Breaking The Code: How to get hired at a “gentleman’s ” club as a dark skin dancer

Have you heard about the ‘black girl quota’? It’s a hiring process practiced by most “gentleman” clubs where they usually hire up to 3-5 dark skin women. The rest are light skin if they do hire more than 5 black dancers. Have you ever noticed that when you’re in these establishments, you usually don’t see more than 5 dark skin women working as dancers? Habits are hard to break and in this case so is history. Before 1945, discrimination towards black people in the workplace was considered legal. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that John F. Kennedy started to enforce affirmative action in the workplace. Learn the difference between gentleman, mixed, and urban clubs in my other blog post. Most gentleman clubs are predominantly white with racist hiring practices and they fear that if they hire too many dark skin dancers; not only will it attract black customers; it will make their club look ghetto. Many signs are placed at dj booths ordering them not to play ghetto rap music. Because of these struggles, I decided to find my own loopholes into getting hired at these clubs so here are some tips and tricks that will help break the code.

Before you go out to these clubs to get hired, I suggest you download my worksheet printable call sheet to see what is needed of you first before you waist your time going up there just to get turned around.

Some civilians may say, “Why do you want to work at an establishment that clearly doesn’t want you there?” What you need to know is its not about being wanted. It’s about making money. White people are statistically known for tipping larger for little effort in the strip club. Most dancers, if possible, like to make the most money without effort. If you know there is a possibility you could create that reality for yourself, why not go for it?

Trick One: Now that you have the information. Do the regular thing first. Go to the club and ask for a dance manager. If manager is late, not there, or tells you no, stay and sit by the bar. Buy a drink and peep the scene. Sometimes the manager will see that you have been there for awhile and decide to hire you.

Trick Two: Go with a white male friend or customer. This one is funny to me but it works. Show them that white people love you and you are not a threat.

Trick Three: Go on amateur night. This has worked for me on multiple occasions. You can actually do this trick with the trick above. Most winners are chosen on how loud the crowd cheers.

Trick Four: Ask a friend to help. Be careful with this one. Not everyone is your friend. If you do have a white or passing friend who works at where you want to work, ask if they can help get you hired. You can also ask a white or passing friend to get hired with you.

Trick Five: Become an employee. You can always be a waitress or bartender, do your time, then become a stripper.

Unpopular Advice: Get close to manager/boss when you stay and sit. Best time to go get hired is during grand/re opening and slow nights. Some clubs get bought out leaving the club management to learn new systems and pick up the pieces. During that time, they need as many girls as they can get during slow day/nights. This is when they start hiring all shades of black dancers. Be on your best behavior though. This is a tactic they use to get more customers and once they’ve hired enough girls, they start picking off the black girls to make more room for their “kind” aka white and passing.

These are just my tricks of the trades. Do you have any to add? Write them in the comment section.