Just when you can believe we're all making great strides in fighting ignorant racist propaganda, along comes this "fun piece" that aired on a Rochester news station that just makes me hang your head and wonder what the hell these "journalists" were thinking when they edited this piece together.
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Scara, being a durned furner, you may not fully appreciate the context, or be aware that associating fried chicken with black folks and soul food is not, in fact, racist.
Soul food is the source of the best fried chicken on the planet. With southern black origins, the delicacy is the #1 reason for the wider popularity of fried chicken throughout the planet.
Adhering to the widely held misconception that associating fried chicken with blacks is somehow "racist" unintentionally feeds racism: that black culture is too unrefined to contribute to the culinary arts.
It is racist to:
Give a fellow a job, or deny him one because of his skin tone.
Make fun of someone because of his skin tone.
Threaten to harm, harm or kill someone because of his skin tone.
Deny voting priveleges to someone because of his skin tone.
It isn't Francophobic to associate Fois Gras with the French.
It isn't Anti-Semitic to associate unleavened bread with Jews.
It isn't Anti-Indian to associate curry with Hindus.
And it sure as hell isn't racist to associate fried chicken with blacks. And isn't racist, in the slightest, to do a news report on a consumer issue that affects primarily blacks. When I used to work in Uptown, I went to that Popeye's all the time, and everybody but blacks are the minority.
What is racist (unintentionally so, I'm certain) is to assume that a funny news story about actual blacks complaining about actual chicken is racist. One of the reasons blacks are overlooked in the media is because reporters are scared to cover us, not because of what we can do to them (which is nothing) but because of well-meaning white folks who will accuse those reporters of racism everytime they supposedly exploit a stereotype.
You should be thanking us for the culinary contribution, not getting all twitchy about racism.
But it is the white guilt response that is more likely to ensure that the t.v. station doesn't cover black issues (even frivolous ones, like the only Popeye's jobbing everyone out of cheap, delicious chicken) at all.
I don't know about black people and chicken, but Rachel Barnhart makes me feel kinda funny. She makes want to tie her down and pretend she's Madonna. Need more pics.
Got it: Pretend Racism Bad. Real Misogyny Good!
I love this blog!
But not in that way.
That would be gay.
Misogyny means hating women.
I think my comments were the exact opposite of hating Ms. Barnhart. In fact, I would be willing to prove over a period of 48 hours exactly how little I hate her. Get me a hotel room, a bottle of bubbly, and room service and I will not-hate the sh*t out of her all weekend long.
You could perhaps label my comments sexist if you feel that stating a woman is attractive limits her rights and/or role in society. However, I would point out that this woman is on TV precisely because she is attractive, and as a third wave feminist I believe that both men and women should be free to note the attractiveness of the sex they find appealing. Were Ms. Barnhart to return my admiration, I would not be offended.
It was parody! It was parody!
I'm a Fourth Wave Feminist, by the way. Which makes all of you my sex slaves.
LIDJ, Would you kick her out of be for eating Fried Chicken?
You think this is bad, you should see the traffic jam at the Golden Palace free eggroll event.
Shit, maybe this explains why the Minneapolis Popeye's chose not to participate in the promotion. It was too good to pass up.
http://www.yesbutnobutyes.com/archives/2009/04/i_want_my_earth.html
#1 rule of chicken fast food marketing: Don't run out of chicken!
Odd facts about LIDJ: I am extremely allergic to anti-biotics, and the residual anti-biotics in chicken and fish cause me to have asthma attacks. I have never eaten fried chicken.
That said, so long as she didn't stick her fingers in my mouth afterwards, she can eat whatever she wants in bed... Heck, nothing like a nice greasy Popeye's Hand job.
LIDJ's Special Jerk Chicken.
How is this racist? It has been called racist all over the place, but how is this so? Unflattering? Perhaps. Crapulent journalism? Without a doubt.
The people featured are not being coached to act in a certain way, the commentary does not make any reference to race. Should it not have ran because it showed blacks loving some chicken? Why?
