Last night, Karrueche Tran hosted an event at Dstrkt London, a club in the West End. The model, who rose to fame after dating the singer Chris Brown, is of mixed African American and Vietnamese heritage, which means she would probably pass the brown paper bag test. At the same time, a group of people organised a peaceful protest to take place outside Dstrkt, who have said that they do not have a door policy that discriminates against black people.

Last weekend, Zalika Miller and her friends were turned away from the club despite the fact that their names were on the guest list. After speaking to the manager, the promoter allegedly sent a message to Miller’s friend to say that the two of them were welcome but the other girls were overweight. Screenshots of these messages soon surfaced on the internet. They were accompanied by messages the promoter allegedly sent to another partygoer, where he specifically requests she brings her mixed-race friend. “The promoter asked for pictures of us before we even got there. He told my friend Lin, if she was bringing black girls they had to be of a certain calibre,” Miller said.

It is a claim that almost seems ridiculous. You may think the ladies at the centre of the #DoILookDstrkt hashtag are pulling out the race card, but I can personally testify that something as simple as a night out can be extremely trying for a young black woman.

Unfortunately it is nothing new – young black ravers have always resorted to tricks in order to gain entry into clubs in central London. “If it’s a guest list event we always change our names,” Miller tells me. “My friend’s last name is Owusu, which is a Ghanaian surname, so we will change it to Smith because they will take one look at the list and know we are black. They will refuse entry before we’ve even got there.

If you’re refused entry to a club, one trick is to reorganise your party among a group of white women half an hour later. You are almost guaranteed to walk straight through. I guess in this case the misconception that all black people look the same plays in our favour.

As Miller shares her story with me, I can’t help but draw similarities between her experience and my own. The resemblance is uncanny, from the reject wall where she stood with her party while her friend tried to negotiate entry with the promoter, to the journey home, which feels longer than usual.

And it’s not just a central London problem. A few months ago I was turned away from a club in south London, a venue notoriously known among black, Asian and minority ethnic ravers as racist. Though they were not as candid about the reason we were not gaining entry, they were happy to let the white women that followed behind me through their doors, as I stared in astonishment across the road.

Many wrongly assume that because there are some minority ethnic people inside partying, a club cannot be racist. It is a reasonable theory on the surface, and I suppose it is easier to believe than to admit that a city which boasts so much diversity – in London alone we speak more than 300 different languages – could be rife with issues that mirror life before the civil rights movement.

Let me assure you that tokenism is a thing. Unfortunately for me, the club had filled their black quota that night. Club managers have no problem letting black people in, but only if the ratio is right. Had I spent less time trying to take the perfect selfie, maybe it would have been someone else standing outside.

Social media has increasingly become an important space for minority ethnic people who want to share their grievances about important issues. Reporting race-related crimes to the police may result in little to nothing being done, but you can bet that tweeting about it will. Earlier this year, when a group of students were turned away from a club in Leicester because they were black, they secretly filmed the saga and posted it on YouTube. The doorman was suspended and the student, Kosi Orah, and his friends were issued an apology.

It is really empowering to see social platforms used in this way, and it is proof that black Twitter is more than “an aggressive social media group”. Not only does it raise awareness regarding important issues, but it can get you a quicker turnaround of justice than the police.

Hip-hop nights cannot be applauded if they refuse to include those from the culture of which that genre originated. A night out should not have to be such a painstaking mission of tricks and tactics to make sure you get given entry. It’s a shame that, while genres like bashment are getting more airtime at these clubs, black people who do not look like Karrueche Tran are rarely welcome to join the party.