Robb: How a Viral TikTok Video Ignited a Racism Scandal at Paris’s Most Exclusive Restaurants

Aug. 17, 2022

When Tatiana Tavares and Bryan Macauley approached the entrance of Manko restaurant, located in one of Paris’s toniest neighborhoods, they noticed the crowd of Black people gathered outside and gave it little thought. They assumed the diners were waiting for friends or were hanging out after their dinner. But as the couple approached the security guard standing vigil at the restaurant entrance and presented him with the confirmation of their reservation on their phone, they quickly realized something was seriously amiss. 

“He looked us up and down, from head to toe, and just said, ‘It’s not possible,’” Tavares told Robb Report in an interview alongside Macauley.

The exchange can be heard faintly in a TikTok video that has gone viral, with more than 853,000 plays since being posted July 19 by Tigui Diallo, a Montrealer who was in the company of three other Black women and who, just moments before, had also been refused entry on the pretext of violating the dress code. But it became clear as white people were waved through and other Black people were denied that the cause of their exclusion was much more insidious.

In France, the video has ignited a controversy. The story made headlines in every major news outlet from Le Parisien to Le Monde and Le Figaro. What has struck a nerve is that this isn’t a one-off incident of racism; it’s the latest in a series of accusations of discrimination involving high-end restaurants in the same Champs-Élysées area.

More at https://robbreport.com/food-drink/dining/racism-scandal-paris-restaurants-manko-1234738120/