not acceptable in any form,” Klinger told me in an interview at her lawyer’s office. “I felt like I had to speak out. A lot of people see things, they witness things and they don’t have the means and resources to bring some kind of awareness. I feel like the only way for good to come out of this is if I expose this.” …Things came to a head on a Sunday night when Klinger said she was called on the carpet after an African American and a Latino got into a fight in the bar. “This was the only time there was a fight,” she said. The suit states that after the incident, Anton told her “that she needed to start enforcing the racial quotas and that if she would not do it he would find someone who would.” Added Klinger: “When I said what he was asking me to do was morally wrong and illegal, he said I had to leave.” Source
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Race Matters: Chicago Woman Claims She Was Fired From Night Club For Not Enforcing Racial Quotas
