Class-action suit against Power & Light shed light on racial discrimination at district

On Monday in federal court, a class-action lawsuit has been brought against the owners of Kansas City's Power & Light Entertainment District over allegations that tactics against African-Americans are being done to limit the number of tenants of their kind at the district, the Kansas City Star said.

Dante AR Combs and Adam S Williams, who leads the lawsuit, claimed that there were three instances that happened between 2010 or 2011 wherein the two experienced racial discrimination despite the fact that they both wore proper attire and were in their best conduct. Combs and Williams said in the lawsuit that they were denied admission or were singled out to be harassed in nightclubs within the entertainment district.

Lawyer Linda Dickens, who represents another plaintiff, former Power & Light Entertainment District employee Glen Cusimano, said that his client had an altercation with a rabbit, or a street term used to label Caucasian men hired to create a disturbance for the sole purpose of having African-Americans arrested or ejected from the area. Dickens added that his client was fired as a result of the altercation.

"(African-Americans, more frequently than members of other races), suffered injuries including, but not limited to: inconvenience, insult, humiliation, embarrassment, emotional distress and other actual damages, which in sum exceed $5 million," the lawsuit claimed.

The Cordish Cos officials, whose company owns and operates the entertainment district, had said that the lawsuit was baseless, The Kansas City Star had quoted them. Asset Management director Zed Smith, whose company is an affiliate of Cordish, said, "We all work collaboratively to ensure that the guest experience is excellent for all of our customers. We take pride in our customer service and the customer service of our tenants, and we vigorously deny this trumped-up and meritless claim."

The Kansas City Star noted that the district earlier received a discrimination complaint in 2009 regarding the area's dress code. Although Cordish has denied the allegations, the company modified the district's dress code, and a settlement was reached in 2010.

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Power & Light Entertainment District, Cordish Cos discrimination claims

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