Chris Rock's mom vs. Cracker Barrel
Fans of Everybody Hates Chris know that Chris' mother, Rochelle, is a woman who doesn't take any BS from anyone, a "ghetto snob" who isn't afraid to tell you exactly how she feels, and often at full volume. In fact, sometimes she can be -- what's the word I'm looking for? Oh right, a total bitch. That's okay, though, it makes her character stand out from the crowd and creates a nice dynamic between herself and the rest of the family.
As I've said in my reviews of the series, Everybody Hates Chris is highly fictionalized, but as Hunter S. Thompson attempted to demonstrate in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, sometimes fiction can reveal something that's even truer than the truth.
That may have been proved recently when the real Chris Rock's mother, Rose Rock, was allegedly denied service at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in South Carolina. After she and her daughter sat for over half an hour, they finally asked what was going on and were offered a free meal for their trouble. Rose felt that wasn't enough, and plans to file a lawsuit against the restaurant. Whether the incident was due to racial discrimination or not is difficult to say, but this wouldn't be the first time the restaurant chain has had complaints about staff refusing to serve black customers.
I couldn't help but read about this incident and not picture Rochelle Rock, as portrayed by Tichina Arnold, standing up and announcing her displeasure for the entire restaurant to hear, including the truck drivers in the back and the stoned college kids two tables over sharing a bread basket. They should turn this into a scene for an upcoming episode. It practically writes itself.

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