Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles Ordered to Pay Over $1 Million in Racial Discrimination Suit
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Brought on by a former black employee.
Bad news out of the Roscoe’s House of Chicken & Waffles brand today, as the iconic Los Angeles restaurant empire loses a racial discrimination lawsuit that should set them back more than $1 million.
The suit was first brought by former employee Daniel Beasley, says CBS Los Angeles, who worked for a time at the Pico Boulevard location of Roscoe’s. While there, Beasley, a Blackman, says he was the recipient of various forms of racial discrimination at the hands of all-Hispanic management. Those claims include unfair treatment in the workplace, issues with shift scheduling, and — after Beasley complained to HR and Roscoe’s ownership — retaliation that ultimately ended with him being fired.
A Southern California jury has sided with Beasley, awarding the man roughly $1.6 million in personal damages. Of course, Roscoe’s has the opportunity to appeal, but it doesn’t look good for the bird-and-waffle brand, which has become something of a soul food icon over the decades. Roscoe’s hasn’t replied to various requests for comment, and they likely won’t — the family-owned brand is notoriously tight-lipped, even when things are going well.
Once again Our People create or innovate something, yet it is the White KNOCK-OFF that ends up becoming lionized BY US. Because make no mistake about it, WHITE PEOPLE LIONIZING SOMETHING WHITE? THAT MAKES SENSE! But when WE DON'T LIONIZE OUR OWN PEOPLES ENDEAVORS AND THEN PROPERLY HONOR AND REMEMBER THEM?
Now that don't make no sense. And you read it, the way I meant to type it. Here is THE REAL ARTICLE of this OPENING POST;
Which Came First: The Chicken or the Waffle?
Another black culinary tradition moves into the mainstream and sets off a debate about its origins.
Like Christopher Columbus, IHOP has "discovered" something that has been around a very long time. For Columbus, of course, it was the New World. For IHOP, it is that venerable dish of fried chicken and waffles.
The International House of Pancakes is offering "juicy chicken tenders, crispy Belgian waffles. Both delicious on their own, but sometimes, different things can make sweet magic when paired together. Yeah, baby," a sexy male pitchman says in the television and Internet versions of a ubiquitous ad.
The chain, whose revenues have been rather flat of late, wants to bring more people into its 1,500 restaurants -- and it obviously knows a good thing when it tastes it. Jennifer Pendergrass, a spokeswoman, said that IHOP wants to offer its customers -- referred to as "guests" -- a dining experience that is "new and creative and unique."
That elicits a hearty laugh from one black restaurateur, Carl Redding. "Black folks have been eating chicken and waffles for years and years and years," says Chef Redding as he expresses a bit of incredulity at this corporate "discovery." "Just like the sweet iced tea that McDonald's tried to take advantage of, IHOP is doing the same thing. Black folks love chicken and waffles, so IHOP wants to serve it, and probably they will make a few billion dollars. So what can we say?"
Pendergrass says that IHOP, capitalizing on the trend toward blending savory and sweet tastes, decided to add the classic fried chicken and waffles to its already well-known menu. "Obviously we were aware that there are a number of independent restaurants on the West Coast and the East Coast that have made this dish famous in their markets." IHOP's twist is to extend this culinary experience to all 50 states -- at least until May 1.
Some people insist that Roscoe's in Los Angeles is the commercial creator of this dish, but foodies -- this writer and Gladys Knight included -- give credit where it's due: Wells Supper Club, which lasted -- with a brief interruption here and there and a name change to Wells Famous Home of Chicken and Waffles -- from 1938 to 1999. Wells had jazz greats, including the late Dr. Billy Taylor, swingin' and eatin' there, and near the end of its run, it even featured swing bands and dancers.
If not as the actual backdrop for key cinematic scenes, Roscoe's has made cameo appearances in a number of movies and has been given its props on rap records. It has attracted just about everyone, from professional athletes to the late comedian Redd Foxx to contemporary performers like Snoop Dogg and Will Smith. Even Larry King has been seen at Roscoe's.
"No one knows chicken like Roscoe's," its website boasts. But Roscoe's acknowledges its debt to Wells, which grew out of the Harlem late-night speakeasy tradition. Redding, a Harlem native, has carried on that tradition in Harlem (Amy Ruth's, now under new ownership) and Atlantic City, N.J. (Redding's, which opened last year). "There's nothing new about chicken and waffles," he tells The Root. Back in the day, the jazz clubs would close around 2 a.m. and Joseph T. Wells would serve his clientele "a combination of dinner and breakfast, chicken and waffles until the wee hours of the morning," Redding says, "actually from about midnight until about 10 in the morning."
According to Michael Henry Adams, an author and historian, the pairing of chicken as we know it -- fried, smothered, stewed, hashed, whatever -- with waffles is Southern in origin but was not limited to the South or to blacks after the late 19th century. During the flapper era, he told me, wealthy whites in New York and Newport, R.I., featured black entertainers and food such as chicken and waffles at some of their soirees.
And while blacks of all classes ate fried chicken, it was a Sunday or special-occasion treat for the less well-off. After a night on the town, he said, people -- particularly whites who could afford chicken and waffles any day of the week -- were attracted as much by the cachet as by the cuisine. Adams said he would not be surprised if he learned that other hot spots, like the Cotton Club and Small's Paradise, also served chicken and waffles. But Wells claimed to be the home of the original. And he who speaks loudest, well ...
