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Published Friday, Aug. 29, 2008 | 6:15 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008 | 10:15 a.m.
African-American members of the Nevada legislature and other leaders in the Nevada black community say they are surprised and disappointed by racially tinged comments posted by a Las Vegas blogger who freelances for several major American newspapers.
In a blog posted Wednesday, Steve Friess, remarking on news that Palazzo would be buying back the Jay-Z sports bar-restaurant the 40/40 Club, wrote: "the surprise was that anybody thought that a place that elsewhere is known for drawing large numbers of black customers would fit in well in a $2 billion resort like the Palazzo where the only minorities they're really aiming to please are Asian whales."
Friess went on to characterize his post as "an objective look at an inappropriate pairing between the aesthetic of a resort that envisions itself and markets itself as the lap of luxury and a place known for being popular among rappers and folks who like a good chicken wing."
The latter comment drew the strongest response from African-American leaders.
Senate Minority Leader Steven Horsford, a Las Vegas Democrat, said the statement is "uninformed and ignorant. That that's the view of what black people want is ridiculous, just absolutely ridiculous."
In an e-mail response to the Sun asking about his remarks, Friess said: "I would never have considered chicken wings to be viewed as a black food and did not write it in order to evoke that sense. Chicken wings are a staple of every sports bars I've ever been in, which is why I made reference to them."
He also said, "Some may view it as inappropriate to view 40/40 Club as a black-oriented business. Those people would be deliberately ignorant."
The Rev. Robert Fowler, pastor of Victory Baptist Church, said the entire posting "borders on being racist." He added: "The insensitivity is amazing to me."
Friess was commenting on a report that the Las Vegas Sands Corp., owner of the Palazzo, is buying back the space leased to the 40/40 Club and converting it into a sports book. In a statement quoted in the article, Jay-Z hailed the deal as "a great business decision" and that he and his partners would be opening additional clubs in Chicago, Tokyo and Macau in the next year.
Jay-Z spokesman Ron Berkowitz called Friess' post "ridiculous. I hope he wouldn't be a racist."
Friess is Las Vegas-based freelancer who regularly writes for USA Today, The New York Times and Newsweek, among others. He writes a column for the Las Vegas Weekly. Friess also teaches news writing at UNLV.
Assemblyman Harvey Munford, a Las Vegas Democrat, said he was disappointed in Friess' use of black stereotypes. Friess also implies that blacks are not good enough to frequent a high-end resort, Munford said.
Indeed, Friess himself seemed to recognize the inflammatory nature of his comments. "Is that a racist statement," he asked in the post, after saying the resort and club were mismatched. "I don't mean it to be."
Rainier Spencer, director of UNLV's Afro-American Studies, said the post recalls golfer Fuzzy Zoeller's racist comments about Tiger Woods in 1997. Zoeller referred to Woods as "that little boy" and urged him not to order fried chicken or collard greens for the Champions Dinner.
The post by Friess "seems to suggest that a black-themed club doesn't belong anywhere on the Strip. Where does it belong? Circus Circus or where else? Downtown?"
Horsford agreed. "Black people are not monolithic," he said. "We are just as diverse as any other community. To suggest it is not the right demographic to sit inside a resort is not correct and I disagree with it."
He added: "The African-American community is an important demographic. We market to all communities, particularly growing, diverse communities."
Friess said he was "completely taken by surprise that black people would be offended by what was a business observation. In fact, I made the point of asking rhetorically in my post whether it was a racist statement and then clearly stated my intentions because I know that certain people will always read anything written by a white writer about something related to black issues in that context."
Both Jay-Z and the Palazzo say the deal was good business, pure and simple.
Berkowitz told Los Angeles Times blogger Richard Abowitz, "The club was doing fine. ... What is going on here is that (the space) is valuable real estate, and they came to us with an offer and this was a good business deal."
A Palazzo spokesman said the deal "gives us an opportunity to fill an identified need."
When blacks make ugly statements, everyone laughs. Just get off you high-horses and be glad you live in America. Dont be so thin-skinned, most people are tired of it.
Once again racism raises its ugly head and it is from the ones that are so fast to cry racist whether the observation is true, is accurate, makes the point that was necessary, or was made to show and demonstrate a truth. The black community views any and all forms of debate, illustration, truth, or any possible example that is true yet shows blacks in anything other than a perfect light as being racist and shows lack of concern for the plight of blacks. The article merely used the theme of the club in a statement that it was too narrow to attract large numbers of those who could afford to go there. That includes, by the way, the magority of whites, hispanics, asians, native american, and european sports bar attendees that can ill afford the prices that must be charged by the club to cover costs.
Ha love to see Friess get lynched by his politically correct "peeps". This is why Obama can't win in November, the left wingers squabble with each other over trifles and can't find any sort of real unity.
