On Monday, Marcia Grant, the boy’s mother, posted videos on her Ouzo Bay restaurant social media channels denying her and her son service because he was wearing sports shorts.
“So we want to eat and they tell me that my son cannot eat here because there are no sports clothes. He is 9 years old. And there are children out there with tennis shoes on,” Grant can be heard saying in the video, which shows his Son was wearing black tennis shoes, sports shorts and a T-shirt.
“Unfortunately, we have a dress code,” says the restaurant employee, suggesting that the boy possibly change to “non-sport shorts.”
Grant then turns the camera to the outside of the restaurant where a white boy can be seen who Grant says “just ate here” wearing tennis shoes and a T-shirt. The employee goes on to say that based on what his boss told them while tennis shoes are allowed, shorts and sports shirts are not, and claims that the white boy’s shirt is not what the restaurant would classify as a sports shirt.
“I have faced racism over and over again, but it is difficult AF, when you have to see your 9 year old son upset because he knows he is being treated differently from a white boy!” Grant wrote in the caption of his video posted on Instagram. Grant did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Atlas Restaurant Group, which owns Ouzo Bay and several other restaurants in the area, as well as in Houston, apologized Monday night and called the incident “incredibly disturbing.”
Atlas has received violent reactions before over its dress codes.
.
