Copa Lounge Cincinnati

First, that True Kitchen bussit brunch controversy, and now this…

Source: EyeEm / Getty

Sadly, sometimes it’s your own people being skin and not kin, and that’s seemingly the case in Cincinnati, Ohio where a coiffure conundrum’s afoot.

The owner of COPA Lounge located in the city’s downtown district is feeling the wrath of social media after a group of women claimed they were denied entry because of someone’s hair.

A woman named Kennedy a.k.a. @KCMayes uploaded a video of herself and three other young ladies as they left the lounge that they said discriminated against them. Mayes shared that her cousin was in town for her birthday but was rudely denied entry into COPA lounge for brunch because the owner, a Black man, said the “lace was showing” on her wig.

She and another young lady in the video broke it down this way;

“They did not let us in because of discrimination….” said @KCMayes..

“Because of the way HE wants us to look,” added @KCMayes’ friend. “Not as women, black beautiful women and how we want to look, but how HE wants us to look.”

“He said that our cousin’s lace was visible and he did not want us to come in,” @KCMayes added. “Look how good this girl looks. And our other cousin, her wig cap was showing because the wind was blowing. Look how good SHE looks. Y’all it’s her birthday and we came from out of town. That’s crazy.”

SMFH….damn shame!

The owner, Jay Rodg, has since smugly responded to the controversy about his ridiculously discriminatory behavior on Facebook. According to him, “COPA ain’t for everybody” and he will continue to enforce his “fly code” a.k.a. dress code.

“Side note, as of April 1st #FRESHCODE will be strictly enforced, we understand this won’t make everybody happy, but COPA ain’t for everybody.”

If this is the hill he’s choosing, then best of luck to him and his business…

The owner also told someone in the comments that he was “looking out”…

“She said her wig cap was hanging out, I was the one who told her. She was cool with it her friend wasn’t…”

and when someone asked if she was turned away for the wig cap, he alleged that the women weren’t in line in the first place.

“She never was in line, when I saw her walk past me it was hanging out, I told her she was gonna go to the car & fix it but her friends was salty. […] Yeah it’s not true, she never was in line. She was getting ready to get in line, I was looking out. I know she didn’t know it. “

The ladies have denied that claim, posted proof of their confirmed reservation, and said they filed a complaint.

“It’s very much true,” said one of the ladies on Facebook. “We even tried to go in and he stated it was disrespectful for us to step into his facility.”

Unfortunately, although the owner’s being defiant, reviews for his establishment are in the toilet—literally. The restaurant has been listed as a public restroom on Google and negative reviews are pouring in. Some are from people putting the owner on blast for discrimination, and others are just people trolling the business into oblivion.

See, when you do clownery the clown comes back to bite, “visible lace” and all.

What do YOU think about this Cincinnati coiffure conundrum at COPA lounge???