Being a doorman at a Boston strip club sometimes means just standing there while guys scream at you that you're a racist for 20 minutes

A doorman at Centerfolds on Lagrange Street did the right thing by barring entry to three drunk guys, but did the wrong thing by shoving one of them into a car when they tried again to get in after yelling at him for 20 minutes, the club's manager told the Boston Licensing Board today.

Manager Steven Hurd said he immediately terminated the doorman after learning of the July 20 incident, for which police issued a citation for "assault and battery, employee on non patron."

Hurd and police say the three men - two white, one black - tried walking into one of Boston's two remaining strip clubs around 11:30 p.m. But the doorman, who'd seen them stumbling down Lagrange - the black man even fell to the curb - refused to let them in. They tried getting into Boston's other strip club, the Glass Slipper, conveniently located right next door, but a doorman there also refused to let them in.

Apparently more irked at Centerfolds than the Glass Slipper, they then spent 20 minutes by a light pole, yelling at the Centerfolds doorman and repeatedly calling him a racist because one of them was black. Then they tried walking into Centerfolds again. This time, Hurd said, the doorman "pushed [one of the white guys] against a vehicle."

"I terminated the employee that night," because while he did the right thing by barring the three, he shouldn't have shoved the guy - shoving people is against employee rules - Hurd said.

The board decides Thursday whether Centerfolds warrants any punishment for the incident.