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#DiningWhileBlack, a black Air Force veteran and entrepreneur is suing Cracker Barrel, the combined restaurant and gift stores chain, after he was kicked out of the establishment under false pretenses.
Randy Freeman, 57, said he’d frequented various Cracker Barrel locations in West Virginia before. This time, he walked into Store #193 with three of his customers in Cross Lanes where he said he ordered a soft drink. When he attempted to order food from a waitress, he was met by the store manager who falsely accused him of being rude to the waitress.
“As a motor coach owner and operator, prior to the incident, I had visited Cracker Barrel’s chain on a number of occasions but not at the store where the incident occurred … I did not experience this kind of unfair treatment in the past,” Freeman told Rolling Out. “I was taken completely by surprise when the manager came out and made these false accusations.”
Cracker Barrel, unlike Starbucks, rebuffed any of Freeman’s attempts for an apology communicating only through adversarial court filings. He’s now awaiting a decision on the lawsuit he filed, for racial discrimination and defamation in District Court in the Southern District of West Virginia.
#webelong @Blklivesmatter pic.twitter.com/5cjPJm96fa
— Law Office Of Sekou Campbell PLLC (@Sekou_Law) April 23, 2018
#DiningWhileBlack:
Earlier this month, in a video that has now gone viral, two 23-year old budding entrepreneurs, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were handcuffed and escorted out of a Philadelphia Starbucks. Nelson had been refused access to the bathroom because he had to be a paying patron. They both sat waiting for a business meeting but were told to leave. According to 911 accounts, Starbucks staffers had called police approximately two minutes after the men arrived.
Getting arrested however was a risk Freeman was unwilling to take. Not only did he run Distinguished Executive Transportation, he is also a coach operator.
“I was embarrassed and worried about the consequences of resisting my ejectment because I owed my ultimate responsibility to my motor coach passengers who would’ve been stranded had I been arrested for refusing to leave,” said Freeman told Rolling Out. “So, I left without raising my voice or otherwise resisting the managers’ commands.”
As it turns out, black people really can’t publicly eat in peace sometimes and the hashtag #DiningWhileBlack continues to trend on social media with many different stories of their own experience while eating out. Early in February, comedian Leslie Jones who had visited Atlanta Fish Market for lunch said not only was the service bad, she said the manager was rude to her and her friends.
“I wanted a nice meal and wow Atlanta Fish Market gave me the wors(t) service I’ve EVER gotten,” she tweeted. “Then instead of the manager coming to make it better, he came and gave me the wors(t) attitude EVER! I can’t believe this!”
Ok dam I wanted a nice meal and wow Atlanta Fish Market gave me the worse service I’ve EVER gotten. Then instead of the manager coming to make it better, he came and gave me the worse attitude EVER! I can’t believe this!
— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) February 7, 2018
The week prior, Alexis Brison and her friend had stopped at an Applebee’s location in Independence, Missouri, for some chicken wings and mozzarella sticks. Before they received their orders, the police had been called on them because the Applebee’s staff “believed they had eaten at the restaurant the day before but had left without paying for their meals.”
— Applebee's (@Applebees) February 12, 2018
In Harlem, Tara Fitzgibbon and her two friends visited Angel of Harlem restaurant on Frederick Douglass Blvd, and like Brison and her friends, the trio was accused of previously dining and dashing out of the restaurant without paying.
The manager showed the women a surveillance footage of a black woman, which Fitzgibbon said looked nothing like her. “What, do all black people look alike to you?” Tamara Young, her friend said to the manager who they said humiliated and abused them as they were being kicked out of the restaurant.
In Ohio, Samora Savage, a Youngstown State University student had stopped by Royal Grill Buffet with her friends for an after-class celebration. Jay Dong, the restaurant manager asked Savage and her friends to pay upfront, because “people steal.” Savage said her friends agreed but that she noticed other customers weren’t being asked to pay up front.
“A lot of people steal from me. If I don’t know them, and they all pay together and they try to run, I can usually catch one person and make them pay the bill. But if they all pay separate and they run out, I can’t catch everyone,” Dong told local Ohio paper, Vindicator.
Dong said while he does make some people pay beforehand—and he acknowledges more often than not the customers who pay first also are black—he said since he doesn’t make all black customers pay first, it isn’t discrimination.
