A video has gone viral featuring a Black Dallas restaurant owner throwing patrons out of his establishment for twerking.
When some customers stood on the furniture and began twerking to music being played at TRUE Kitchen + Kocktails, owner Kevin Kelley went on an anti-twerking rant. And it was all caught on video.
A DJ was playing the song “Circle” by Lil Ronny, NBC Dallas reported. It’s a song about twerking. Kelley asked the DJ to stop the music and said anyone who wanted to twerk could “get the f*** out of my restaurant.”
“I invested a lot of money in this concept so that Black people can have somewhere nice to go to…” Kelley said. “And so all this twerking and sh**, take it to Prime, take it to Pynk, don’t bring it here because we’re a restaurant.”
Prime and Pynk are local Dallas nightclubs.
When the twerking guests didn’t do as he asked, Kelley kicked them out, Complex reported. Kelley later said he first asked them to stop dancing but when they continued, he demanded they leave.
Later, the restaurant owner said that 75 percent of his customers are women, and they’re “disrespecting” themselves by twerking. “If you wanna do it, get the f*** out my restaurant,” he continued. “I did it for our people, I did it for our culture. … Don’t do it again. I don’t want to hear it if you don’t like it. Get out because I don’t need your money.”
The anti-twerking video has garnered more than 1 million views since it was posted on Nov. 29, Essence reported.
Here’s what people said on Twitter.
One user agreed with Kelley, tweeting, “Keep the standards high for the black community.. we have to work 10x harder to get the respect from our own people so I don’t blame you for your actions ..what’s sad..he had to tell them multiple times before he acted out in rage.. I don’t blame you.. respect his shit”.
But another countered, “So this statement implies that the ‘Black community’ has or can have low standards and that Black people have innate disrespect for other Black people The white folks really did a number on y’all…”
Jamarlin Martin, The Moguldom Nation founder, asked, “How many customers were twerkin’ though? You can’t do a ‘Dr King’ respectability speech b/c of a single customer. If you’re going to do that, you become THE POLICE.”
One Twitter user predicted that the anti-twerking rant was “Restaurant SUICIDE on camera.”
Another responded, “The fact that everyone ain’t get up fast enough not sittin right with my soul. That man was talkin to em like he was Uncle Clifford”.
Food and fun just go together, a Twitter user said: “You serving this and playing music and think muthafucka not gonna twerk fucking delusional”.
According to their website, TRUE offers gourmet comfort food, such as flavored fried chicken and lobster tails, shrimp and grits, creative waffles and other southern classics “made with a twist.”
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Kelley followed up about the incident on Facebook with an apology. “I would like to apologize to the patrons who I offended by my poor choice of wording,” he said. “As for the music played, moving forward we will adjust our playlist and DJ selections. However, regardless of what has or will be played, no guest has the right to come into our business ‘home’ and stand on our furniture because of any song played.”
This statement also got responses on Twitter. Torraine Walker, founder of the documentary production company Context Media, weighed in: “It ain’t what you do it’s how you do it” applies to everybody in that restaurant.”
He added, “The owner’s statement. I don’t know if it’s true…but it sounds like it.”
