Dress Codes and Racial Discrimination in Urban Nightclubs

Abstract

In recent years, sociologists and others have suggested that nightclub owners have used dress codes to covertly discriminate against African Americans and Latinos. We test this claim using experimental audit methods where matched pairs of African American, Latino, and white men attempt to enter urban nightclubs with dress codes in large metropolitan areas (N = 159). We find systematic evidence that African Americans are denied access to nightclubs more often than similarly appearing whites and (in some cases) Latinos attempting to enter the same nightclubs. The magnitude of this discrimination is similar to that observed in housing audit studies. However, we do not find evidence of unequal treatment between whites and Latinos. These findings suggest that dress codes are used to racially discriminate against African Americans, in violation of federal law.

Field Experiments and Job Posting Sources: The Consequences of Job Database Selection for Estimates of Racial Discrimination

“…In addition to the labor market, these techniques have been used to examine discrimination in housing markets (Hogan and Berry 2011; see review in Oh and Yinger 2018) as well as markets for consumer goods (Doleac and Stein 2013). Researchers have also used these field experiments to examine racial discrimination in other settings, such as faculty responses to prospective students (Milkman, Akinola, and Chugh 2012) and access to night clubs (May and Goldsmith 2018). While not without its critics (see Heckman and Siegelman 1993), the audit method and field experiments in this area have produced a set of powerful findings on racial discrimination.…”

Understanding the “How” and “Why” Aspects of Racial-Ethnic Discrimination: A Multimethod Approach to Audit Studies

“…Beyond the traditional contexts of discrimination in employment (Bertrand and Mullainathan 2004; Deming et al 2016; Gaddis 2015; Pager 2003; Pager, Western, and Bonikowski 2009; Pedulla 2018a) and housing (Carpusor and Loges 2006; Ewens, Tomlin, and Wang 2014; Galster and Godfrey 2005; Turner et al 2002), researchers have documented racial-ethnic discrimination in banking and economic transactions (Ayers 1991; Ayers and Siegelman 1995; Doleac and Stein 2013; Hanson et al 2016); admission to nightclubs (May and Goldsmith 2018); scheduling of medical appointments (Kugelmass 2016; Sharma, Mitra, and Stano 2015); communication with church representatives (Wright et al 2015), college admissions counselors (Thornhill 2018), professors (Milkman et al 2012, 2015), and public officials (Butler and Broockman 2011; Einstein and Glick 2017; White, Nathan, and Faller 2015); and on Airbnb (Edelman, Luca, and Svirsky 2017), Craigslist (Gaddis and Ghoshal 2017, 2019), and Uber (Ge et al 2016). The literature suggests that racial-ethnic discrimination is prevalent across multiple and diverse contexts, knows no geographic bounds, and has been widespread for decades.…”

Exploring the Use of Exclusionary Practices Against African American Participation in Urban Nightlife

“…Although this particular incident involved the exclusion of dark-skinned South Asian men-the only occasion we observed in our visit to 53 nightclubs-it is easy to envision bouncers using this very same tactic as a way to exclude African Americans, who have been shown to be consistently policed in urban nightlife (May 2014May and Chaplin 2008;May and Goldsmith 2018;Rivera 2010). In fact, serving as an expert witness on a case of dress code discrimination, I learned of other ways that African Americans are discriminated against with respect to the use of guest lists.…”