Chris Rock's Mom Vs Cracker Barrel Restaurant

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

MrsSpringsteen

Blue Crack Addict
Joined
Nov 30, 2002
Messages
29,245
Location
Edge's beanie closet
Maybe if they knew she was his mother they would have been in a hurry to serve her-oops, now it's getting so much publicity. I can't believe things like that still happen in 2006, it's scary.


http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/18/chrisrockmom.discrimin.ap/

Rose Rock, the mother of comedian Chris Rock, claims she was racially discriminated against when she was seated but ignored for a half hour at a Cracker Barrel restaurant along the South Carolina coast.

Rock said Tuesday she planned to sue the Lebanon, Tennessee-based company. A Cracker Barrel spokeswoman said the restaurant chain was investigating and taking the complaint "very seriously."

Cracker Barrel has in the past faced numerous lawsuits and a federal inquiry over complaints of refusing to serve black customers, discriminating against minority workers and firing gay employees. The company has taken steps to rebuild its folksy image and reach out to minorities.

Rock, who is from Georgetown, said she and her 21-year-old daughter were the only blacks at the chain's Murrells Inlet restaurant in April.
 
I've recently been to a Cracker Barrel. They were serving African Americans in the one I was in. They have been on the wrong side of the gay rights controversy. I'm not a big believer in boycotts because they basically don't accomplish anything.
 
I have been seated before and forgotten about. How is she certain this isn't the case? According to the article, after the manager was notified they had been waiting he offered to comp the meal but they declined. How is this a case of discrimination and not being overlooked?
 
I just did a quick Google and found this from 2004

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/2004-05-07-cracker-barrel_x.htm

"When she picked up a doll, as shoppers do, the saleswoman took it from her and put it back on the shelf. The same thing happened with a greeting card. When Wise looked around, she noticed a white patron touching merchandise freely — without supervision.

The Rev. Henry Harris, 55, also African-American, says that at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Arkansas two years ago, he and his family watched for 35 minutes as white diners in parties of the same size who arrived after him were escorted to tables. He wound up in the smoking section "with other African-American patrons," even though he had requested non-smoking and tables were open there. When he appealed to a manager, he "politely looked at me and said if we were dissatisfied ... there was a Burger King" around the corner.

John Joseph Hargrove, 57, who is white, visited a Cracker Barrel in midafternoon in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., in 1998 with his wife and their adopted biracial son, Deon, who was 4.

Hargrove says they waited 45 minutes and were never served, even as others who arrived after them received food. "It was flagrant. ... Those people discriminated against me, my wife and my little boy," he says.

Experiences like theirs were not aberrations, the Justice Department said this week in a lawsuit against Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, whose 497 restaurants and gift shops are familiar sights near interstates in much of the country.

The government said its investigations showed that Cracker Barrel segregated customers by race; allowed white servers to refuse to wait on African-American customers; and seated or served white customers before seating or serving similarly situated African-American customers. Justice further alleged that, in many cases, managers directed, participated or acquiesced in those practices. "

Some more info about Rose Rock's incident

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/15792777.htm
 
Last edited:
verte76 said:
I've recently been to a Cracker Barrel. They were serving African Americans in the one I was in.



well,
that is really something

the few times I have been to Cracker Barrel they were mostly serving pancakes and cheeseburgers:|
 
Last edited:
what gets overlooked is the name of the restaurant is offensive to white people
 
Chizip said:
what gets overlooked is the name of the restaurant is offensive to white people

True, "cracker" is a term of derision for white men from Georgia and Florida. My own dad is a Florida cracker.
 
I'm not sure what happened there.. but I can say - myself and co-worker's dined at the Cracker Barrel here in the deep south of Alabama - on almost a weekly basis. This was over the course of (5) years.
I seriously never noticed anything wrong. My server's were diverse enough to not throw up any red flags and I dined next to all races, as far as I could see - and believe me, if this was happening in a place I was going to, I would have noticed.
Howerver, that was over 2 years ago, so I can't say what's happening now.
But with all due respect they have the best down-home southern dishes that rivaled even what I could cook.
and I can cook, baby.. :drool:
 
Not sure if one racist bastard (or group of racist bastards) in one particular Cracker Barrel indicates that the whole chain is a bastion of racism...though it's interesting that they did come under fire for discrimination in the past.

You'd think they'd have learned...and after Denny's had the same issues before also.
 
CTU2fan said:
Not sure if one racist bastard (or group of racist bastards) in one particular Cracker Barrel indicates that the whole chain is a bastion of racism...though it's interesting that they did come under fire for discrimination in the past.