So confused. I am a liberal guy, but even I don't know what is supposed to offend my liberal sensibilities at times.
My white FH would have been calling their district offices, emailing those in charge, and pouting for days if he had driven there and been told by a recording that they were out.
But the general rule of thumb for big promotions is to figure out what the worst case scenario is and order even more than that.
And I will never look at jerk chicken on a menu again without the image of Lost in my head.
Between this and Leo's geriatric shower comment, my brain has been inundated with the perverse today...
So maybe I should articulate why I found this to be racist....
I'm of the opinion that fast food chains prey on the poor, the weak willed and ill informed, offering cheap unhealthy food that will ultimately knock you dead of heart disease. They provide cheap meals that are one of the major contributions to epidemic obesity in this country.
Showing a group of people so desperate for fast food that they rant and complain because the store is out of chicken, and showing an almost unique cluelessness that they will somehow be unable to feed their children without said chicken seems to display a particular level of ignorance.
Making the decision to only show black people as representing that slice of the population leads one to infer that on the whole, it's black people who are primarily disposed to eating food that's bad for them, for one of the above reasons.
While no-one was coached to say what they said, the piece was heavily edited, and decisions were made about who to show, and what spoken phrases to include or exclude. This is known as "editorializing content".
If I were to film 100 college attendees and ask them on camera if they passed or failed their last test, then edited the piece to show only one race as having passed, and only another as having failed, the piece would have a racist bias.
It wasn't just about chicken, although that did add an extra connotation. This piece would have affected me the same way if it had been about McDonalds or Burger King, or if it had been - for example - a piece showing just Jewish people complaining about the price of gas.
I can't even believe I'm even having to explain this....
Maybe I'm overly sensitive though, because I wince like hell when people use the word "gypped"....
Mouch, why are you assuming that Black folk are all poor, weak willed and ill informed? They all drove nice cars. Just because they like Popeyes chicken doesn't make them bad people. They just like Popeyes.
I don't understand why you have to further your point by assuming that all Jewish people are tight and would be the only ones complaining about gas prices.
Ya know that crap may fly in England, but it doesn't fly here.
Fricken Red Coat.
I refuse to be heckled by a man who probably believes Stephen Colbert isn't kidding.
How bout 'welshed' and 'paddy wagon'?
I'm not a huge fan of fast food either but I don't think people who buy it are all that poor and weak willed. I work with a woman who goes out like to McD's and Arbys almost every day and she's quite svelte. Some people. If I did that I'd weigh 300 pounds quick.
If they did edit to only get black people, that would be dubious I guess. I don't know that they did so I'm not totally on board the Jewish analogy.
Kudos for starting off the discussion. The Attourney General should be proud.
E, the Irish and the Welsh are not a race.
I'm just asking if you had a problem with the terms. They apply negative associations to a class of people. I thought gypsies were more an ethnicity than a race btw...
Did no one see my traffic jam at the egg roll thing? I thought that was pretty good.
PS: Mouch, you're obviously racist.
I saw that Jellio. Special Won Ton soup for you!
Not only is Scara racist but elitist too. If I went to Britain I wouldn't make fun of yall eating 'fish and chips' in yalls goofy accents.
"Welched" is an interesting one as I'd never associated it with the Welsh before, primarily because I don't believe there really is a stereotype of Welsh people not honoring bets (which is a weirdly specific type of undesirable character trait). I would say that's slightly different from accusing all people of Romany descent of being thieves.
Paddy Wagon isn't even defamatory, is it? Isn't that just a shortening of St Patrick, and related to the high proportion of Irish American's in the police force on the East Coast?
Calling someone who eats a lot of fast food a "paddy", however, could potentially be perceived to be discriminatory.
I didn't get the traffic jam at the free eggroll thing at all. It might have worked better as something like "You should have seen the confusion at the Blind Home after the Korean restaurant ran out of chicken".
really? bad asian driver thing? nothing? damn.
I thought it was just women who were bad drivers.
Have you been to Popeye's? It is a majority black establishment throughout most of the country. There's more "selective" slanted editing done on the average CNN spot than this one.