Roscoe's, which opened in 1975, caught the Hollywood imagination after famous friends of the proprietor, including Natalie Cole, talked it up in public appearances. As one writer, Jonathan Kauffman, said in an article in the East Bay Express in 2004: "Roscoe's made chicken and waffles famous in a way that Wells never did, and in the past decade the combination has slowly spread across America." Gladys Knight, who recalls eating at Wells, is a co-owner of a chicken-and-waffles joint in Atlanta.
People who like their fried chicken will swear by a particular restaurant or storefront or mobile-food cart. But IHOP's Pendergrass is too diplomatic to enter the fray. "I think we can certainly claim that we have the best pancakes out there, and our guests who know and love us should come in and decide for themselves whether our fried chicken is the best. We certainly have a wonderful waffle that, you know, if they love us for our pancakes, they should certainly try our waffles and certainly try our chicken."
E.R. Shipp is a regular contributor to The Root.
For whatever reason the moment I looked at how the Black Originator of Chicken-n-Waffles went out of business in 1999. While Roscoe's is still here? I thought of THE JUICE! Oran "Juice" Jones. AND SO!? I added it to this post, because the song, fits the topic. You can't prop someone else up ABOVE YOURSELF, THEN COMPLAIN ABOUT IT WHEN YOU SEE THEY DON'T TREAT ANYONE LIKE YOU, OR YOU YOURSELF, with any respect or dignity or returning the opportunities and support THAT YOU GAVE TO THEM.
I have already shown that Timberland Boots, let me give you a REFRESHER in case you don't or can't remember or simply don't care. Timberland Boots, while they're trying to FRONT AND PRETEND on wikipedia. I remember them VERY WELL, because they were a low-cost work boot line found in K-Marts everywhere a K-Mart was at when I was growing up in the 80's. Timberland, to be blunt, wasn't shit! It was a Low-Class Line found in low-class stores and I'm not bullshitting, nor am I trying to talk around the fact that I grew up poor. The funny thing is that even I didn't like Timberland boots even as a kid because they were too cheap.
Enter, the Black Rappers of the early-90's! Timberland boots got more FREE ADVERTISEMENT FROM US THAN THEY DESERVED. Again, this is the type of thing that Jason Black talks about. That Dr. Claude Anderson talks about. Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Huey P. Newton, even Martin Luther King! We do TOO MUCH FREE ADVERTISING AND WORK FOR WHITES, which then puts WAY MORE OF THEM THAN WE KNOW, ON THE MAP! Understand that Nike wouldn't be what it is without Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon and Michael Jordan, meanwhile? Nike finally had to be called out by Public Enemy because they never did and still don't do shit for us.
The real issues about BAD PARENTING? It goes WAY BEYOND the surface shit that the coons and con-artists and BIGOTS! Like to talk about, because everything that I JUST TYPED!? That!? Is bad Black Parenting. I'm also gonna past on here Timberland Boots wiki and you see if they give ANY ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO THE COUNTLESS BLACK RAPPERS WHO ENDED UP BRINGING MASSIVE ATTENTION TO THEM AND THEIR COMPANY, which helped it to become the 1-billion dollar business it is now;
Timberland LLC is an American manufacturer and retailer of outdoors wear with a focus on footwear.
Timberland footwear is marketed towards people intending outdoor use.[4] The company also sells apparel such as clothes, watches, glasses, sunglasses and leather goods.
Timberland’s corporate headquarters are located in Stratham, New Hampshire. Timberland also operates from offices in other parts of the world.
Horween Leather Company supplies leather shells for footwear to the Timberland Company.[5]
- In 1918, Timberland founder Nathan Swartz began his shoe-making career in Boston, Massachusetts, as an apprentice stitcher.
- In 1952, Swartz bought half an interest in The Abington Shoe Company in South Boston, mainly doing contract work for other manufacturers.
- In 1955, Swartz bought the remaining interest and brought his sons into the company.
- In 1965, the Swartz family introduced the then innovative injection-molding technology into the footwear industry. This enabled the production of virtually waterproof boots made in colder temperature form or in tropical weather form depending on the customer, by connecting the soles to the leather uppers without stitching.[6]
- In 1969, moved the base of its manufacturing operations to Newmarket, New Hampshire.
- In 1973, the brand name "Timberland" was introduced for the waterproof leather boots produced by the company. Because the boot proved to be very popular, the company name was officially changed to The Timberland Company.
- In 1978 and 1979, Timberland added casual and boat shoes to its boots product line.
- In the 1980s, the company expanded internationally – first into the Italian market (thanks to the "Paninari" youth movement in Milan who wore and launched the Timberland brand), and later to many other countries.
- In 1984, purchased a former Melville factory in Tennessee and relocated manufacturing.
- Herman Swartz, one of the founder's sons, took the helm at the company. Under his leadership Timberland began to evolve its brand, adding clothing and women's shoes to its products.
- Throughout the 1990s, the Timberland Company added more product lines such as backpacks, watches, and kids' footwear.
- In 1998, the Timberland PRO series of "Workboots for the Professional" was launched. Jeffrey Swartz stepped up to become Chief Executive Officer of the company and brand his grandfather, uncle, and father had started.[7]
- In 2006, the company acquired Howies, the Welsh clothing company.[8]
- In 2007, Timberland acquired skateboard-footwear company, iPath.[9] Ipath was sold in 2011 to Klone Labs.[10]
- In 2011, Timberland signed a definitive merger agreement with VF Corporation at $43 per share or approximately $2 billion.[11]
- In 2012 Howies was sold to its management by VF.[12]
On the personal level when I succeed. I have no intentions of omitting anyone that helped me or supported me along the way, for better and for worse. But I'm not gonna censor myself and gloss over FACTS. It is NOT White Peoples jobs to teach us how to pay attention to the playing field we're on. It is Ours and Ours alone.
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