"We executed poor judgment in the event concept"
A Toronto nightclub has come under fire after hosting an Asian themed night that many regarded as racist.
Toronto Sun reports that Toronto nightclub Wildflower has come under fire after hosting a ‘Stir Fry’ event. The theme’s title was in reference to the hit song by hip hop trio Migos.
In photographs from the event, staff members were seen in rice hats, fake facial hair and kimonos, whilst posing with squinted eyes.
Many were quick to criticise the images that surfaced online.
“Guess again! Good ol racism still at it! This is how the workers were dressed!” posted Freeza Chin, a local DJ who was not at the event.
“I think this is the first time I’ve seen it so blatantly displayed. I also find that for some reason this kind of thing against Asian people is almost more acceptable? Like imagine if someone threw a blackface plantation themed party or something? There would be riots.”
Another wrote, “dude, it’s 2018, what a terrible team and company culture y’all must be fostering over there.”
“Wildflower held a yellow face themed event and has deleted multiple posts to hide the backlash WOW,” said another.
Lmaoo wait so Wildflower missed road and called the name of the night Stir Fry then made servers wear Asian themed costumes 😮😮 wow
— Vudu (@DamolaBlackVudu) March 5, 2018
nothing brings toronto together better than a good old collective drag of a terrible club! here for it forever! drag them!!!!! wildflower beeen cancelled indefinitely!
— jordan (@jjjjord) March 5, 2018
A nightclub in Toronto called Wildflower had an Asian theme last night. This is what came out of it. So much disrespect. pic.twitter.com/AA1V5RVbRD
— ANASTACIA (@anxstxcxa) March 5, 2018
Toronto night club Wildflower, throws a racist Asian-themed event called “Stir Fry” and has their staff wear straw hats. When called out by people on social media, they deleted the comments and turned off commenting feature. No apology has been issued. pic.twitter.com/4PD40pHNQ4
— ✨ (@ThatTorontoGirl) March 5, 2018
Jooyoung Lee, an associate sociology professor at the University of Toronto said, “a bigger part of it is when white people wear an indigenous costume for Halloween, or when people get dressed up in blackface at a gangsta party.”
“I understand why some people, usually white people will say, ‘Why do you take it so seriously? It’s done for fun’ — those individuals may not understand why it’s problematic and offensive because they don’t intend to be racist or discriminatory. These kinds of representations are connected to more pernicious kinds of racism and more explicit kinds of discrimination. They’re all on a continuum of misrepresenting people.”
Wildflower apologised on Instagram saying, “we executed poor judgment in the event concept and in our response afterwards. We will use this as an example to do better and think more carefully about our actions.”
One of the servers from the night seen wearing a kimono also commented, “You think I wanted to dress like that? No. I was told to. I posted this photo because it was a cute picture of me and my friend.”