So, let’s talk about Replay Lakeview & Replay Andersonville owner Mark Liberson. Mark is racist. Mark is dismissive. Mark is transphobic. Mark thinks because his business (4 bars, 1 nightclub, & 1 licensed location) has ONE night geared for black folx, he has solved racism.

I will include my experiences, but first wanted to (consensually) share the experiences of black colleagues I’ve worked with.

Daveon was a manager [my amazing manager!] when I worked there. He was the first black manager I knew in the company & he was awesome

[Note: there is not one black manager in the company now, and last I checked, one black bartender]. He worked hard, didn’t get drunk on the job, didn’t steal, & tried very hard to make the bar more successful.

Daveon directly shared the three bullets below regarding how Mark would treat him.

- Mispronouncing his name all the time (Microaggression) [Daveon told me once that Mark told him he pronounced it differently because he liked how it sounded better]

- Hired Daveon’s asst. manager (a white man from a competing bar) at a higher pay rate, who had no previous managing experience. Daveon has multiple years of experience.
- Every time [Mark] was in the bar & R&B or Hip Hop was playing he would have us change the (sic) music.

He went as far as [restricting] those genres on our jukebox from customers.

The removal of hip hop & R&B from the jukebox happened multiple time over my time at LKH. Daveon would remove it for a day, & then re-add it. Mark would make the demand if he heard hip hop or R&B.

At times, Mark’s friends (referenced again below) would mention the music to Mark so he would again have it removed from the jukebox.

Thank you Daveon for sharing that! Daveon was let go one day. The only reasoning we could ascertain (as none was provided), was because Daveon

did not cater to & accommodate Mark’s very demanding & privileged friends who expect to be waited on hand & foot because they are “Mark’s friends”. People know that if they complain to Mark, they will get whatever they want. Even if the action was not allowed per Mark’s direction

the manager was still held accountable.

It is worth noting that during Market Days 2018, $2000 dollars “went missing” because the the closing manager (the white guy who was Daveon’s assistant) “forgot to drop it.” He worked for the company for a number of months after,

if not over half a year.

Below are a few other aspects of inequity not direct to Daveon that I wanted to share.

- Mark (nor Lakeview managers) have check in with staff who are POC during the past few weeks. Racial injustice isn’t being addressed or acknowledged, black folx are

being literally lynched, & no one has checked in. Tell us again how you care about your staff, Mark.
- During a meeting with managers, Mark defended police & police actions, with the traditional “one bad apple” defense, & the “Not All Cops”

- During the quarantine, many employees of color had expressed they felt unsafe working late hours. The police have been patrolling (& brutalizing) people of color at higher rates, not to mention white folx who continue to attack POC at this time.

Mark provided these employees “a note” they could show cops to show they were essential workers. Philando Castile’s permit didn’t save him from police, but yes, a printed note makes sense.
- Drug testing would occur on a whim, which isn’t against the law (but should be),

but it was always weaponized against employees of color. Especially black employees.
- Owners & management have built an environment based on ego. Some managers gaslight current team members so that their racist actions go unchecked. If people do bring it up,

it’s met with eye rolls & further microaggressions.
- Qualified black applicants have been overlooked for non-black people who have less experience & skill to manage or work in a bar environment.

This is just a few examples of what Mark Liberson has done & encouraged.

After the Chicago Black Drag Council, many folks expressed that the owners of those bars aren’t very involved, & those managers must be addressed. That may be the case, but Mark requires all decisions go through him, & that he be involved in every aspect of the business.

He decides who is & isn’t hired & fired, the music, the menu, the MUSIC VOLUME, the level of the lights. He requires everything to be navigated through him, so the managers are not the only ones to be addressed here.

For my personal experience, I’d like to say just the below few things. I am privileged enough to have a full time job that I love & is able to provide my financial needs, & was able to leave the company. I worked there for five years because the income.

- As I said, I worked there for five years. Mark never learned my name. He described me when talking about me because he couldn’t be bothered to remember my name.

- When I started, my septum was already pierced. The employee manual (which I was not provided upon hiring) never said anything about facial piercings not being allowed, but Mark didn’t like them.

He instructed the managers to tell me to flip mine up, while never addressing me directly. When a muscular white guy was hired into the company, his septum piercing (larger gauge than mine) was not an issue. He was not instructed to remove his.

- Mark has specific types of employees he likes working at his bars - white, slim or muscular, “straight-acting”. I was \\very thin & very hairy at the time. He expressed not liking my chest hair multiple times to previous managers.

- Mark does not believe in white privilege, not does he believe in heterosexual privilege. He expressed that when he (a rich white-passing cis man) goes to a restaurant, they don’t make sure he knows “it’s a straight restaurant” & he continues to get good service (again, cis.

white-passing).
- Mark explicitly told folks not to call Replay a “Gay bar” because he didn’t want it to be branded that because it might make straight people feel uncomfortable. A reminder that the original Replay is in Boystown. The second Replay is in Andersonville.

I grew up in a conservative home, which made it very clear my queerness was not okay. Spaces like Mark’s bar make it so that folks know that them being a POC makes them not welcome, a regular experience for POC in the queer & gay community.

(Mark will tell you he has black drag queens hired, & that he has black customers! He will “I have black friends” you, but make it capitalism.) If we are really going to change, these bar owners need to do the work & be held accountable.

My only hope from this is that there is some sort of accountability for Mark & LKH. For the bars in Boystown.

Thanks.

Edit: I said there is “not one black manager”

I meant there is NOW one black manager**

Oh & I was going back & forth so I failed to add this & that's my fault, but I didn't include his misogyny. There is next to no women employed at the company, & most of them were only hired as servers. There are so many issues with this.