'I don't like black people': US brothers allege racism at Lisbon nightclub

Using the username nyc.buddha (source in Portuguese), an American photographer and videographer reported an alleged incident of racism at the door of Lisbon nightclub K Urban Beach, located on the banks of the Tagus, one of the biggest, best-known and busiest nightclubs in the Portuguese capital. "You realise that discrimination does not always appear in the way you expect. Sometimes it is right there at the door," he writes in the video he recorded of the incident in the early hours of Friday.

The 30-year-old US citizen described the episode as the "most racist moment he has ever experienced in his entire life".

Posted on Friday, the video attracted a large number of views and interactions, but was eventually deleted.

In the video, the young man explains what happened. According to his account, he and his brother were refused entry to the nightclub, allegedly because of the colour of their skin. The security guard at the night-time venue can be heard saying in English: "Yes, I do not like black people."

The two young men tried to enter the nightclub when they were initially asked to pay an entry fee of €250. "You are joking, aren't you?" he reportedly asked the guard, who replied, as heard in the video: "No, this is my decision, it is my job."

The content creator insisted that other people were being allowed into the nightclub without being charged that amount.

The two brothers decided to go to the website to buy tickets for that night at the nightclub, which cost around 32 euros for both of them, and when they returned and tried to go back in, a woman was now standing next to the security guard, who also refused them entry, claiming that the club was full and that they would be reimbursed.

As can also be seen in the video, they again asked the guard why he would not let them into the nightclub and challenged him over their "skin colour and hair", to which the guard is heard replying: "Yes, I do not like black people", apparently in an ironic way, pointing to the colleague next to him, who is also black.

"So what is he then?" the young man asked. "He is my bro!" replied the guard, prompting the young man to retort: "And to you, what am I? A nigga?" The guard said yes: "You are a nigga."

In the United States, the term nigger is considered extremely offensive. The shortened form nigga is seen as "softer" and is sometimes used within the black community itself, but it can also be offensive, depending on the context.

History of racism at Urban Beach

The K Urban Beach nightclub has been the target of multiple complaints of racism and incidents of violence over the years: "We have received complaints about them at least since 2013," founder and head of the NGO SOS Racismo (source in Portuguese) José Falcão told Euronews.

The most high-profile case occurred in 2014 and involved Olympic athlete Nelson Évora. "On the night of 19 April, my friends surprised me and took me to Urban Beach. There were 16 of us with pre-booked tables, and then the management turned on us. Why? Too many black people in the group!" he wrote on his Facebook page.

Years later, in 2017, the nightclub once again faced accusations of racism in the "Ruben" case. (source in Portuguese) The story is similar to the one told by this American. Ruben, a young black Frenchman, heard the nightclub doorman ask him for 250 euros to get in. Yet he was part of a group of other people, all white, who were not asked to pay that amount. After they accused the doorman of racism, violence broke out between the security guards and members of the group.

Even today, a quick search through online reviews, for example on the Tripadvisor (source in Portuguese) website, shows the same stories repeating themselves, with black customers reporting discrimination in the amounts they are charged at the door or in the way they are treated. Allegations of racist, rude and violent behaviour by the doormen are a constant theme in the comments.

There are also reports of several violent incidents allegedly occurring at the entrance to the nightclub, including "a woman being hit on the head", as described in this comment posted in June 2025 which, like others, accuses the police "of doing nothing":

The repeated accusations, which culminated in the "Ruben case", led the Public Prosecutor's Office to request that the venue be shut down, which took place between November 2017 and January 2018. However, the problems continued and kept recurring.

Speaking to Euronews, José Falcão says he has already lost count of the number of complaints his organisation has received regarding K Urban Beach, but that they are in the 'dozens': "People are being systematically turned away at the entrance for the sole reason that they are black. How is it possible for the state to do nothing?" he protests.

Falcão says that "it is suspicious that Urban is still open after all the complaints, when in other nightclubs it is enough for someone to look at the doorman in a way that raises doubts for the place to be closed." He adds that "in a nightclub on the outskirts, any minor incident leads the authorities to close the establishment", unlike what happens with the Lisbon nightspot. Urban belongs to Grupo K, owned by brothers João and Gonçalo Rocha, who have operated several Lisbon nightlife venues since the late 1980s.

By sharing the situation on social media, "nyc.buddha" said he wanted to 'spread' the word and call out what had happened, and the post has already had an effect: since Friday, the K Urban Beach Instagram page has been flooded with comments accusing the security guard and the management of racism. The most recent post (source in Portuguese) already had, by Saturday morning, more than 450 comments, including from celebrities such as DJ Carol Seubert, most of them calling for a boycott of the venue.

Euronews tried to contact K Urban Beach via the phone number provided online, to obtain a comment and hear its version of events, but without success by the time this article was published (Saturday morning).