Twerking at True Kitchen Restaurant

Let's say you invite a guest to your home. The guest puts her bare feet on your couch, throws her chewed meat bones on your carpet, and writes her name in permanent marker on your walls. When you politely ask the guest to stop this behavior she ignores you. 

She continues to disrespect you and deface your home. Upset, you eject the guest from your home, using some harsh language in doing so. This is not really news. It becomes news when other people who have the same warped values as the ejected guest blame you instead of the guest for the situation.

Kevin Kelley, owner of True Kitchen + Kocktails, tells TMZ that his anti-twerking speech has had a positive impact on his eatery. The Grio previously reported Kelley was filmed yelling at Black female patrons who were twerking and dancing on the furniture. In the clip, he makes clear that he is running a restaurant, not a club.
‘We’ve received an outpouring of support that we did not anticipate online and in person.’The Dallas restaurant owner who went viral for cursing out his customers over a twerking incident says business is booming.

Kelley caught major heat across social media from users who condemned his tone and questioned his appreciation of Black women. He also had plenty of sympathizers who thought his actions were justified. He responded to the critics and outrage in a lengthy message posted to Instagram. After the initial social media backlash, Kelley says his business has been inundated with dine-in requests.

 

My take is that Kelly made a slight error by having music played that appeals to the sort of folks who need little excuse to jump on someone else's furniture and start shaking their backside. If I'm running a restaurant and want high end patrons who are focused on the food, service, and conversation, I'm playing this sort of music, not what was playing at True Kitchen. And profanity is something I do my best to avoid. 

But the initial online reaction by some who claimed that Kelly was practicing "misogynoir", "respectability politics", or unduly attacking Black women was not something backed up by the facts. I would be angry too if I had to repeatedly tell the same people to stop misbehaving in my home or business. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's a time and place for everything. I'm sure there are other restaurants and clubs that are looking for women to climb on the furniture and shake their behinds. Kelly doesn't want his restaurant to be such a place. That Kelly's business has improved since the video demonstrates that the twitter mobs are not as important or as numerous as they would have us believe.  

Some people lack home training. So they can't distinguish bad behavior from good. And they get upset when someone else, no doubt frustrated, takes the time to correct them. But they will get corrected eventually. Count on it.  LINK