A former Nashville Cracker Barrel employee is suing the restaurant chain, claiming she was wrongfully fired instead of her coworkers after she endured blatant racism and assaults from them.

According to The Independent, court documents filed by Roberta Mendez’s legal team on August 21 revealed that she is suing the national enterprise for ignoring her human rights based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This section of the legislature specifically prohibits discrimination by employers and unions based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Additionally, this Title also sparked Congress to develop the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to support and “enforce Title VII,” per eeoc.gov. The lawsuit is focused on two parts of this portion of the act: race discrimination and retaliation.

The former Cracker Barrel employee alleges that she was verbally and physically abused by her white coworkers at work

Despite Mendez’s last name, she embraces and recognizes herself as a Black woman. In the lawsuit, it stated that during her 15 year-tenure Cracker Barrel “subjected her to pervasive harassment on the basis of her race, created a hostile work environment, and terminated her employment… when she complained of racially disparaging comments and behavior from her coworkers and supervisors,” per The Independent. It also mentioned that the “defendant’s actions were intentional, willful, and taken in reckless disregard of Mendez’s rights as protected by Title VII.”

The alleged victim accused her white peers of constantly calling her degrading terms such as “nappy headed [N-word],” “burnt biscuit” and “monkey.” She also says her former coworkers “physically pushed and hit” her, resulting in employees being “segregated” by their race. To add insult to injury, a shift leader allegedly told her, “I don’t like Black people” in 2024. Mendez says it’s a slap in the face because she has been an asset to the location, continually going above and beyond in her role. All of these encounters made it clear why she was “treated less favorably than her Caucasian counterparts who made derogatory comments to [her] based on her race,” per her suit’s filing.

Mendez reported workplace misconduct to her supervisors and the HR department, but says she was punished instead of the offenders, even being written up after flagging an incident in 2023. Despite filing a grievance with Cracker Barrel corporate in August 2024 about her and other Black employees’ treatment, she was fired the next month for allegedly breaking company policy, which she is unaware of, while white coworkers were not disciplined for similar and vile behavior.

“When Mendez escalated her concerns to Human Resources, she was only told not to sign the write-up,” the complaint further alleges.

The complaint argues that Mendez’s termination was discriminatory and retaliatory, and she is seeking reinstatement with the salary and seniority that were rightfully hers, as well as back pay, benefits, compensatory damages for disciplinary actions and legal fees.

The lawsuit comes after Crack Barrel’s attempt at rebranding itself

One of Mendez’s lawyers, Kyle Biesecker, shared that the legal process is just beginning and expressed confidence that her claims will be supported as the case progresses.

“Next, Cracker Barrel will file their answer to the complaint and discovery will proceed from there,” Biesecker told The Independent. “We expect depositions to bear out many of the facts as alleged by Ms. Mendez.”

This isn’t the first time they’ve faced racist claims concerning Black employees or customers. As Blavity reported in 2022, a former Cracker Barrel hostess in Arizona went viral on TikTok after exposing that employees used “Canadians” as a code word for Black customers. She shared that she only caught on after noticing her coworkers groan whenever she seated “Canadians” in their section. In the comments, people chimed in with their own experiences, saying they’d heard phrases like “NIMS,” short for “N-words in my section,” and other coded ways of being blatantly racist on the job.

As Blavity reported, all this comes following Cracker Barrel’s recent attempt to rebrand with the change of their logo, removing the older man that was once included. After facing backlash from loyal conservatives, they backed down and returned to the original logo.

Cracker Barrel hasn’t released a statement regarding this legal matter.

Leah Dejenu

Writing since March 2018 · 188 stories contributed