FRIED CHICKEN + THE WHITE GAZE = A RECIPE FOR DISASTER.
KFC Canada recently dropped a new marketing campaign that understandably made some Black people upset. However, I'm not one of them.
A few people have sent me the link to an article, that appeared on Blavity, about Black Twitter reacting negatively to KFC Canada’s new “Finger lickin’ good” campaign. From the article:
“Black Twitter criticized KFC Canada’s new “finger lickin’ good” campaign ad featuring an all-Black cast and deemed it racially insensitive.”
I saw the campaign and, at most, gave it a shrug. I try not to get emotionally involved with everything that makes Black people mad on the internet. I’d be in a constant state of rage if I tried to digest all of the online content that upsets us (and trust, there’s a lot of it).
It wasn’t until I had a back-and-forth, with a friend of mine, that I even realized I had an opinion on the subject. At first I planned on making a video, posting it on my JAMES BEARD NOMINATED social media Instagram account (this is a shameless plug asking you to follow me on Instagram if you aren’t already), and calling it a day. But as I started sketching out an outline, I realized I had way too many thoughts to contain in one 90 second video. Plus, there is so much nuance to this conversation, it felt irresponsible to attempt compressing all of those concepts into one clip. I’m not saying I’m going to do the best job at illustrating all of these intricate layers but going the written way, versus video, seemed like the better approach.
Before you get into the meat of my article (#PunIntended) let me be clear, I’m not going to spend the next 1000 plus words attempting to be obtuse. I fully understand why some Black people are upset with this campaign. I just don’t agree with all of the online hullabaloo. But for those of you who may be unfamiliar with the subtext of Black Twitter’s anger, allow me provide a bit of background information on the subject.
NEWS FLASH: (Some) White People Are Racist!
Let’s not bury the lede here: because white people (some, not all) are so damn racist, there are many Black people who won’t eat things like fried chicken and watermelon in public settings. While I think we all can agree that both fried chicken and watermelon are very delicious, because of the long lasting impact of one of white America’s former favorite past-time activities—minstrel shows—there is a negative connotation associated with Black people enjoying those particular items. If the phrase “minstrel show” is foreign to you, here’s a definition of it from Brittanica.com:
Minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, an American theatrical form, popular from the early 19th to the early 20th century, that was founded on the comic enactment of racial stereotypes. The tradition reached its zenith between 1850 and 1870. Although the form gradually disappeared from the professional theatres and became purely a vehicle for amateurs, its influence endured—in vaudeville, radio, and television as well as in the motion-picture and world-music industries of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Believe it or not there was a time in the not-so-distant past, where a white family’s idea of a “a night on the town” was to attend a show where other white people would get on a stage, paint their pale faces with the blackest paint they could find (adding some big red lips for effect) and pretend to be Black. It was like an episode of “Friends”, but overtly racist.
Unfortunately, their concept of Black people was not rooted in the African Diaspora’s strength, ingenuity, or our collective will to survive. Instead they portrayed us as goofy, feckless, simple-minded creatures who loved nothing more than to NOT WORK while sloppily enjoying watermelons and fried chicken. The NOT WORK part is an important piece to all of this racial madness.
If you remember from Brittanica’s summary of minstrel shows, these theatrical forms of “‘Friends’ but make it white supremacy” started popping off in the mid-to-late 1800s. Which, wouldn’t you know, is exactly around the time that the United States Congress added the 13th Amendment to the Constitution! If you’re reading this, I know that you already know what the 13th Amendment is, but let me explain it anyway. Who knows, this article might go viral! And just in case someone from another country stumbles across this post later, I’d like them to know what I’m talking about.
In short, the 13th Amendment abolished the enslavement of human beings in the United States. There is some “you’re free unless you get incarcerated” bullshit hidden in the fine print but, that’s the gist of it. And since the majority of people who were being enslaved were people who look like me, that meant that on January 31, 1865, all my (ancestral) homies got their freedom! #Fuck12
According to the Library of Congress, in 1860 there were about 31 million people living in the United States. Of those 31 million people, approximately 3.9 million of those people were enslaved. From a capitalistic standpoint, this was a devastating blow to the white people whose profits came from not having to pay those 3.9 million people for their labor! During a period of time we call Reconstruction (1865 to 1877), many of these formally enslaved men and women went about the business of building strong, successful towns. Places where they were able to do things like educate themselves without fear of retaliation, create wealth for themselves and their communities, or just—you know—take a much needed break from all that free work they were doing for the benefit of white folk.
RECONSTRUCTION MY ASS.
Reconstruction was great; shout out to the 14th and 15th Amendments! Black people were now allowed to take part in the political process! We could finally vote, which led to some Black men getting voted into public office. Well, more than some. According to History.com: 16 African Americans served in the U.S. Congress during Reconstruction; more than 600 more were elected to the state legislatures, and hundreds more held local offices across the South.
But even if you don’t know exactly how the story ends, you kinda already know how the story ends: through the outright terrorism of Black towns and political maneuvering—specifically, then-President Andrew Jackson’s bitch ass ordering all land under Federal control to be returned to the fuck boys who “owned” (*cough* stole *cough*) the land pre-Reconstruction—white people “took back” what they felt was “rightfully” theirs. Black men and women who owned land, a rarity both back then and now, were stripped of that prized possession. Which then led to the rise of Sharecropping. I’m not gonna get into all of that but if you want to learn more about that practice (it’s hella depressing), click here.
