British Club
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Jun 26, 2011
Dear Sir or Madame,
I am writing to express my fundamental distaste for an event that took place at the British Club in Maadi, Egypt on Friday last. I am forwarding the below too all British clubs to expose an event which highlights an incredibly distasteful corner of Cairo “society” and absolutely warrants as much attention as possible from both the local and expatriate communities here and abroad. It is my goal to ensure that this attention comes to focus upon your club policies and the actions of its leadership.
Having attended the British Club several times before without incident, my wife and I arrived at roughly 7:30 pm hoping to enjoy a pleasant dinner of my favorite South African Boerewors sausage. We had regrettably forgotten our passports but a simple US drivers license and American University in Cairo faculty identification were more than sufficient to satiate the concerns of the front door staff. We were expecting guests at roughly 8:00 and they phoned when they arrived. At this point, I set down my delicious gin and tonic and went to the door to meet my friends (also expatriate faculty members at the AUC) and this is where the problems ensued. It is now important to note that the following events took place ONLY because my friends made the mistake of speaking to the front door staff in perfect Arabic and possessed skin tones as dark as theirs.
My colleages are Jordanian/American and French/Tunisian (dual citizenship). They are educated at Harvard and the Sorbonne respectively possessing Ph.D.s in economics and, to be frank, they exhibit more restraint, composure, and class than any of the boisterous, cargo short wearing, drunken attendees of the Friday night barbeque at the British Club. In spite of this, they were denied entry to the club due to their lack of a passport and in spite of their possessing the EXACT identification that I had shown to enter the club only a short half an hour before. Frankly, it was absolutely heart wrenching to watch Egyptians discriminate against people of their own race at the behest of the repulsive man I shall now describe.
The events were at least somewhat tactful until one of the staff retrieved a man who claimed to be the Charman of the Board of Directors for the Club. I must say that this man, who I can only assume was Chris Bayley, acted highly intoxicated, dressed in an ill-fitting rumpled plaid shirt with faded jeans, and could easily have passed for any number of backwoods African farm-hards that I have seen in the southern half of this continent. This was true not only of his appearance but also his manner and outmoded racial attitudes. His ham-fisted and overbearing discriminatory actions against my guests were astounding enough but his escalation of the events to physical violence was beyond belief. Mr. Bayley repeatedly taunted one of my friends to “Go ahead…..give me a reason” as he was angrily pointing to his chin. Even those of us being discriminated against on the basis of race and nationality could not help but chuckle at this silly, pear shaped man actually believing that he was remotely better than the rest of us.
We laughed the remainder of the evening at Bayley’s ill-conceived bravado but we also recognize that the above incident and individual obviously reflects extremely poorly upon the BCA and all those who attend the club. I also sincerely believe that the events highlight the degree to which racism and colonial proclivities are still alive and well in Egypt.
Given the above, I will therefore never return to this club as I believe it to be a colonial relic and its attendees to be living some odd 19 th century fantasy that includes the overt and subterranean degradation of others. Further, I also intend to circulate this letter far and wide within the BCA system and broader expat communities. In short, as an economist, I recognize the value of attacking discrimination where it is most painful….the wallet. Your revenue stream is now my target and I will not rest.
Sincerely,
John
I am writing to express my fundamental distaste for an event that took place at the British Club in Maadi, Egypt on Friday last. I am forwarding the below too all British clubs to expose an event which highlights an incredibly distasteful corner of Cairo “society” and absolutely warrants as much attention as possible from both the local and expatriate communities here and abroad. It is my goal to ensure that this attention comes to focus upon your club policies and the actions of its leadership.
Having attended the British Club several times before without incident, my wife and I arrived at roughly 7:30 pm hoping to enjoy a pleasant dinner of my favorite South African Boerewors sausage. We had regrettably forgotten our passports but a simple US drivers license and American University in Cairo faculty identification were more than sufficient to satiate the concerns of the front door staff. We were expecting guests at roughly 8:00 and they phoned when they arrived. At this point, I set down my delicious gin and tonic and went to the door to meet my friends (also expatriate faculty members at the AUC) and this is where the problems ensued. It is now important to note that the following events took place ONLY because my friends made the mistake of speaking to the front door staff in perfect Arabic and possessed skin tones as dark as theirs.
My colleages are Jordanian/American and French/Tunisian (dual citizenship). They are educated at Harvard and the Sorbonne respectively possessing Ph.D.s in economics and, to be frank, they exhibit more restraint, composure, and class than any of the boisterous, cargo short wearing, drunken attendees of the Friday night barbeque at the British Club. In spite of this, they were denied entry to the club due to their lack of a passport and in spite of their possessing the EXACT identification that I had shown to enter the club only a short half an hour before. Frankly, it was absolutely heart wrenching to watch Egyptians discriminate against people of their own race at the behest of the repulsive man I shall now describe.
The events were at least somewhat tactful until one of the staff retrieved a man who claimed to be the Charman of the Board of Directors for the Club. I must say that this man, who I can only assume was Chris Bayley, acted highly intoxicated, dressed in an ill-fitting rumpled plaid shirt with faded jeans, and could easily have passed for any number of backwoods African farm-hards that I have seen in the southern half of this continent. This was true not only of his appearance but also his manner and outmoded racial attitudes. His ham-fisted and overbearing discriminatory actions against my guests were astounding enough but his escalation of the events to physical violence was beyond belief. Mr. Bayley repeatedly taunted one of my friends to “Go ahead…..give me a reason” as he was angrily pointing to his chin. Even those of us being discriminated against on the basis of race and nationality could not help but chuckle at this silly, pear shaped man actually believing that he was remotely better than the rest of us.
We laughed the remainder of the evening at Bayley’s ill-conceived bravado but we also recognize that the above incident and individual obviously reflects extremely poorly upon the BCA and all those who attend the club. I also sincerely believe that the events highlight the degree to which racism and colonial proclivities are still alive and well in Egypt.
Given the above, I will therefore never return to this club as I believe it to be a colonial relic and its attendees to be living some odd 19 th century fantasy that includes the overt and subterranean degradation of others. Further, I also intend to circulate this letter far and wide within the BCA system and broader expat communities. In short, as an economist, I recognize the value of attacking discrimination where it is most painful….the wallet. Your revenue stream is now my target and I will not rest.
Sincerely,
John
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