The Rib King takes place in the early 1900s, during the Jim Crow era. The Barclays, a formerly well-to-do family who are now down on their luck, decide to take advantage of their black staff by selling their cook's recipe without compensation (sound familiar?). While its setting may have happened during a bygone time, its premise is very much relevant to today. Henrietta Lacks, Bruce Tucker, the victims of the Tulsa massacre, and countless others who were mistreated and never received reparations