Those people are my people, and we are neither poor, weak-willed, ill-informed, or preyed upon. Have you tried Popeye's? It is freaking delicious, and I could imagine going half insane if they ran out of chicken.
They lace the crispy bits with methamphetamine. And WE LIKE IT THAT WAY!
Now go back to your elitist KFC Famous Bowl, you sneering Tory!
PS - You hate chicken. That's racist!
I've been to Popeyes multiple times with my kids and can honestly say I've never paid the slightest attention to what type of people were also in there. I mean, it's always pretty full, but I never noticed what type of people they are. The thought of it being a "majority black establishment" is a weird way of thinking - maybe I shouldn't go anymore? Is that true? Of anywhere?
Mouche, I think you're really missing the important element of this piece... The hot anchor lady. I mean, there's got to be at least one picture of her in a Bikini or something... Cripes, this is still the internet, right?
And correct me if I'm wrong, but you're saying the racial bias stems from the fact that you think people who wait in line for 1/2 price chicken are idiots? And since they only showed black people acting like these "idiots", it's racist. Am I missing something about your point?
Doesn't that stem from a particular attitude that you have about fast food? If someone doesn't share your opinion of fast food, the racist element goes away. And let's just assume that the fine people in Buffalo don't have a problem with fast food (which tends to be kinda a majority opinion) then they would have never have seen the racism.
Frankly, isn't it more racist to edit pieces and pay careful attention to how many faces of each color you have? It's counter-intuitive, but the more you try to even the field, the more time you spend being a racist. The more time you spend noticing the differences between black and white, the more value judgments you make based primarily on race.
From what I can tell, they took the best soundbites and put the piece together without noticing how many black faces there were. This is Rochester NY, not Mobile Alabama. It seems from your comments that you believe that this was done on purpose?
As the future Ms. Jungle said: "On the other hand, do we ever pause when our stories are filled with only white people?"
Sweetie, you are soooo right.
So, less chicken, more breast. Who can tell me more about the lovely Ms. Barnhart? A Myspace page? Heck, is she single?
You don't notice Popeyes is predominately black when you go there but you do when it's customers are shown on TV? Also, if you eat there doesn't that imply you're a weak willed ignoramus too, by what you said about fast food customers? Don't h8te, appreciate.
Adolfamouch- I know the concept of certain bloodlines being more important than the other is not new to you and the rest of the Britts. But here in the U.S. we love everybody, even if they eat at Popeyes.
I have had a number of visits to Popeyes. I walked in and bought some fried chicken, and ate. I found out that we all laughed in there, we all cried, we all danced, and we all had the same love for fried chicken. There were probably rich men eating beside me, there were probably poor men beside me, there were probably fat men beside me and there were probably skinny men beside me. There were African Americans, there were Asian Americans, and yes there were Jews and White folk. There were beautiful women, there were ugly women. And do you know what I found????
We all lick the grease off our fingers the same way.
Mouch- Please don't hate.
We are all in this together.
Woot! We're facebook friends now, and she's single. Now I just have to make sure she never sees this page...
Just wanted to keep everyone abreast of the situation.
I'm sure she'd love the jerk chicken recipe.
By the way LIDJ, if you already got a future Missus, what up with the hound doggin?
E, when I referred to the future Ms. Jungle, I was talking about the same reporter.
To quote a fine song: "I get everything I want, and guess what, I really want you."
Besides, you can never have too many cute Facebook friends. That's why I friended Miss Cellania too.
I'm in the "the piece wasn't racist" camp. classist perhaps.. but they did go out of their way to interview the guy in the tie as well as the crazy woman yelling at the box.
Fast Food sucks. being poor sucks. being uneducated REALLY sucks. but I bet if we pulled up some demographics for the store in question, the population of the area will be, generally,
black
< median wage for the region
tech school / some college
or, as most cities put it, working class urban residents.
and yeah.. I would be willing to bet that that the majority of popeyes restraunts service that same demographic. so don't hate on the news casters. hate on big business.
Good lord, the Jerk Chicken crack killed me just now.