Clubbing Safety

As a whiteguy that goes primarily to black dives – it has crossed my mind.

If first crossed my mind w/ the Treyvon Martin situation since he was from down here (Miami Gardens) – but I kept going to the black dives w/ no issues.

It then again crossed my mind w/ the Ferguson issue and actually did not go to a black dive on particular night b/c there had been protests being shown on TV that night so it made me think twice about being a whiteguy (usually the only one) in a black club – but I’ve never really had an issue.

Leave early. As you can tell by the multitude of Shadow's news posts, leaving a strip club late at night is one of the most dangerous things one can do.

Speak softly and carry a big stick

I'm not overly concerned with safety because 95% of my clubbing is during day light hours. In the rare times that I do go at night, I park in a well lighted area close to the entrance and that have security on duty OTC. There are some clubs like the now closed "Crush" in Columbia SC that I won't go to at any time due to numerous reports of violence. I have driven past some dive looking places that I didn't want to take a chance on.

I only go to black clubs in So Central LA (aka, Rodney King country) during the day, preferably during early afternoon. Never at night. That's always been my "MO" (method of operation). Recently I suppose I'm lucky that those clubs have been on a downturn in the last year or two for whatever reason, so I don't visit much anymore. Though one of the 4 clubs is on an upswing, but one closed, the other has always sucked, and the other has hit the skids for some reason. Not worth going.

So this is one white guy who won't be the victim of drive-by insanity due to the riots.

@jerikson... Wow South Central you are a brave man. Or just fckn crazy

I don't go to black clubs because black on black crime is way more prevalent than black on white crime

^ that's what i usually count on :)

Ya that's the one thing that's hard to get used to in the South. It's like 55% AA. You'd think that after the emancipation they all would have left. Go figure...

Again I'm from CA we have a large Latino population, 65%. Too much of any one race weirds me out.

People get so fucking afraid and paranoid over shit. Yeah, sections of So Central have a high crime rate, but geez, if you walk from your car inside the club in the middle of the day, what's the chances that some guy will give you trouble? Pretty slim. And most of the people who live there are pretty good and decent families. So just be careful, don't do anything stupid, and the world won't come to an end.

And if it does, so the fuck what? You can't live forever.

I guess I love black women enough to put my life at risk for da booty :)

@jerikson whoa... And Gardena. Are you really white? Those South Central, Gardena, anything off the 110 and 105 is a no go for whitey. What you up to?

Actually I dated a black chick from So Central once....

You'd be surprised how many/most of the black families in the "hood" are really strict and decent folks. And a lot of them are VERY religious.

And honestly, at the clubs I go, the staff and dancers are very respectful of non-white guys. They have some of the best club staffs of any club I've visited.

Yeah, a lot of crime, but I think a lot is gang-on-gang shit, which I'm in favor of (one less gang member is always a good thing), and drug/robbery stuff from drug addicts.

So yeah, it's higher risk, but practically, not a big deal.

And like Papi sez, it's worth it to get some of that delicious caramel nastiness.

This is highly amusing, for so many reasons...

Intrepid urban traveler that I am, I visited a mostly black dive called Blondie's (really!) in 92%-black Washington Park, IL the day after the grand jury decision was announced and the protests heated up in Ferguson, not that far away across the Mississippi. Oh, and I went back the next day, too. That was the setting of a surreal scene that I've previously described: me, a 40-year-old white stripper, and half a dozen 20-something black strippers in various states of dishabille, standing in a circle holding hands and giving thanks for a stripper-catered Thanksgiving feast.

I wouldn't hang out in Washington Park after dark, but that was true before the Ferguson thing went down. I figure the gangbangers of Washington Park and Harvey (South Chicago) don't care about an old white dude like me.

To stay safe, I

1. Go to more upscale clubs usually. Semi dives are usually for day time.

2. I only go to a place with safe parking that is close, well lighted, and preferably monitored. I use valet parking most times when offered. If the parking does not look100% safe I don't go.

