A Black woman took to social media to recount her experience at a pottery studio in Chicago, alleging the staff displayed rude and discriminatory behavior before asking her to leave the establishment, but the studio denied her accusations and sent Atlanta Black Star surveillance footage they say proves it was not racially motivated.
Kenya Cooks said she’s been a longtime patron of the Color Cocktail Factory in Chicago and that the owner knows her face from previous classes. But she said a recent class went awry when she encountered a new manager during a pottery session.
Cooks told Atlanta Black Star that she went to a pottery class with her mom and sister on March 15, the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day. She alleged that the manager, Brittany, was friendly and attentive to some class members but was rude and less helpful to Cooks and other Black and Hispanic session participants.
Cooks said that Brittany approached her to ask whether she was in the right class, even though she had been there for nearly an hour and Brittany had seen her. She also said she saw when the manager walked to the back of the studio and began pointedly rolling her eyes at her, while appearing to taunt her.
When Cooks tried to report the behavior to the owner, the owner allegedly told her he didn’t care and then snatched away a roll of paper towels Cooks was using to clean clay off her hands.
Cooks said the owner told her, “I don’t give a f—, Yelp it. Get your ugly black a— out my shop.”
Cooks posted a video about her experience, which went viral and prompted many online to accuse the studio of racism and discrimination and leave an influx of negative reviews on Yelp. The site ended up shutting off the reviews section for the studio’s web page.
However, the studio disputes the allegations, stating that what transpired between the owner and Cooks resulted in a poor customer service experience but was not a racial encounter.
Atlanta Black Star talked to the manager, Brittany, who sent surveillance footage showing what happened and stated that she only interacted with Cooks once. She said she noticed her standing at the front of the studio and didn’t know if another staff member had helped her, so she approached her to ask whether she was at the studio for a class, which Cooks confirmed.
Brittany stated that the studio allows class participants to bring their own alcohol to sip through their sessions. She added that at one point, she noticed Cooks and her party started taking shots in the class.
At some point during the class, a table full of Hispanic women had broken some pottery pieces, and Brittany went over to help them. She noticed Cooks staring at her while she was helping the women. She went to the back of the studio and told the owner that Cooks was staring at her in a way that made her uncomfortable, so she tried smiling at her to be friendly.
Brittany said that Cooks got up from her table, charged toward the owner, and loudly and aggressively vocalized her complaint about the manager’s behavior. She alleged that Cooks was “drunk and picking a fight and was aggressive towards us.”
A now-deleted post from the studio’s Facebook page reveals the manager’s version of events of the encounter between her and Cooks last month and how it allegedly triggered some post-traumatic stress from an alleged assault at the pottery studio in December 2023.
In the post, Brittany stated that Cooks “verbally attacked” her and displayed racist behavior toward her.
Surveillance video from the studio shows the initial interaction between Brittany and Cooks, who appeared friendly and calm. The footage also shows the moment Cooks walks toward the back of the studio to complain to the owner. She doesn’t charge at the owner as Brittany claimed. The video doesn’t include the moment the owner snatched items away from Cooks, but Brittany stated she’s following up with the owner about that footage.
Brittany admitted that the owner swore at Cooks, asked her to leave the shop, and took paper towels from her but disputes that any racial remarks or statements pointing to Cooks’ background were made.
“Should he have cursed at her? No,” Brittany told Atlanta Black Star, adding that the situation could have been handled differently. “The owner is from Iran and has been discriminated against. I’m of Hispanic descent and I’ve also faced discrimination. People can go to our Instagram and see we serve customers of many different races.”
Cooks challenged the studio’s version of events, stating that the owner did refer to her racial background when he told her to leave the studio.
“For me, it was triggering and it was racial. I’m sure we all have bad days and that’s fine to have a bad day, but there’s a difference between having a bad day and being a nasty person,” Cooks stated. “And that’s why I advocated so hard because I didn’t want another Black woman or Black man for that matter to go to the establishment and spend their money for that experience.”
In her now-viral video, Cooks also included a screenshot showing several failed charges that the studio made to her bank account.
According to Brittany, Cooks and her party stayed at the studio after their class was over, so she told Cooks that she would have to charge her for the next pottery session if she and her party didn’t leave before the class started. Cooks said that she told the staff members she wouldn’t leave until police showed up, which took a while. Brittany said she only tried charging Cooks twice, but the charges never went through.
A portion of Cooks’ video also includes part of her interaction with the owner when she asked him to repeat his alleged profanities. She also recorded the moments when local police arrived at the studio after she dialed 911 to report the owner.
Cooks said that when an officer finally showed up, he recommended she post about her experience on social media or a review site and report the studio to the Better Business Bureau.
That’s when Cooks decided to post a video online. She said the manager or owner never personally reached out to her to apologize.
“If Brittany would have sent me a message and apologized for my experience, I would have deleted the video and it wouldn’t have ever had the opportunity to go viral,” Cooks said.
