Dancer sues clubs over alleged discrimination
A woman who says she was a top earner at four high-end Houston strip clubs is suing the clubs’ owners, contending staff intentionally sent her and other Black women home during their assigned shifts because “too many Black girls” were already working.
She also said two of the clubs declined to rehire her this summer because she is Black.
Chanel Nicholson, who is in her 20s, filed the federal class action last week, accusing her former employers of intentional racial discrimination under an 1866 civil rights act that required all citizens have the same legal right as white citizens to make and enforce contracts.
Her suit targets the Davari brothers — Ali and Hassan — who own the string of clubs where Nicholson said she routinely experienced this practice: Centerfolds Houston, the Cover Girls, Splendor Gentlemens Club and Solid Platinum Cabaret.
The brothers were recently sued by another former dancer for unfair labor practices. The woman said she worked at Centerfolds for years and they only paid her in tips.
Nicholson’s civil rights suit calls for damages including lost wages from the clubs, which are at the heart of the city’s entertainment district on Richmond and Westheimer, and in north Houston.
Albert Van Huff, an attorney affiliated with the Davaris nightclubs, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
Nicholson, the mother of two young children, said she worked at these clubs from the age of 18 to 24. Her lawsuit covers a period beginning in 2017. She now runs a nonprofit that helps women get medically necessary cosmetic procedures.
On a regular basis, she would arrive for an assigned shift fully made-up, shaved, coiffed, per
fumed, with her nails painted and clothing adjusted for easy removal only to be told by the manager there were “too many Black girls” at the moment. In later years, the managers didn’t always articulate the rule, but the dancers all understood it to be the reason, she said.
“At the time, I would just take it,” she said, describing the clubs as “a really toxic environment” where sending Black employees home was an “all the time thing.”
“I don’t feel that anybody should be treated like that — I look pretty, I smell good, I make sure I do every time. I can’t scrub my skin off,” she said.
Nicholson said she became more conscious of how blatantly wrong this rule was as she grew older, and she ultimately found the courage to file the class suit.
“Every other Black girl I’ve ever danced with has experienced this,” Nicholson said. “We’ve all been through it but we just deal with it. Any really beautiful Black woman that dances if you see her at a lower-end club it’s because she can’t get in at the high-end one.”
She estimated that she could think of at least 20 former coworkers who could potentially join the class lawsuit. Her attorney, Eric Mirabel, estimated there could be hundreds of fellow plaintiffs who experienced discrimination at the strip clubs during the four-year time period outlined in the federal civil rights suit.
Nicholson said she has heard the rationale for these quotas stems from a bias against Black male customers. Others familiar with the clubs’ practices told Nicholson they don’t want too many Black women working because they’re afraid it will draw too many Black men.
She said she often tells people they misunderstand the point of the Black Lives Matter movement as something exclusive.
“What it means to me is: ‘I matter just as much as you. I shouldn’t be less than just because of the color of my skin,’ ” she said. “I matter also.”