Edited by Azizi Powell
The verbal sparring between golfers Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods became more ostensibly racial on May 21, 2013 when Garcia "joked" that he would invite golfer Tiger Woods over his house for fried chicken. Tiger Wood's response was that the comment was "wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate." According to a news article about this comment (which Garcia quickly apologized for) that remark was "reminiscent of when Fuzzy Zoeller made a similar comment about Woods after he won the 1997 Masters, becoming the first player of black heritage to win a major."
http://news.yahoo.com/woods-garcia-hurtful-time-move-131208768.html
This news items begs the questions "Why is fried chicken associated with African Americans and why is that association considered to be negative?"
A short answer would be that Southern fried chicken is by its very name associated with the Southern region of the United States. And for many Americans the Southern region of the United States is closely associated with Black Americans and Black people are associated with slavery and Black Americans are also associated with black-faced minstrelsy. All of these associations-including the word "Southern" have negative connotations to many Americans. There's a reason why the fast food franchise "Kentucky Fried Chicken" changed its name to "KFC". And it wasn't just because some people consider fried foods to be unhealthy. Southern living not only evokes negative memories of slavery. It also carries negative connotations of what some Americans call "rednecks" and "hillbillies".
Here's an American history 101 explanation from a political blog post about the problem with Sergio Garcia's comment:
"Just why is the fried chicken stereotype racist? There are a number of reasons, some of them old and some of them current. Fried chicken was a dish commonly made by slaves, and it persisted among free blacks who were, at the time, too poor to afford more expensive meats. During prolonged American apartheid, fried chicken played well in black communities, as it was easy to make and even easier to refrigerate. Black people then had to worry about those things, as a meal at most restaurants was outside their reach.
Fried chicken references were often a part of racist blackface productions and other hideous minstrel shows. Later, many fast-food chicken restaurants used caricatures of black people as mascots for their restaurants. To say that fried chicken has persisted as a racist meme is an understatement, and this is nothing new."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/22/1210971/-Sergio-Garcia-is-a-Racist-and-Adidas-TaylorMade-Should-Drop-Him by Gizzard
The negative association of Black people and Southern fried chicken is further compounded because of the reference in late 19th century & early 20th century songs to Black people stealing the chickens that they ate.
For instance, African American professor & folklorist Thomas W. Talley's now classic 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise & Otherwise includes several songs in his collection about Black folks stealing chickens. It's possible that those songs could have been originally composed by White folks. However, their inclusion in Talley's collection & other collections of early 20th century Black American secular music, means that those songs were sung by Black Americans. Those songs as well as songs about stealing watermelon helped create and reinforce White Americans' stereotypes of Black people as lazy, childish, foolish, comical, self-indulgent, thieving coons.
Yet it's important to add that no song in Talley's collection-or in any other collection of Black American secular songs from the late 19th century or early 20th century directly mention fried chicken. And those examples that do mention chicken parts (such as the thigh or the wing) may be post-United States slavery. Furthermore, it appears from Talley's collection that it was a luxury to eat chicken, and chicken was usually served in the form of a pie. This makes sense because not only was it quicker to cook chicken pies than to fry chicken, but serving that poultry in the form of a pie helped stretch the chicken and vegetables that were used to make that meal.
Also, it should be noted that most if not all of the meat that was mentioned in these rhymes was captured and killed or stolen in order to supplement the insufficient food rations that were allotted to the enslaved individuals or families.
Click http://cocojams.com/content/food-beverages-mentioned-thomas-w-talley%E2%80%99s-negro-folk-rhymes for more comments about and examples from Thomas W. Talley's book.
MORE HISTORICAL INFORMATION ABOUT BLACK AMERICANS AND SOUTHERN FRIED CHICKEN
The Wikipedia article about fried chicken http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried_chicken provides more historical information about the connection between "Southern fried chicken" and Black people.* Here are some excerpts from that article.
"A number of West African cuisines featured dishes where chicken was fried, typically in palm oil, sometimes having been battered before. These would be served on special occasions in some areas, or sometimes sold in the streets as snacks in others.[6][7][8] This provided some means of independent economy for enslaved and segregated African American women, who became noted sellers of poultry (live or cooked) as early as the 1730s. Because of this and the expensive nature of the ingredients, it was, despite popular perception, a rare and special dish in the African-American community.**
Since most slaves were unable to raise expensive meats, but generally allowed to keep chickens, frying chicken on special occasions continued in the African American communities of the South. It endured the fall of slavery and gradually passed into common use as a general Southern dish. Since fried chicken traveled well in hot weather before refrigeration was commonplace, it gained further favor in the periods of American history when segregation closed off most restaurants to the black population. Fried chicken continues to be among this region's top choices for "Sunday dinner" among both blacks and whites. Holidays such as Independence Day and other gatherings often feature this dish.[11]
...Since the American Civil War, traditional slave foods like fried chicken, watermelon, and chitterlings have suffered a strong association with African American stereotypes and blackface minstrelsy.[10] This was commercialized for the first half of the 20th century by restaurants like Sambo's and Coon Chicken Inn, which selected exaggerated depictions of blacks as mascots, implying quality by their association with the stereotype. Although also being acknowledged positively as "soul food" today, the affinity that African American culture has for fried chicken has been considered a delicate, often pejorative issue. While the perception of fried chicken as an ethnic dish has been fading for several decades, with the ubiquity of fried chicken dishes in the US, it persists as a racial stereotype."
-snip-
*Notice that although this stereotype about Black people and fried chicken originated regarding to African Americans, it has been extended to other Black people world wide. One excample of this is said to be the Australian KFC ad which is reposted below as video example #2.
**italics added to highlight this point
****
VIDEO EXAMPLES
Example #1: All Black people Love to Eat Chicken and Watermelons
DukePowell, Uploaded on Oct 8, 2009
http://bit.ly/14JoAM
Me and Chicken go back like America and slavery (i don't know what that means)
All black people apparently love to eat chicken and watermelons. This is not true, but some people think that this is bad. What do you guys think about this topic. I dont have anything against chicken or watermelons lol
Tell me what you guys think about this topic
-snip-
DukePowell (no relation to me) brings up another point that might explain why chicken has come to be associated with African Americans & other Black people - Chicken is a relatively inexpensive source of protein. However, the stereotype isn't about Black people and chicken. It's about Black people and Southern fried chicken. That's why I think that the history of Black people, slavery, and the stealing chickens associations are crucial to a real understanding of this negative meme.
****
Example #2: Racist KFC advertisement?
ThunderCurlsUploaded on Dec 12, 2009
How do you survive a crowd of "awkward" black people? According to KFC's latest advertisement a bucket of fried chicken will do the trick.
****
RELATED LINKS
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/02/stereotype-of-african-americans-kool.html
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/10/deconstructing-caricature-of-zip-coon.html
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/06/ten-non-racist-product-commercials-that.html
****
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to those whose information I quoted. Thanks also to the YouTube publishers of these ads.
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
The Story Behind The Stereotype Of Black People & Fried Chicken
Posted on 1:14 PM by Unknown
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment