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May 26, 2012

Chris Rock's mom vs. Cracker Barrel

by Adam Finley, posted Oct 19th 2006 11:01AM

tichina arnoldFans 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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Gordy

I didn't read the above comments since this is closer to home for me. I'm from SC, and it is common knowledge that Cracker Barrel tends to hire people that are intolerant of blacks. Denny's used to have the same problem, but I think they have worked their issues out.

I'm alarmed by this story because this is common knowledge in the black community in SC--so much so that several groups have a long standing boycott against this restaurant. This boycott has expanded throught the southeastern US--at least--through HBCU campuses. I find it hard to believe that this lady, and her supposed entourage, didn't know this, and were looking for publicity.

Not that she was wrong to go there, but, to use a weak analogy: "If you tell a gossip a secret, who's at fault?"

October 20 2006 at 11:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Borat

I'm not white and when I came to this country a few years ago I went with a lot of white friends on a trip to Florida and on the way many of them decided that we should have breakfast at Cracker Barrel and I since I had never heard of it before I laughed at the name.

When we went in I thought: "Now I understand why it's Cracker Barrel", just as a joke. I was the only non-white person there and it felt a bit weird but nobody really cared. We had to wait almost half an hour to be seated and it wasn't just us. I guess they wanted people to browse their store first.

As for the food: meh.

October 19 2006 at 5:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Angel

@1 0 I'm not sure what her son's income has to do with anything. If she wants to eat at Cracker Barrel or Mickey D's, she should be able to do so and get good service.

However, I wouldn't file a lawsuit because I wasn't served for 30 minutes (I would have left after 10 or 15 minutes). Maybe she's doing this because they have such a bad reputation for this and they didn't respond to her complaint. At some point, corporations have to become reponsible for their behavior and high-profile incidents like this may enforce a change.

October 19 2006 at 3:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
R-Bro

Gotta add my $.02: the woman who plays the mom is perhaps the most underrated actress on TV. She does more with her face than most actors do, well, at all. And this is coming from a white, 38-year-old male. Give this woman an Emmy--she deserves it!

October 19 2006 at 3:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nick

Yeah, I am white and have gotten crappy service at Cracker Barrels too. It took them 30 minutes to bring our drinks and the orange juice was kinda frozen and the eggs weren't cooked the way we asked.. plus they were cold. I also had problems at Applebees (dirty silverware/long time to wait for service), and so far, I have never seen a manager yell at the waiter. They just come out, apologize and then give you a gift certificate or offer you the meal free or something if they do anything at all (cracker barrel didn't). Personally, I would be embarassed if the manager chewed out the waiter in front of me. Then again, I am worried about getting herpes from the spit that the waiter will inevitably put into my food.

October 19 2006 at 1:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tammy

Folks, if Cracker Barrel didn't have a reputation for doing this, I would agree with you that she's is just whining about poor service. Google it, you'll find a ton of articles about how Cracker Barrel discriminates based on race and sexual orientation. I know USA Today did an article on this a few years back. I will not eat at Cracker Barrel and I have no problem telling everyone about it in hopes to stop someone else from going there too.

Here's my problem with them, they throw money at it and don't try to retrain anyone. Denny's put all their employees through sensitivity training and tried to put some positive PR on their situation with discrimination. Cracker Barrel settles out of court a majority of the time. When I found out they were firing employees just because they were gay, that's when I decided to boycott and I haven't been to a CB in over 10 years now.

Please stop eating there! Just because it's never happened to you doesn't mean it's not happening.

October 19 2006 at 1:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tool

I saw her on Larry King last night.

Quit being playing a victim just because someone 'dissed' you at a restaurant. I get shitty service at all those restaurants. What do you expect for a $6.95 meal?

Girl, you are the mother of a multi, multi, multi-millionaire comedian. Surely you can afford to go anywhere you want.

Go to Spago if you want someone to kiss your ass from the second you walk in the door.

October 19 2006 at 12:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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