To all the ignorant people on this blog, SHUT UP! true everyone has a right to their opinion and can say what they want to say, but at least be repectful. This is what wrong wioth people today in all forms of races. We are to worry about what people say, we as people of all races should know IT IS NOT TO AGREE OR DISAGREE, everyone has a different opinion about each other. Furthermore, as a african american, that club was ghetto and it did not belong at the PALAZZO or anywhere else on the strip for that matter. I'm sorry, I like Jay-Z but I applied for that club and had an interview and went there and just forget what I'm thinking right now. Those people were rude and out of this world!! JAY-Z YOU NEED TO FIND BETTER MANAGEMENT WITH SOME SENSE OF STYLE AND CLASS, WITH SOME STRONG VOCAL CORDS, THAT ALL I HAVE TO SAY. I'M NOT TRYING TO HATE I'M KEEPING IT REAL.
Hooters built an empire on "good wings". I always thought of 40/40 as a "High dollar, Hip-Hop Hooters". Am I wrong?
What I find surprising is that the newspaper that is most famous and respected for Mr. Hank Greenspun's courageous editorials speaking out against Joe McCarthy before anyone else, is putting out this story under the byline "Sun Staff". Is Steve Friess so powerful that no one wants their name on this story? Or maybe someone has a score to settle?
You are correct JLOKC, and that is the bottom line as to why this club didn’t last. People don’t visit the Strip to hang out in a sports bar. We see how successful even the Hooters Casino has been.
Steve has it all twisted, to borrow the Hip-Hop vernacular, to think the place wouldn’t fit in Palazzo because it’s “known for drawing large numbers of black customers.” That, my friends, is the reason African-American members of the Nevada legislature and other leaders in the Nevada black community were surprised and disappointed. This is another example of ignorant white people making careless statements without basis. The tragedy is he doesn’t even realize the implications of his statements.
Please white reporters, for the sake of news integrity, corroborate statements about black people with black people before running with them. Remember Michael Keaton’s movie “The Paper”? A little research would go a long way.
I have no doubt the club would’ve been more successful had it been a nightclub, despite it’s “basement” location. You should have seen the crowds working their way through the casino asking anyone in uniform “Where’s Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club?” The time has long passed for all of us to stop assuming we know each other and to acctually start getting to know. We’re all in this together, remember?
(As posted on the original blog)
The gratuitous use of culturally insensitive stereotypes is the only aspect of this post that gives anyone (black or white) reason to take umbrage with this commentary. Specifically, I am referring to the phrases “folks who like a good chicken wing”, “Hell to the no”, “Hard to sell chicken wings”.
When discussing other examples of mismatched pairings along the strip no where did you utilize racially inflammatory language to emphasize your point? You came close with the comment “mimosas-caviar crowd” when referring to the failings of Spamalot; however, this phrase has no direct connotation to one specific racial / ethnic group but rather a class / socio-economic set.
If an Italian themed restaurant were to fail within the same complex, would you use commonly recognized stereotypes to demean Italians?
Pointing out a mismatch in marketing messages is fine. In fact you are not unique in recognizing obvious flaws within the business model; however, the issue many within the black community have with your characterization of the business arrangement is your suggestion that an event / business that attracts large amounts of black customers is not appropriate or will not perform well because “it’s hard to sell chicken wings” even to the CEO of China Mobile.
Why is addressing this ignorance important? As a native Las Vegan, I am deeply protective of the image of inclusiveness that we as a city must project to the world in order to stay culturally relevant in a changing cultural climate? In other words we as a city need to stay on the cutting edge of providing quality entertainment to all people to keep the nearly 40 million visitors increasing over time along with the tax revenue they generate. Your columns and commentary are read by thousands of potential visitors to and investors in the Las Vegas community. Spreading rumors or innuendos that business models dependent on a disproportionate amount of black customers is neither welcome nor viable is unfortunate to say the least. African Americans make up nearly 13% of the population of the United States, which begs the question why don’t we advertise in Ebony or Jet? Further why don’t we compete for conventions such as the “Essence Festival” which adds anywhere from $100 - $200 million to the New Orleans economy annually?
Are we as African Americans in Las Vegas a bit sensitive on this topic? Probably?
Why? My bet is that many of us remember stories from our parents when black folks weren’t welcome inside the strip hotels (off the stage Sammy wasn’t either).
In summary, you are entitled to your opinion and to be politically incorrect, but please recognize that when you direct thinly veiled stereotypical comments at a specific ethnic group we feel it is our duty to correct them because of the wider implications this may have on future businesses focused on our community.
Alex Dixon
Alex
How about y'all just being "American-Americans" and maybe we won't be so uptight about the whole thing. You can start the "Black Chamber of Commerce" and noone blinks. But if I start the "White Chamber of Commerce" it's racist.