3. Keep money organized and concealed. Only the DS knows what I have cause she walks out of the club with most of it,

4. Don't fight for dancers with guys who look like they could kill me and would have fun doing it.

5. Walk out if I feel unsafe. This hasn't happened in years since I've learned how to choose better clubs.

6. Do the necessary research in a new city before going.

7. Have a back up club in mind just in case

With all due respect, GACAclub, where do you get your statistics?

"I'm from CA we have a large Latino population, 65%": In fact both Los Angeles city and county are about 48% Hispanic -- even South Central is under 60% Latino, though East LA's Latino percentage is over 90% -- and California as a whole is not quite 40% Hispanic.

". . . the South. It's like 55% AA": Here are the 10 states with the highest black percentage (I will concede that Atlanta is about 55% black):

1 Mississippi 1,074,200 37.30%
2 Louisiana 1,452,396 31.98%
3 Georgia 2,950,435 30.02%
4 Maryland 1,700,298 29.44%
5 South Carolina 1,290,684 28.48%
6 Alabama 1,251,311 26.38%
7 North Carolina 2,048,628 21.60%
8 Delaware 191,814 20.95%
9 Virginia 1,551,399 19.91%
10 Tennessee 1,055,689 16.78%

Studies show that people living in areas with large "minority" populations (i.e., national minorities are local majorities) tend to think that the whole country is, say, 30% Hispanic and 25% black, when in fact the national percentages are about half of those numbers.

As a California resident, I think we can all agree that the statistics when it comes to Latino population in California is flawed. And I believe GACAClub was even low in his estimate of 65% Latino population in CA.

As anyone who has lived here for any amount of time can attest, the Hispanic population is somewhere between 90-95%. Maybe more. In fact, I believe I'm one of the few remaining white guys in the state. I'm convinced that, during the night, the border with Mexico is secretly opened by a joint US/Mexico agreement, and zillions of Mexicans stream across the border, uncounted, and undocumented. That's why the statistics are so low.

Just sayin'....

Most of the clubs I have ever gone to have well lit parking lots and some of them have security watching over things. There's one club I've been to which I found questionable, but it's off the main drag of the city it's in, and I've never had problems there. Another used to have questionable parking before they got a new owner, but it was close enough to downtown of a big enough city that I would park at one of the downtown parking garages and walk, even though it was really too far to walk.

As for AA population, the one shocking thing I remember reading is that a good portion of the AA population that was not in the south is moving to the south. I frankly find that weird if that's true.

I always try to stay alert and look out for trouble. I'm usually more concerned about parking lot safety as far as my car is concerned. If I think my car might be vandalized or broken into if I visit a club, I won't ever visit. If I caught someone doing something, then I might face jail time after I killed whoever did something. I do believe thieves and vandals deserve the death penalty and in about 2 minutes of doing the deed if it involves my property or someone I know. However our laws do not.

I have given a couple of people rides after 2 am who asked. I typically do not like doing that but I believe I can sense when someone isn't safe. The last one was a white girl. I can't remember what race the guy was but he offered money. He could have called a taxi cheaper possibly. I do not plan on giving total strangers any more rides. I do need to thnk about my safety.

AAs are moving south because the cost of living is lower and the weather is nicer...which is probably the reason everyone else who moves to the south does so. Most black people who move south are moving to Atlanta or Charlotte or somewhere in Florida: it's not like they're moving to the small towns of 1500 that time forgot where stars and bars are as common as streets and roads.

I rarely worry about safety and I club in a variety of places, almost always late at night.

The only couple of times I felt less than safe involved two black clubs, one that I visited in DC several years ago and, more recently, one in Jacksonville. In both instances, I was the only white person in the entire building (dancers, patrons and staff all were black) the looks I was getting from several fronts were less than welcoming, so in both cases I split after 1 drink.

There's only one local club I worry about being in late. And all of the security staff there know me by name. I have yet to be bothered.