You'd think they'd have learned...and after Denny's had the same issues before also.

How can you jump and say this is a case of racism by a racist employee? Who hasn't been to a restaurant and had bad service or been ignored? Waiters are capable of forgetting. I've been to Friendlies and been completely ignored and I didn't view it as racism.
 
randhail said:


How can you jump and say this is a case of racism by a racist employee? Who hasn't been to a restaurant and had bad service or been ignored? Waiters are capable of forgetting. I've been to Friendlies and been completely ignored and I didn't view it as racism.

I agree. I've had plenty of bad service, hopefully for Rock's mom there's more to the story.
 
Well I'd say when you are the only African American (s) in a restaurant, and that happens to you-the natural tendency would be to believe it's racism. I wouldn't blame them at all for feeling that way, and as a white person I've never experienced that so I have no idea what it's like. Perhaps Mrs. Rock was also aware of their history-so that combined with her experience made her arrive at the conclusion that it was racist. I would imagine that when you are a minority you experience racism so often that you are inclined to believe it exists more than you are not inclined.
 
Based on the info posted, I don't think there's enough to call this racism. To me, that's a very, very harsh claim and I could never call someone a racism because of a single incident of bad service (but then again, I'm not black so how would I know how she feels?). I was at a restaurant recently with friends and we were ignored for a long time. Then the waiter kept forgetting to bring drinks or silverware, even after we'd asked. We got pissed and thought we were being ignored because we were younger and it was busy, so he wanted to hit the tables w/ older couples b/c they can tip more (it's a restaurant popular w/ people over 60). Well it turned out the kid had JUST started working. We started looking around and all the tables in our section were complaining. The old man behind me laughed and said he received a fork 15 minutes after his food arrived. I dunno, maybe the Cracker Barrel person was just having a bad day. People make mistakes. Hopefully that's all it was.
 
randhail said:


How can you jump and say this is a case of racism by a racist employee? Who hasn't been to a restaurant and had bad service or been ignored? Waiters are capable of forgetting. I've been to Friendlies and been completely ignored and I didn't view it as racism.

I wasn't saying the employee in question was definitely a racist...my point was that even if he was a racist it's hard to fault Cracker Barrel for 1 isolated incident, because I think it's difficult to pick out the bigots at hiring time.

A pattern of behavior at several CB restaurants would send up a red flag though.
 
Well I'm black and I've been to Cracker Barrels all up and down I-75 from Orlando up through Tennessee/Kentucky during my many drives from home in FL to Michigan where I was going to college. And I never experienced any discriminatory treatment during my many visits. (At gas stations and on the highways, I did however encounter some hostile looks, middle fingers etc once I started making the drive with the white woman who is now my wife. To this day, I prefer to fly from her family's home to mine in Florida's than drive and run the southern gauntlet with her).

However, as much as love the food there, I could see how a pattern of discriminatory behavior COULD develop there. It's very much about romanticizing country--particularly southern country life, and that old-timey life generally wasn't that great for black folks. And it would make sense that SOME people who work there and SOME managers might buy a little more deeply into that good-old-days southern ethos complete with the time when black folks "knew their place."

That said, I'm glad I don't have to worry about boycotting as their are no Cracker Barrels anywhere near Saipan (We do have a "Country House" restaurant down in the tourist district of Saipan, but I've never been there and I'm pretty sure it's a far cry from true country cooking). And I hope that by the time I get back to the U.S. Cracker Barrel has been sufficiently chastened and everything has been ironed out so I can eat there. Because their vegetable platter with the baked potatoe is unbeatable. And their blackberry cobbler is the best there is.
 
But it is a pattern-if you Google you can find out more. There was a settlement, it's all in the USA Today article. That was years ago and hopefully they have truly changed, but who knows?
 
the name of the resturant and knowledge of her son's work makes me not believe that this even happened...

"cracker" has been a huge part of chris' work... heck, i have a t-shirt from when i went to see him that says "cracker ass crackers" on the back. and this happens at the cracker barrel? all sounds a little fishy to me
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
the name of the resturant and knowledge of her son's work makes me not believe that this even happened...

"cracker" has been a huge part of chris' work... heck, i have a t-shirt from when i went to see him that says "cracker ass crackers" on the back. and this happens at the cracker barrel? all sounds a little fishy to me

Hmmm, urban legend perhaps. Particularly since according to Mrs. S the settlement was years ago.
 
Back
Top Bottom