“May 20, 2008 was one of the saddest days of our lives. It was the day we realized that racism still exists in this world. Or should I say in Gretna. I guess on some level we still know that racism exists but it’s a harder realization when you experience racism personally. For us, it became a reality at the Red Maple Restaurant (1036 Lafayette Street, Gretna, LA 70053).

A reservation was made prior to the arrival at the restaurant. We were celebrating our son’s graduation from Hahnville High in Boutte. We had nine people in the party. We arrived around 8:20 PM and we were seated in a room away from all the other patrons. Not realizing we were being discriminated against we were not even offered the complimentary amenity of bread and butter while waiting to be serviced. One of our party guests asked the waitress about this and was told she forgot to offer this amenity to us. She apologized and did get the bread. Atthis point, still not realizing we were being discriminated against, Our orders were taken and we received our appetizers around 9:00 PM.

As 10:00 approached the children that were in the party had fallen asleep, and the adults were getting restless. The head of the party asked the waitress how much longer we were going to have to wait for our food. The waitress said not long. Ten minutes had passed and still no food had arrived. Finally we could no longer wait and we asked for the bill. We asked to pay for the appetizers and the drinks. We told the rest of the party they could wait for us outside. Wewere given a bill for $275.00 and told to pay cash only. The Red Maple does accept all credit cards but we were told by the owner/manager on duty that he would not take credit cards from our kind of people.

The owner had then called the police and immediately 2 cars arrived at the restaurant. All four policeofficers were white males. The police got out of their cars and began to speak to the owner/manager. One of the police officers then approached a member in the party, put his hand in her face and said for her to pay cash or go to jail. The member of the party told this police officer that no food had arrived and that we should not have to pay for food we did not receive. The police officer said he did not want to hear what we had to say and to either pay or go to jail.

So, we had no choice and $275.00 was paid in cash.

The police office said if you don’t have it we’ll take you to an ATM machine, after begging and borrowing the money from the children in the party. The owner then told us to never come back, that we were in Jefferson Parish and not Orleans Parish, and for us to tell our friends not to come there. Owner/manger remarked that you kind of people are not welcomed here.

The police were called out to protect and serve the owner/manager. Our rights were violated and we were discriminated against because of the color of our skin. We did not serve a threat to anybody. We did not have a problem paying for what we consumed, but we should not have been forced to pay for food we did not receive. Our voices were not raised and when the police came our voices had no sound. It is 2008, when will this nonsense end. This was the same Police Force that would not let African American cross the bridge for food and water during Katrina. Businesses like this should not be in existence. It is time for us to stop being passive about this kind of treatment and take a stand and pass this on.

We are out the money for food we did not eat and most of all our dignity was lost by the ugliness of this Business Owner (BRENT TRAUTH)/manager on duty. This should not have happened this way especially in front of the children that we are trying to teach respectfully.

Jerry & Patricia G. Miles