Protests from hundreds have forced a North Portland gay bar to cancel a event featuring a white male performing in

an African American welfare mother.

Michael Shawn Talley, manager of

on North Lombard Street, said the bar meant no harm in scheduling Chuck Knipp, a well-known Texas comedian who performs as

. Knipp has described his character as an "inarticulate black welfare mother with 19 children."

But regular Eagle customers spoke out against the booking on the bar's Facebook page this week, calling the event offensive and racist.

"I never in a million years thought there would be so much hate and anger over having Shirley Q. Liquor here," Talley said. "I didn't think this could be a huge race issue. But if this hurts one person, that's one person too many."

The Eagle, which moved from downtown to Lombard five years ago, caters to gay men in the leather community. When Talley took over as manager last year, he hoped to diversify the club. He booked more inclusive dance nights as he tried to shake the bar's image as hostile to women.

He also looked for performers with a wider appeal. A few months ago, he thought of Knipp. Talley grew up in South Carolina, where Knipp often performs to packed houses. Though the Shirley Q. Liquor shows have drawn backlash and protest in other cities, Talley didn't foresee any problem.

The bar announced the March 15 show a month ago. As an opening act, Talley also scheduled an African-American drag entertainer who planned to perform in "whiteface." All 100 of the $15 tickets sold out, he said. Talley didn't say how much he agreed to pay the comedian, but Knipp told Rolling Stone magazine in 2007 that he makes between $4,000 and $7,000 a gig.

When Talley created a Facebook event page Wednesday, the backlash started. Deejays who had

. Others planned to boycott a Saturday dance party.

"I was enraged," said Sophia St. James, a Northeast Portland nurse who frequented the bar. "The Eagle is known for being sexist and transphobic. I knew they had issues surrounding bigotry. But it shocked me."

For Leila Hofstein, an African-American photographer and children's art educator, the event reminded her of a childhood of people laughing at her.

"They laugh at a mockery of my life," she wrote on the page. "They laugh with those who do not see several folds of comedic irony: with every bully, with every older white man who still sees me as property in some way, they laugh with the skinheads who jumped me in middle school, they laugh with my oppressors."

St. James and others called the bar to complain, she said, but staff called them "bored hipsters" who didn't understand entertainment. Bar staff deleted comments from the event page, as well.

But Talley said he couldn't sleep Thursday night. After two days and thousands of comments worth of online debate, he began writing his African-American friends to seek guidance. Though some said they saw it as art, he said, others urged him to cancel.

"It was really tearing my heart open," Talley said.

Friday morning, Talley canceled the event. In its place, he said, he plans to organize an open forum to talk about race.

But St. James said she will never go to the bar again.

"Canceling this event doesn't come from a place of respect for their black patrons. It comes from a place of, 'Wow, we've got to save our tails,'" she said. "They canceled it because they know that this was and is going to have a detrimental affect on their business. I don't think it's going to blow over. It will die down, but the Eagle Portland will always be known as the bar that booked the racist drag queen."