On a Thursday night last fall, Alwyn Reid, a junior at BGSU, planned to spend his night having fun at a Bowling Green club. But when he got to the door, he and his fraternity brother weren’t allowed to enter because they were wearing white T-shirts.

Reid asked the bouncer if he could go home, change, and return to the club, but was told he couldn’t after having been seen with the white T-shirt on that night.

As Reid argued with the bouncer, he claims to have seen another male wearing a plain white T-shirt walk out of the club.

The only difference he could see? Reid was African-American while the man walking out of the club was Caucasian.

Unable to shake the lingering feeling of unfairness, Reid won’t return to the club – citing what he claims is a dress code double-standard.

In downtown Bowling Green, two clubs have dress codes that students say target “urban-wear” – Uptown-Downtown and Skybar Night Club.

As BGSU students continue to be turned away for wearing the wrong clothing, more and more say the dress codes seem unfair and unnecessary, while bar owners and managers tout the dress codes for ensuring patron safety.

On his first time at Uptown in January 2004, Mark Moody, junior, was denied admittance to the club for wearing a football jersey, which is a violation of their dress code.

He was also escorted out of Uptown this past Friday for wearing his hat crooked – also a violation.

Moody, a Caucasian student, said he’s seen the dress code enforced for students of all races, but he still doesn’t think it’s necessary – or fair.

“I wasn’t underage drinking, and I wasn’t causing a fight,” Moody said. “Because of a hat, I was kicked out.”

But club managers are confident their dress codes have played a major role in deterring violence inside the clubs.

And according to Rodney Fleming, managing attorney for Student Legal Services, clubs have the legal right to enforce any dress code they want.

“Liquor establishments are allowed to refuse admittance to anyone,” Fleming said.

But liquor establishments can’t keep people out based on race.

“If staff is biased or racist – therefore they enforce their dress code in a racist manner – then that’s a violation of the individual’s civil rights,” Fleming said.

So as long as a dress code is enforced against both genders and people of all ethnicities consistently, the dress code isn’t discriminatory, Fleming said.

Doug Dorn, owner of Skybar, did not return calls by The BG News for this story.

But Jason Karcher, manager of Uptown-Downtown, said dress codes for both the Uptown dance club and the Downtown sports bar are enforced fairly for everyone.

“It’s not something that’s discriminating because we enforce it for safety,” Karcher said. “White, green, or yellow – it doesn’t matter.”

The dress codes at Uptown-Downtown were put in place a few years ago because, according to Karcher, they had problems with past gang activity, with gang signs allegedly flashed across the dance floor.

Hired to ensure the safety of patrons at Uptown-Downtown are bouncers like Andy Ransom, who supports the dress code, and is confident that it improves safety.

“We just want [the club] to be safe and fun,” Ransom said.

Veteran bouncers at the club keep an eye on new bouncers, overseeing their enforcement of the dress code, Ransom said.

The dress codes at Uptown-Downtown are now enforced on their busiest nights – Thursday through Saturday – on the recommendation of the Bowling Green Police Department to prevent future problems, according to Karcher.

Karcher is confident that the dress codes have been effective because of decreased fights and gang activity.

“We’ve had an increase in customers since it’s been enforced,” Karcher said. “People feel safer.”

But Reid questions why the dress codes are even needed in a rural college town like Bowling Green.

“I’m in college. I’m not going to a club to fight. I’m going to go dance,” Reid said.

And Jakell Wilson, president of NAACP, thinks the clubs have their dress code all wrong.

She questions banning urban apparel to prevent gang activity in Bowling Green because the current dress codes ignore what gang members actually wear to identify themselves.

“Gangs are all about colors,” Wilson said. “The last thing a gang member will wear is a white T-shirt.”

Wilson also doesn’t like the implication made by the dress codes.

“It seems like they’re making the assumption that all people that wear urban apparel – which is most often people of color – are gang members,” Wilson said.

Wilson also questions why some clubs have televisions that show rap music videos, where artists often wear the same clothing that is banned in the clubs.

“It’s contradictory because they play urban music, but ban urban apparel,” Wilson said.

John Gauld, general manager of Junction Bar ‘#38; Grill, said his club doesn’t have a dress code.

Gauld believes that what people wear is unrelated to whether they will cause problems in the club.

“We don’t think that because people dress a certain way that they act a certain way,” he said.

Gauld believes apparel doesn’t even factor into fights because nine out of ten fights are caused by something that happens before the participants get to the bar.

On weekends, Junction normally plays Top-40 hits on their dance floor and only plays other urban music when requested.

The bar also has specialized nights, such as country night on Tuesdays.

But Gauld wonders what would happen if Junction had a dress code similar in nature to those banning some urban apparel.

“Why would we have country night and not allow people wearing country hats?” Gauld said.

Student leaders plan to investigate the enforcement of dress codes downtown, as well as the reasons behind them.

Brian Dixon, political action chair of Latino Student Union, believes the issue is very important to University students.

“When the dress code seems to obviously target a racial minority, we need to ask whether or not we want to live in a community where any level of discrimination is tolerated,” he said.

Dixon wants student organizations to work together on the issue.

“This needs to be a joint effort between our organizations so we can combine resources and strategies,” Dixon said.

Aaron Shumaker, president of the Undergraduate Student Government, wants students to report any instances of possible discrimination to their student senators.

“If this is an issue that affects you please come to us and let us know,” Shumaker said.

But Shumaker wants to make it a positive situation for everyone involved – both the clubs and students.

“[Let’s] make it a win-win situation for everyone,” he said.

Editor’s Note: NAACP will be having a meeting to explore the dress code issue next Tuesday, October 4 at 8 p.m. in 315 of the Union.