Philly bar owner allegedly texts: 'We don't want black people we are a white bar!'

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A bartender has sued a popular Philadelphia restaurant and bar where he works, claiming it discouraged nonwhite customers from visiting.

The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by part-time bartender and lawyer Michael Bolden claims the general manager at McFadden’s Restaurant and Bar told a weeknight supervisor to end a promotion popular with black clientele. According to the lawsuit, the manager wrote the employee a text message that read, “We don’t want black people we are a white bar!”

Bolden’s lawsuit also claims a dress code banning patrons from wearing baggy clothes, work boots and white T-shirts is part of a pattern of discrimination.

In an e-mail to The Philadelphia Inquirer, an attorney for the restaurant’s parent company denied the company has any policies of racial discrimination.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.