“When Black gay men were fighting, what you immediately saw were staff and security either break up the fight and immediately call the cops and throw the Black patrons out,” he tells them. over the phone. “However, when white gay man would fight, they would suddenly find many tools in their toolbox to deescalate.”
Mitchum, who also serves as the co-chair of Collective Action for Safe Space (CASS), has been calling attention to this problem for years. In 2017, he penned an open letter urging greater accountability from the bar’s ownership in addressing “complicated issues in which Nellie’s has been complicit.” The letter, he says, prompted many others to share their negative experiences with the business.
While Mitchum met with the bar’s owner, Doug Schantz, to discuss these issues, little has changed in the years since. This is in part, he says, because the issues at Nellie’s go beyond Saturday’s incident — and are even bigger than the bar itself. The district in which the bar resides, informally called U Street, is one of D.C.’s most important historic Black neighborhoods, the site of its own Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. Black queer spaces have steadily pushed out over the years by rising rents, however, taking with them the patrons who once called these establishments home.
The white supremacist origins behind gentrification aren’t partisan either, according to Mitchum. White, gay progressives, he says, are just as capable of perpetuating a culture of anti-Blackness.
“I’m frustrated, because I gave them a chance and I thought they would be better,” said Mitchum. “I’m not surprised by how Nellie’s reacted because I’m not surprised how white supremacist ideology shows up even from supposed progressives. In my experience, the one thing that connects many, many white communities is white supremacy, even from people I ordinarily agree with politically. And that’s a shame.”
On Monday, Nellie’s responded to criticism of the video by announcing the guard’s firing on social media, while offering a “heartfelt apology” to “all who witnessed the horrific events of this past weekend.” The bar added that it would be closed for the next week while its management investigates “this regrettable situation.”
But activists say the bar has yet to personally apologize to Young or offer a clear plan for changing its internal culture. Young and her family, meanwhile, intend to pursue a civil claim against the bar, per Washington City Paper.
Prior to publication, them. attempted to reach out to Nellie’s through several different avenues. After sending a request for comment through the comment form on the bar’s website, them. received no response through its Facebook page. Multiple attempts to call the bar’s phone went unanswered and its voicemail box was full, making it impossible to leave a message. The business has yet to respond at this time.
Mitchum says that the lack of an apology is “consistent for Nellie’s,” and he’s not hopeful when it comes to accountability. “Because Nellie’s has been a staple for so many white queer men, and white straight men and women who love to celebrate their bachelorette parties there, they know people would defend them,” he says.
“Without question, without seeing the video, they knew people would defend them, and that is the power of whiteness,” Mitchum adds. “That is the power of gentrification and taking over spaces that were traditionally Black.”
Additional reporting by Nico Lang
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