As a reminder:
While we are being distracted by Ye and his “free thinking”, a woman was still thrown to the ground, chocked, and threatened to have her arm broken — because she asked for @WaffleHouse’s corporate phone number. #DiningWhileBlack #BlackLivesMatter
— Jalon Nichols (@jdna) April 25, 2018
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One does not consider fun while balancing the universe, but this does put a smile on my face.
The ominous and sinister words spoken by Thanos in the trailer also bend towards the direction of Anthony and Joseph Russo. The writers and directors of some of the best Marvel films thus far, have taken on the responsibility of fulfilling the promise that the previous dozen and a half Marvel films pledged ten years ago. While many directors have turned in outstanding takes on the Marvel heroes in separate films, it’s hard to imagine another team more poised for this ambitious of a film. And even harder to imagine them getting it wrong. My one spoiler is that they don’t. Infinity War is strange (Doctor or otherwise), sprawling, hilarious, awe-inducing and of course, really damn good.
Even after seeing Infinity War, I can’t imagine it being the consensus best Marvel film for most folks. (While not undeserving, there’s just something for everyone in the MCU.) But it never needed to be. It needed to be the culmination of all the stories that came before it and the movie doesn’t waste any time showing that. Almost no previous movie is without a character, callback or significant plot point brought forward in the big payoff film, making it more than lip service that this was a film 18 movies in the making.
What should be obvious, but is still disheartening, is there is all the screen time and yet not enough of it. No long monologues from new fan favorites like M’Baku or Mantis. There simply isn’t enough time in a super dense, two and half hour film. What it does provide are very poignant sections that both legend-build and raise the stakes. Infinity War manages to both give us multiple heroes’ quests without the film feeling too disjointed or scattered. Every time a team breaks apart, there is a thread where we inevitably feel like a reunion is upon us, usually in grand fashion.
Also, the stakes are real – very real. While the strength of the film is in the renewed familiarity and chemistry of so many favorites, the success would always hinge on how viable Josh Brolin’s Thanos would be. Whether you’re a comic book fan or not, Thanos was always going to be a difficult character to make relatable and able to be taken seriously. A hulking, purple and monstrously strong demigod of sorts, could go wrong in a lot of places. While not a perfect depiction, you don’t get Josh Brolin if you didn’t plan on trying to bring nuance to the character.
There are a lot of scenarios that I can imagine of someone explaining to me the humanization of Thanos. All would have resulted in an instant eye roll. Infinity War almost completely nails it, showing Thanos as not simply the mad Titan, but an antagonist with a very clear plan and will to execute: no matter how troubling he found it. While not as relatable a villain as Killmonger, or as spellbinding as Hela, Thanos is foreboding and deserving to fight the galaxy’s strongest.
Which is to say, that the action is the top of the heap as far as action films go. The disappointment often lies in not getting to see characters in action for longer stretches because there’s another locale to cover. Whether on a crowded New York street, on Thanos’ homeworld, Titan, or in Wakanda itself: the action and CG are still operating at a much higher level than anything else in the genre (yes, yes, I’m looking at you DC). In doing so, the heroes look like phenomonal badasses and can still be seen to be mostly over-matched by the seemingly insurmountable Thanos.
What we can’t skip over is the amount of levity in the film and its overall use. Infinity War isn’t just funny, it’s downright hilarious in parts. They spend a lot of time setting up jokes and situational dialogue which helps throw the balance of the film into line. And it’s necessary. Infinity War is essentially a dark film. Perhaps the gravest film of the whole universe. The stakes are high and it lets us know in the first 10 minutes that everyone is extremely vulnerable. I often resisted the urge to check on the contract status of an actor because I truly believed that any of them could die at any moment.
This is perhaps the biggest curve that Marvel has thrown in their universe. The basis of these heroes is that they often overcome impossible odds to earn their title. Infinity War is littered with battles that seem like they could end in heartbreak, which some of them definitely do. When it was announced that this would change not only the MCU but comic book movies as we know it, that was no exaggeration. A few hours later, I’m still not sure what to make of it except that I didn’t anticipate how far things would go and how dire the situation could become.
Infinity War is a ridiculously ambitious film that definitely benefits from the absolute juggernaut that was Black Panther before it. But the film is great on its own, bringing together so many heroes who not only have a chemistry with each other but with the environment itself. This chemistry helps give lots of individual shine to a sprawling plot and cast. Infinity War is an absolute achievement on a logistical level and as daring as any comic book movie has a right to be. It automatically becomes one of the most essential comic book movies ever made and proves that any idea or story is not only possible, it should be encouraged.
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