Harrah's Corporation Sued for Racial Discrimination

Poetry Nightclub along with Wolfgang Puck's Chinois restaurant filed a law suit against Caesars Palace and Simon Property Group earlier this year. Defendants motions to dismiss the case are scheduled to be heard before a federal judge in Nevada in December.

Poetry Nightclub's story has been spreading rapidly over Las Vegas internet sites and blogs. A 'silent observance' was recently attended by several hundred customers and employees of Poetry Nightclub demonstrating that Caesars' racial prejudice has not gone unnoticed. As America stands poised to inaugurate its first black president, Poetry's largely black clientele find themselves subject to treatment that the complaint calls (degrading) and (reminiscent of African Americans historically being permitted to access restaurants and other places of public accommodation only through service entrances).

The lawsuit, recently transferred from state to federal court, alleges that Caesars Palace's decision to close the primary entrance to the Forum Shops at 1 a.m. on weekends is racially motivated. Poetry's predominately black clientele are directed outdoors, past some trash bins and into an empty, service hallway frequently littered with trash and overfilled garbage receptacles where they must navigate in dim lighting until they emerge back at the Forum Shops. "As it's been expressed to us, corporations are under the impression that too many black people on your property harms business," says Mike Goodwin, Poetry's managing partner.

The lawsuit alleges that the route imposed on Poetry's customers is a deliberate attempt by Caesars and Forum Shops owners, Simon Property Group Inc., to drive Poetry out of business because they believe that the large presence of black patrons does not fit well with the 'brand' of the extremely upscale Forum Shops. Tom Kaplan, senior managing partner of the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group was quoted in the Las Vegas Business Press on October 20, 2008 as saying, "To block (access) and make people walk around into a corridor is inappropriate and unfitting of the facility."

"Poetry Nightclub is an upscale hip hop venue with a large celebrity clientele," said Goodwin. "To obstruct my customers access to the club because they are the "wrong kind of customer" is a sad reflection on Corporate America."

Poetry Nightclub is located at Caesars Palace in The Forum Shops next to FAO Schwarz, above Wolfgang Puck's Chinois restaurant.

Source: Poetry Nightclub

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