Chicago Gay Bar Touché Hosts Racist Performance

Chicago gay bar Touché deserves every bit of fire they have received after hosting what is, in essence, a minstrel show for its patrons. It is 2022. Minstrel shows should have died out in the early 1900s, but evidently they are alive and well.

Touché requested that no videos be taken of the performer Jerry Halliday. Videos were taken anyway, due to the content of the performance, and posted to Twitter by Twitter user CraftBeardMI on November 1 . The videos depict Halliday’s racist puppet called Sista Girl, a caricature of a black woman, voiced by Jerry Halliday mockingly speaking with AAVE. Even worse, a good amount of the crowd seemed to be enjoying it. When one patron called out, saying, “Everyone in the crowd thinks this is a little weird for 2022.” Jerry Halliday responded with, “Everybody who wants this man to shut up, make some noise, clap.” And they did. People clapped, cheered, and booed the very correct man who called Halliday out.

As a person of color, I am not a stranger to seeing racist caricatures and hearing AAVE being used by people who really shouldn’t be using it. As much as I wish it wasn’t, racism is a part of my life, like a fly is a part of a horse’s life. I could do without it, but it always comes by to bite me when I’m least expecting it. I am an afab black person and am used to being the butt of many “jokes” as well. This is not new, but it should not be normalized, either. Black women have given so much to the LGBTQ community, so why make fun of them? Why tear them down just for a laugh?

Touché ultimately made an apology, but it feels like too little too late. A staff member quit during Halliday’s performance and the owner, David Boyer, literally helped Halliday collect tips.