Lia Gant wants to see workers at J. Alexander’s, a restaurant in West Bloomfield, Michigan, fired. This isn’t a simple case of incorrect food or slow service, though. According to Gant, they violated her civil rights and discriminated against her.
Gant, who is a black woman, alleges that a white bartender told her to give up her seat for a white man, and then refused to serve her. Specifically, she recounts that the same white bartender who refused her service took her drink and poured it down the drain. In response to this, Gant says she sought out a manager. From there, she says the manager told her that she shouldn’t be upset. Why? Because the drink wasn’t “thrown” on her. Yikes!
From there, things went from horrifying to … even more horrifying. This time, it involved other patrons. Gant recalls that a black man stood up for her after the incident with the manager. Then, however, other patrons got involved. And not in a helpful way.
Gant says that a white customer inserted himself in the situation and threw food at the black man while calling him the “n-word.” Gant claims it was at this time that management called the police—but not on the white customer. Sigh.
Where are we at today? Gant has legal representation from Maurice Davis. The two returned to the restaurant a few days after the incident to do a press conference. A third person, Jerrick Jackson, also attended the press conference; he says he experienced a similar incident at the restaurant, though was not involved in the same one that Gant was.
“This type of behavior is archaic racism, reminiscent of the black men and women of the 1950s,” Davis stated during the press conference. “Our civil rights leaders fought for over a century to secure and preserve black citizens’ right to have a seat at the table, and we refuse to backslide to a nation where black people are told to give up their seat to white people.”
J. Alexander provided a statement to WXYZ Detroit, noting that the restaurant has “turned the security surveillance video over to the West Bloomfield police” and “await a report on their investigation and their determination as to whether any formal charges related to this behavior are warranted.”
For her part, Gant isn’t suing the restaurant. “Right now our primary focus is demanding the immediate termination of the J. Alexander employee that refused to serve our client,” Davis said in an interview with Yahoo Lifestyle.
Here is the (intense) series of videos Gant shared on Facebook, which helped her story in going viral:
You can check out a part of her press conference below:
