Chris Rock’s Mom: Fooled by Randomness?

By | October 19, 2006
4 Comments

Sure, it sounds like bad service, but is it racial discrimination? I’ve had to wait longer than that for service on occasion, even when there was apparently no reason why that should be the case (i.e., very busy restaurant, apparently understaffed, etc.)

I’m not defending the Cracker Barrel in question, but there are an awful lot of reasons why bad service can happen. The patron will tend to assume that bad service derives from bad will on the part of the server — in this instance in the form of racial discrimination, although it’s also easy to get the idea that the server is lazy or arrogant or has it in for you. The reality is that this is rarely the case. You can’t survive in food service for long, working for tips, if you deliberately try to create a bad experience for your customers. Again, I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen, or that the Cracker Barrel in question didn’t commit racial discrimination. But that’s one of many possible explanations, and not necessarily the most probable…based on the facts as given.

Superstitions, conspiracy theories, and sure-fire gambling systems derive from precisely this kind of application of bias to a set of facts.

Anyhow, if everybody who waits half an hour for service in a restaurant has a lawsuit settlement coming to them, Stephen is going to be a very busy guy.

  • Jake

    Most blacks have stereotyped whites, and it is holding back their progress.

    Blacks believe that white employees give perfect service to other white people. When blacks don’t receive good service they attribute it to racial discrimination. We whites know that good service is the exception not the rule.

    Blacks also believe that white people use perfect manners when dealing with other white people. But a recent survey showed that people believe that 70% of the population is rude.

    Our schools, black “leaders” and left-wing politicians have created this hypersensitivity in American blacks. It is not surprising that blacks raised in other countries do not suffer from racial hypersensitivity. They are shocked that American blacks dwell so much on the slights that we all endure in our daily lives. It also explains why foreign born blacks out achieve American blacks.

  • Erik The Red

    Hmmm…I’m guessing Jake is white and hasn’t spent much time in the company of black friends. Either that or he lives in Vermont or Woodstock, NY or some other blessed place where discrimination against blacks really is practically unheard of.

    I grew up in Poughkeepsie, not far from Woodstock, and I had many black friends. Bias against blacks was mainly something I only heard about in history class. So for me it was a real shock when I got to the suburbs of Philadelphia to find out that bias is alive and well in America, even today.

    My black friends would routinely get pulled over by the police for absolutely no reason. The officer would pull the friend’s car over first, and only then begin a search for any little blue-law that they could “get them” on, such as a license plate cover that didn’t meet regulations. Meanwhile cars driven by whites with the exact same license plate cover would be whizzing past, completely undisturbed.

    The first time it happened, I asked why. My friends could only wonder what rock I crawled out from under that I was so naiive. For them, that type of harrassment was just a normal part of their life.

    As a white boy, if I forget my car’s inspection or my schedule is just too full and I let it go for a week or two, it’s very likely that I’ll get away with it. But if you’re a black man in most parts of America, you don’t get any such grace period. Working two full-time low-paying jobs, and neither boss will let you off for half a shift? Tough luck, pal. The law is the law. Pay the fine.

    I’m not at all certain that Chris Rock’s mother was a victim of discrimination, because I wasn’t there, and I know little about the case, so I have no comment on it. But it’s easy to sit there and say that these little nuisances either don’t exist or aren’t any big deal when you’ve never been on the receiving end of them yourself. If you’re already struggling to make it, fighting a constant headwind of little inconveniences and affronts only makes it that much harder.

    And besides, that type of thing is just totally unnecessary. When will we finally grow out of it?

  • Jake

    Erik:

    I have had extensive dealings with inner city black children so I speak from experience. Many black children give up on school or life because of the culture of failure prevalent in our inner cities. The main driver of that culture of failure is racial hypersensitivity.

    Sure the world has bad cops, bad bosses, and rude people. But all of us have to deal with them and most of us do. Blacks have to do the same because if they don’t, they are condemned to a life of poverty.

  • BamaBlonde

    As I was not present at the Cracker Barrel with Chris Rock’s mom I can not say if there was discrimation or just poor service, nor can I say if the poor service was due to crowded conditions, shortage of servers, or other common reasons for slow service. What I can say is, that as the mother of 3 young people employed in the food service industry, those who have never worked waiting tables should NEVER be quick to criticize these (usually) hard working individuals.

    There is so much that goes on with the servers, the tables they are allowed to wait on, what is going on in the kitchen, etc. that affects the type of service a diner receives. In fact, many times the server is the least of the factors, and is powerless to speed things up.

    As the dining public, what it LOOKS like to us, and what is actually going on is almost ALWAYS two different things.

    Why is it that if slow service happens to me (a white female)its not equated with some sort of personal hostility towards me? But a black person with slow service automatically assumes such and files suit.

    EVERYONE in this country needs to get a grip and realize things happen to us that may or may not be fair, and those same things may or may not have been intentional, but that’s life!!!! Get used to it, get over it, and get on with it.