There's Racism, and Then There's Absurdity

The following is a bit lengthy, but I think it is quite interesting...

I'm diverting from my normal, journal-like post structure to report a grave injustice. I normally do not choose to call people out very often on my blog (though I notice I am doing so more lately - maybe I'm the one with issues), but such a despicable act has been committed that I couldn't keep from making the conflict known.

Comedian Chris Rock's mother, Rose, who lives in South Carolina, is planning to sue Cracker Barrel restaurants (based in Lebanon, TN) for racial discrimination after she and her daughter were seated for a meal but service was then neglected. Ms. Rock claims everyone else in the Georgetown, SC restaurant was being served, but no one even came to check on them. (Not even to bring over some of that delicious cornbread, Ms. Rock? My, what a travesty!) Surely this is an injustice ... but on the part of Ms. Rock (and her legal financier, the incorrigible "Rev." Al Sharpton, who jumps on racial discrimination suits like Paris Hilton on diet pills).

First of all, if you check the above link, make sure you watch the video excerpt from Larry King Live. Now, it is quite possible that racial discrimination did find Ms. Rock (you mean someone in South Carolina might be prejudice?! That's crazy!). However, part of living graciously is to give people the benefit of the doubt. Ms. Rock and her daughter went for a meal at 4:00-ish in the afternoon, neither considered to be the lunch hour or dinner hour, and traditionally the time when wait-staff shifts change. Ms. Rock admits she did not try to summon any of the wait-staff's attention. Apparently she just sat and brooded and immediately drew the conclusion that the staff must hate black people. (Then why did they seat you in the first place, Ms. Rock?) Instead, after about a half hour of keeping to herself, she sought out the manager, already incensed at the way she had been treated (or "not treated" might be a better way to put it). She recounts how the manager apologized and asked her if she would have a seat and he would make sure their order was expedited and their meal be on the house. Ms. Rock claims by then she and her daughter had lost their appetite at the injustice of it all. (One bite of that cornbread could probably cure that, you know.)

She sought out the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission, filed a report, and now complains they never did anything. The HAC claims they get thousands of such complaints (in South Carolina?! No!) each year, and it takes a while to mobilize an investigation. They have since finalized the request and have begun an investigation as of early August. Before this time, Cracker Barrel sent a formal apology, a care basket, and vouchers for two free meals to Ms. Rock. When asked about this, she and her hero, Sharpton, scoff at the gesture of supplication. They want to file suit, in the name of all minorities everywhere.

Now, there's racism, and then there's plain absurdity. Ms. Rock, I know your son has built a career on racially-motivated comedy, but that doesn't mean every inconvenient thing that happens to you is a devious act by some close-minded, prejudice jerk. If this is about money, why do you need it if your son is a star? If this is about principle, why don't you find a more blatant discrimination instead of following the country's bandwagon of blaming all insulting instances on oppression? I got lousy service in a burger joint the other day, and my order was botched, but I didn't chalk that up to the waiter hating me because I'm a Christian (though, if I did, I'm sure I could get Falwell or some other jump-the-gun religious personalities to take up my cause). Ms. Rock, don't be one of those people. Nobody intelligent respects Al Sharpton. If Martin Luther King Jr. were still alive, he'd probably have to contain himself from punching the guy in the nose.

Aren't we all getting a little too touchy. I'm not saying racism doesn't exist, Ms. Rock, nor do I claim to know what it feels like to be on the short end of that stick. But I do know how to forgive and forget once in a while, and, if I can squeeze some advice in past Sharpton's husky, hulking, protective frame, I'd say this instance is definitely a time for doing so.