What are you so afraid of?
BBTrain,
I wish we all could be American-American's.
Unfortunately, in our not too distant past, American-American's without melanin in their skin would not allow American-American's with melanin to join their civic, social and educational organizations. As a result those with melanin were forced to duplicate organizations to achieve the american dream.
A clear example of this is my alma mater, Howard University in Washington DC. Howard was founded in 1867 by it's namesake General Oliver Otis Howard, a white civil war veteran, who understtod the power of education and adamantly pushed the government to create a University to educate newly freed slaves. Across the south hundreds of other universities were created under the same principle.
Were there no established universities that freed slaves could have attended? Of course there were, thousands in fact, but American-Americans did not want these American-Americans to attend their schools.
So for nearly 140 years Howard and other universities have been educating the sons and daughters of former slaves. Not until the late 1960s (nearly 100 years after its founding) were black people allowed to attend American-American schools. Should black people all of a sudden just shut down organizations like Howard or Black Chamber's of Commerce because 30 years ago it was ok to join the American-American orgs? No?
Should we celebrate organizations like the Latin or Asian Chamber right along with the Las Vegas Chamber? In my humble opinion, Yes.
Am I suggesting you are racist? No
Am I suggesting the author is racist? No
Me celebrating my culture and complex history is not a denoucement of your culture and history, this is not a zero sum game.
Alex
Celebrate the past but don't beat me over the head with it. I know my history. What is the only group in America it is LEGAL to discriminate against? Answer: White males under 40. Yes, it's legal to discriminate against white trash like me just because I'm white. No big employer says, "Jeez, I've just got too many minority employees, I gotta get more whites in here."
I've never held a slave. Slavery ended over a hundred years ago. I've never discriminated against a person based upon his/her color, creed or religion, only the content of their character.
Even Obama at the 2004 convention said that we shouldn't be hyphenated Americans, we should all be American-Americans.
This is the greatest country on earth and I'd rather not pollute it with people who want to slice it up into a bunch of minority "stans." Blackistan, Mexicanstan, Vietnamistan.
But I don't see you standing up for the legal discrimination against white males under 40.
See you in your Stan.
You are 100% correct Alex aka sunset regarding Mr. Friess’s statements on the 40/40 closing, and the reason Nevada Black leaders objected to those statements…
It was sad that the Mr. Friess didn’t realize the insensitivity of his comments and chose to use those choice words to make his point. But that is ok because one mustn’t always have to be “politically correct”. It was also ok for him to be singled out for those comments because they aren’t politically correct and are without basis. It kind-of points to the ignorance by some white Americans when trying to explain issues regarding race, specifically African Americans.
It’s interesting because though I respect and applaud Mr. Friess’s attempt to explain the failure of the 40/40 business model with the Palazzo. His comments and word parings took him far off base and trumped an opportunity to really explain the true failure or shall I say missed opportunity of the poorly managed and marketed 40/40 venue. I say this because it was an opportunity to create a space that provided a unique experience & be particularly welcoming to those who enjoyed sports, sports bars, hip-hop and pop-culture related entertainment and night life. I believed 40/40’s present business model for its Vegas location was flawed for the fickle Las Vegas market. The venue didn’t know if it wanted to be a high end nightclub or sports bar and consumers were equally confused, especially with the high price points. In a town like Vegas, to have your venue located on the strip with all the tourists, you have to be either or not both.
High end nightclub works well on the strip it you market and brand yourself as such, along with operate the necessary way to stay in business (LV Sands has 2 nightclub venues in its properties that are doing fine and cater to African-Americans equally as well). High end sports bar works well too if you be only that, and market yourself as that and not go over board with prices because that crowd doesn’t want to pay too much. But hybrid high-end overly priced Sports Bar/nightclub with rooms & memberships to rent out like some arena luxury suites or sky boxes is kind of mushy in this Las Vegas market. It has nothing to do with African-Americans, White-Americans, Asian-Americans, or American-Americans!!!!
As far as bbtbrain's comments about him being "white trash" and his unfortunate plights. Your pain and frustration is totally understandable and legitimate. I say this as an African-American male. Your scio-economic segment of the US population is truly a forgotten group in this country. But please don't blame African- Americans or fellow American-Americans as you prefer, for your troubles. Your right this is the greatest country, BUT we unfortunately have a long ways to go before we can truly all be American-American’s. This great country has over 200 years of history of “slicing itself up to a bunch of minority ..stans”. And it has become unfortunate that with the long awaited steps in advancement for minorities in this country over the last 30 odd years, a segment of the population (very low income white people, or “white trash” as you put it) have been set by the waist side. We’ve come so far but still have so far to go, with new issues to tackle.