Saturday, March 25, I walked towards Cover 3 with a friend. It was fairly low turnout around 10 p.m., and as I walked up to the bouncer, he asked, “I need to see your CarolinaCard.” Once I showed it to him along with my ID, I walked in and noticed there were only a few other black people inside the bar, no one else other than the staff.
I wondered why he had asked for a CarolinaCard when the turnout was so low it shouldn’t matter who was coming in if they were spending money.
To put it frankly, many of the bars located in Five Points do not, I repeat, do not, want a black/minority presence. Whether they are afraid that their white customers (mostly college kids) will think their bar is too “ghetto” or if they personally do not like minorities for another reason, there is a clear and blatant racial stigmatism in that the current de facto policy is for bouncers at various bars/clubs to ask for a CarolinaCard.
First, the University of South Carolina has no affiliation to the bars downtown, so this is questionable since there are other colleges in the area. Second, the two closest universities to Five Points (beside USC) are Benedict College and Allen University — both historically black colleges and universities. It should not be misunderstood that this CarolinaCard policy is illegal and blatantly used to discriminate against two nearby HBCUs, our fellow scholars in Columbia. Asking for a CarolinaCard to enter a non-university-affiliated establishment is a tactic to only allow in a target demographic which, again, is illegal.
According to USC’s demographic breakdown, the proportion of non-white students is less than 24 percent, with about 10 percent being black. Compared to Allen University and Benedict College, which have over 80 percent black students, the discrimination is very apparent. Both HBCUs are less than a mile from the Five Points area, yet still dehumanized.
The CarolinaCard policy, which I have seen for myself and many others can attest to, has been implemented presently or previously by several establishments. These establishments should not just be boycotted in hope that they change their racist ways, but should be abandoned altogether. It makes zero sense to continue trying to assimilate in a state where the Confederate Flag hung on Statehouse grounds until nine black parishioners were killed in Charleston, where the governor belongs to a “whites only” country club and where racial incidents take place constantly. More than the CarolinaCard policy or the incident at Pour House, there is still the “good ol’ boy” mentality that persists throughout the state and deeply extends itself into Five Points.
While these establishments are not the only ones who discriminate against darker-hued patrons, they are a starting point. These places should be put in the same category as Maurice’s Piggy Park, the restaurant formerly owned by a blatant white supremacist. Minority faces are not wanted in these places, and we as minorities (and hopefully white allies who see these issues) need to stop hoping for change and go to places where we are wanted. I encourage others to share their stories of discrimination in Five Points.