A Minneapolis bar has closed after employees and performers protested the owner’s donation to ex-Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s failed 2016 Senate campaign, the Star-Tribune reported Saturday.
Club Jåger owner Julius DeRoma last year gave $500 to Duke’s failed bid for the U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana, according to a story published in a weekly newspaper last Tuesday, information that incensed some of the performers and more than half a dozen employees at DeRoma’s bar.
DJ Jake Rudh said on Facebook he didn’t want to be in a “venue where the owner supports the likes of David Duke and his messages of hate,” and the 90s Preservation Society followed with a message of its own:
“If there were a way to show financial support to our friends behind the bar at Clubhouse Jäger without directly supporting a white supremacist, we would do so,” the club said on Facebook.
Duke announced a run for U.S. Senate in his home state of Louisiana last year, but was eliminated after the first round of the statewide open primary.
Bar staff at Club Jåger released a statement before closing:
“Clubhouse Jager is staffed by nearly 20 employees, who come from a diverse and inclusive background. We celebrate the diversity of our employees and we do not tolerate or endorse of any kind discrimination against anyone. Our focus remains on continuing our successful record of always providing our employees with a fun and positive work environment.”
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