Posted on 10/17/2006 5:15:23 PM PDT by Livin_large
Rose Rock, the mother of comedian Chris Rock, claims she was racially discriminated against when she was seated but ignored for more than a half hour at a Cracker Barrel restaurant along the South Carolina coast. Rock said Tuesday she planned to sue the Lebanon, Tenn.-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. She said when she asked the manager about the delay she was told they could have a free meal.
"He never called over the waitresses and asked, `Why did these people sit here for an hour without service?'" she said. "The only thing he said was we could have a free meal and neither of us wanted to eat."
Cracker Barrel spokeswoman Julie Davis said the company doesn't "tolerate any form of discrimination."
"It has always been a violation of our policies and procedures and it is neither condoned nor allowed," she said. "We do not allow the type of behavior you are describing," Davis said.
Rock said she contacted the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission and was told her complaint would be handled, but "nothing ever happened."
The head of the commission, Jesse Washington, said Tuesday that after initial discussions, the complaint was finalized Aug. 7 and his agency also was investigating. He would not comment on the complaint.
"We get thousands of charges coming through here in the course of a year," he said. "It's not out of line _ the time frame on this. It is being investigated and we will be in touch with her when we have a report."
The Rev. Al Sharpton will join Rock on Wednesday in South Carolina to announce that Sharpton's Action Network will finance the planned lawsuit.
"I'm getting reports from all over the country about Cracker Barrel," Sharpton said from New York on Tuesday.
He also said state officials are slow to act on such complaints.
"When people are talking about there is no more discrimination, a lot of it is because they are not following this stuff up," Sharpton said.
Cracker Barrel, established in 1969, operates 547 restaurants in 41 states, according to the company's Web site.
Georgetown is about 60 miles northeast of Charleston.
Frankly as a Caucasoid indibidual I am severey offendid by the use of a racial epiphet in the name of dis restrant. They might as well call it the White Mofo's Only Diner or sumpin?
Our family is not always welcomed places do to being WC bound and our pleasure is to never do business again with whom ever.
I would like to see more folks who feel discrimaneted against take the high road and just not do business with whom ever they felt did not want to provide a service.
It's a big world and if enough folks don't patronize a place due to issues the place goes out of business. No court/attorney fees no gazzillion hours in a court and making your own life miserable so much more simple to walk away and say not going there again.
**she was seated but ignored for more than a half hour***
Then she said this
****"He never called over the waitresses and asked, `Why did these people sit here for an hour without service?'****
Was it an hour --or a half hour, Maybe Chris should buy her a watch.
****She said when she asked the manager about the delay she was told they could have a free meal****
***"The only thing he said was we could have a free meal and neither of us wanted to eat." ****
Then why were you there?? Just looking to stir some racist crap? If you werent hungry why go to the restaurant. Why didnt you ask one of the waitresses why you hadnt been served, I am sure they came by delivering food to other tables.
According to the story you just sat there for an hour--half hour--whatever and said or did nothing to inquire why you hadnt been served, Then you called for the manager, who did his best to soothe you but by then you had gone into the Muvva complex. The black picked on paranoid schism where nothing but a white man hanging from the rafters would have soothed you.
Now you want to sue. I hope you get nothing. If you go to a Restaurant and you dont like the service get up and walk out. I have done it dozens of times. Blacks arent the only people who get bad service.
Personally I stop at cracker Barrel a lot and have seen many blacks there eating, They came for the food. Not for the potential law suit. If you need money ask Chris, and get him to buy you a watch.
Oh my I laughed so hard on that post I coughed up last weeks cold.
Cracker barrel ROTLMAO.....
"...but the other guy was bringing it back."
LOL. Gee, why didn't you want that pizza?
I was at the Cracker in Raleigh, NC (in July), the service sucked. I'm white maybe I can sue. Two weeks ago it took and hour to get my meal and they still screwed it up.
Well, which was it, 30 minutes or an hour?
And, FGS, it sounds like she wanted somebody publicly humiliated.
I've only been to one Cracker Barrell believe or not and I liked the food. Do they all have the cool merchandise? I spent way too much money in the store.
Freaking Cracker Barrel. I ate at one, and spent the next day on the toilet. Never again. She's lucky she didn't get her food.
How about this: I was at Eckerd's the other night and it took the boy THREE TIMES to ring up my debit card, with about ten people waiting behind me. I finally said, "Hey, maybe if you hung up that damn cell phone, you could concentrate on my purchse."
Everybody behind me clapped.
Cracker Barrel must be a Southern chain huh?
The only Cracker Barrel I have ever heard of is the crappy overpriced cheese/salami catalogs that come every Christmas to compete with the other crappy cheese and salami catalog Swiss Colony.
Hmmm... If it's descrimination when it happens to them, what is it when I seem invisible in a restaurant? We need a NAAIWP (National Association for the Advancement of Invisible White People) so that I can sue someone.
I have to agree with a few comments in here. If you don't like the service, leave.
Mrs. Rock and her daughter will need to have timed everyone else's wait from their particular server; otherwise, thirty minutes isn't all that unusual for Cracker Barrel. That's what the little wooden peg solitaire game is for.
A free meal for a long wait is a fair deal. I've gotten free milk shakes and cokes from long waits at McDonald's and Chick-Fil-A. I wonder how they knew I was the color they didn't like?
They annoy the crap out of me, but I can't go without the freestone peach pancakes!
I've really only been to one in Marietta Georgia and because of that experience have never been back. But I'm happy to hear of your good experience.
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