A video of a white gay bar owner calling black customers the n-word has sparked protests in Philadelphia

In a recently surfaced video of a conversation recorded back in 2013, Darryl DePiano, the owner of the Philadelphia gay bar iCandy, can be overheard referring to a number of black patrons as niggers.

The video was posted earlier this week in the comments section of a G Philly article about iCandy and another gay bar, Woodys. Both have been criticized recently by the local black community after multiple people complained about that the bars’ dress codes were allegedly being used to prohibit black men from entering.

The 22-second-long recording of DePiano and another man features the pair talking about how some of the bar’s patrons requested tickets that would have gotten them free drinks.

“And Ricky Peterson, nig, nig, nig, nig, niggers—everyone of them,” DePiano can be heard saying. “Does Ray ask you for drink passes? White, obnoxious white, but white?”

The other man in the video says that no, Ray hasn’t asked him for passes before DePiano continues: “There you go, and he was definitely your real boyfriend. All three of them that ask you for drink passes are niggers.”

Yesterday, DePiano admitted that it was his voice in the video. He insisted that he only called his black customers niggers because he was going through a “time of frustration” and that his words don’t reflect his true feelings towards black people.

“It is NEVER ever ever Ok to refer to anyone in this [manner,] but I did make this comment, and I have grown since then to be understanding and respectful to each and every individual,” DePiano wrote on Facebook. “Again, this was an EXTREMELY Poor Choice I made on my own many years ago and i definitely learned and continue to learn each day.”

For many of iCandy’s patrons, DePiano’s words rang hollow. In addition to a physical protest organized by the Black and Brown Workers Collective, DePiano’s Facebook page was flooded with hundreds of posts calling him out for his actions.

“Your apology does not come from a genuine place,” a  New York man who’d planned on visiting the bar wrote. “It comes out of fear that you’ll lose money. You got caught and now you want to try to clean it up and blame it on “frustration” which was so evident while you were chuckling and saying ‘nig-nig-nig-nig…'”