Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Hmmmm

Ok, I don't like to get in big social debates, but this article on CNN.com really bugged me today. The story is about Chris Rock's mom, and her claim that Cracker Barrel was racially discriminating against her and her daughter as they waited a half an hour before being addressed in the restaurant. Now I have only once been discriminated against because of my race, and that didn't really upset me too much. Its also not that I think that his mother wasn't discriminated against. I just have a problem with someone saying "Bad service? It must be because I'm ____." Sarah and I recently went to dinner at the Okada Sushi restaurant and we waited almost 30 minutes to even be addressed. We made the joke that the bartender must be homosexual, as there is no way that he would ignore two hotties like us. (We were obviously joking) We didn't go, "this guy must hate young, single, white women." We figured they were busy and had bad service.

Now you might say "well, what if they were helping everyone else and clearly not helping this one group?" That happened to me and Sarah. They helped the drunks, the old people, and the smoking angst ridden hottie "bad-boys".

This may be a perfectly valid complaint that these people were discriminated because of their race. Is it lawsuit worthy? Do you sue the company who hired the bigot that treats you poorly? Do you sue an individual because of their opinion, albeit misguided?

Now I'm staying out of politics and race relations. The end.

2 comments:

Missy said...

I don't like to get involved about these types of issues either, but I will make a quick comment. I am sure that people are discrimated against because of race all the time, which sucks. However, I agree that people are quick to blame racism as the reason for any problem. I have seen it several times in the restaurant I work at - something happens, an order gets messed up or something, it must have happened because the customer is black and we don't want them there. What?? I am sorry your order got screwed up, or you got crappy service, but I am pretty sure it had nothing to do with your race....
Just my 2 cents....

drqshadow said...

Well, it was the CRACKER Barrel. I mean, how clearly do they need to define things?

Seriously, Chris Rock's mom is on crack in this situation. I saw the story on CNN yesterday and had precisely the same reaction. What made it worse was the manager personally apologized immediately when he realized that they hadn't been helped, and even offered both of them a free meal for their inconvenience. If you're a normal human being, that's the end of the situation. You get a free meal, you don't tip the wait staff, and you wash your hands of the experience.

Better still, Ms. Rock isn't financing the lawsuit herself. Al Sharpton's group is handling all legal fees. As if Chris and Tony don't bring in anything...