Posted on 04/11/2002 1:36:25 PM PDT by galt-jw
blacks claiming racism due to poor service
I anticipate Bob Evans will be next.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorneys suing restaurant chain Cracker Barrel for racial discrimination said on Thursday the number of customers who have joined the suit as plaintiffs has doubled to 42 since they filed it in December.
The lawsuit alleges Cracker Barrel denied service to black diners, sat them in segregated areas of the restaurants or served them food plucked from the garbage.
Meanwhile, Cracker Barrel's president denied the allegations at a news briefing in Nashville, Tennessee, and said the chain's service was "colorblind."
"The charges are shocking, but the facts contradict these claims," Donald Turner said. "This is a public relations attempt to get us to make a large lump settlement."
Turner told Reuters the company had no intention of settling the case out of court, and said there were not as many racial complaints against Cracker Barrel as attorneys claimed there were.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which officially joined the suit on Thursday as plaintiff and co-counsel, said the alleged discrimination was "unacceptable."
"While it has been fifty years since Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus, fifty years later we are going to refuse to sit in the back of the restaurant," Dennis Hayes, the general counsel for the NAACP, told reporters. The civil rights group also sued Cracker Barrel in 1999 on behalf of black employees who allege they were discriminated against in terms of pay, promotions and hiring.
When the latest suit was filed in December, attorneys said former Cracker Barrel customer relations employee Judith Robertson had told them hundreds of customers complained of racial discrimination every month.
Turner told Reuters that the company's computer records showed Robertson had in fact only filed four such grievances in the year-and-a-half she worked at Cracker Barrel, out of a total 60 to 70 discrimination complaints.
Robertson could not be reached for comment.
The complaint alleges that Cracker Barrel, a unit of CBRL Group Inc., denied service to black diners in 200 cities nationwide, made them wait longer than white customers for service, and seated them in segregated areas, often the smoking section of the restaurant.
Among the 42 plaintiffs, for the most part black diners, was a white Tennessee couple who allege Cracker Barrel denied them service because they were accompanied by their bi-racial adoptive son.
In 1999, the NAACP sued Cracker Barrel for alleged discrimination against black employees in terms of pay, promotion and hiring. This suit is still pending.
Turner also denied these claims, and said that 255 of the more than 300 witnesses drafted by attorneys against Cracker Barrel in the latest case were also named in the 1999 wages and hour lawsuit.
"They're using the same witnesses to file another suit," Turner said. "They're not unbiased."
(With additional reporting by Pat Harris in Nashville)
THEN they work their way to Shoney's.
Please, Cracker Barrel, don't give in to P.O.C extortion.
Actually that was mentioned by the lawyer that is head of the suit. He said that servers "don't want to wait on Blacks because there is a perception that they tip less."
The manager (CEO?) came on said that this is ridiculous, that over 25% of their employees are minorities and 7% of their managers. He also said that this same law firm had already sued another restaurant chain for discrimination(didn't catch the name).
The truth is, some restaurants may descriminate, but it's more likely that waitresses and other staff make mistakes that are taken as proof positive that they are racist. Some may be, but that isn't the only explanation.
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