One of the ways that Black people made money for themselves was to utilize the skills they already had. Which is kind of a no brainer, right? This “use what you got” mentality was responsible for creating now common Black entreprenual stalwarts like “The Watermelon Man” and “The Candy Lady”. Our ancestors were savvy enough to manufacture their own path for survival, using skills they already had, while simultaneously having to deal with these white people continuously playing in their collective faces. And whether the current Black Delegation wants to admit it or not, fried chicken is documented as one of the things Black people (specifically Black women) used to fund their freedom.
FRIED CHICKEN: IT GETS THE PEOPLE GOING.
There’s a lot of Black food history in Virginia. One of the most popular stories concerning the contributions of Black Virginians and food is that of James Hemings. Once owned by Thomas Jefferson—yes, the Founding Father and francophone—Hemings would go on to become the first person from America to be trained as a chef in France. But a Virginia food story that a lot of people don’t know about is how the successful entrepreneurship of Black women led to the town of Gordonsville being referred to as the “Fried Chicken Capital of the World”.
Because of its location, Gordonsville became a major stop on the Virginia Central Roadway as well as a major transportation hub for produce coming from Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. One could argue how important that train line was seeing as none of them had dining cars but I digress. Local, Black women noticed the lack of dining cars and saw this an an opportunity to get a bag! The women would cook things like desserts, biscuits, and—most importantly—fried chicken, and sell them to train passengers. Being that this was still the 1800s, these industrious Black women were not allowed to board the train in order to sell their culinary delights. Instead, they made due selling their fried chicken through the open windows of stopped trains—right from the train platform! I was thinking of labeling this venture as America’s first drive-through, except for the fact that the people they were serving weren’t actually driving. So I settled on “American’s First Ride-Through Restauranteurs”. Let me know in the comments if y’all are feeling that one!
In a 2015 interview with NPR, Psyche Williams-Forson, the award winning culinary historian, college professor, and author of “Building Houses out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power” said that if social media was a thing in the 1800s, these Black women would have been the talk of 1800s Black Twitter. I mean, she didn’t actually say that. What she said was that their chicken became so popular, "…people would deliberately chart their way through Gordonsville because they knew they would encounter these women and those particular foodstuffs”. And if Williams-Forson says it, it must be true. Did you already forget that she’s the author of a book called “Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power.”?! Trust me, she’s done the research.
Post-emancipation, Fried chicken has been an important economic engine for so many other movements, both seen—like Georgia Gilmore and the Club from Nowhere—and unseen—like the countless number of friend chicken fundraisers that Black churches have been hosting for the past 100 years. Speaking of churches, did you know that fried chicken is also known as “Gospel Bird” in some social circles? According to Adrian Miller, author of many critically acclaimed Black culinary history books including “Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time”, this is because of fried chicken’s close relationship with African-American religious institutions. In a 2021 article Miller wrote for AllRecipes.com, entitled “Gospel Bird: The Sacred Roots of Fried Chicken“, he shares that fried chicken became a staple in the church partly because pastors realized that the promise of some post-service yard bird was a foolproof way to get people to show up to the house of the Lord.
So now that you’ve graciously allowed me to add some historical content to this recent internet-based fried chicken kerfuffle, let’s get into my opinion on this particular matter. And by “this particular matter” I don’t just mean the KFC Canada situation, I’m talking about all of these blips on the racial radar that have to do with linking Black people with fried chicken.
THE HITS KEEP COMING.
This KFC Canada situation is just the most recent fried chicken situation to make the news. Type “fried chicken apology” in the web browser your of choice and you’ll see how common this calamity takes place. When I searched the phrase, here were the first three links that showed up.
Two of the three top links (from The Hill and The Guardian, respectively) mentioned the same incident: earlier this year, students in a Middle School located just outside New York City, were served chicken and waffles with a side of watermelon to kick off Black History Month. Apparently Aramark, the school’s food vendor, changed the menu items without telling the school. When some parents found out, they got pissed! School administrators shared that the meal (click here to see the school’s full culinary calendar for February) was supposed to be a Philly cheesesteak, some broccoli and fresh fruit which—if I may—is the least Black menu of all time! I mean, yeah, Black people eat all of that but we don’t have a shared culinary history around those items. Not like we do fried chicken!
Anyway, the year before (2022), in Massachusetts, something similar happened at a Catholic high school. In 2014, the same thing happened at Carondelet High School for Girls in Northern California. I mean, there are so many instances of this happening at schools, I honestly started to believe that these white people were doing this purpose! But it doesn’t just happen at schools.
In 2013, professional golfer Sergio Garcia apologized to Tiger Woods for saying some wild shit about serving Tiger fried chicken. Which, believe it or not, was not the first time a golfer thought it was cute to make some fried chicken jokes at Tiger’s expense. In response to Tiger winning the 1997 Masters Tournament, golfer Fuzzy Zoeller said, in what he called a “joke”, that Tiger better not serve fried chicken and collard greens at the Champion’s Dinner [NOTE: a perk of winning the Masters is that, the following year, you get to curate the Champion’s Dinner menu].
On one hand, it seems absolutely insane that white people haven’t learned that mentioning fried chicken and Black people in the same sentence is a recipe for disaster. But on the other hand, I think it’s high time for Black people to stop giving a shit about what white people think. Especially as it relates to what we eat.
FRIED CHICKEN & THE WHITE GAZE.
Although I understand why some of my brothers and sisters were were perturbed by KFC Canada’s “Finger lickin’ good” campaign, I contend that being mad about this is a complete waste of our time.
For one, Black people make the best fried chicken in the world. Why wouldn’t we want to be associated with something that’s both delicious and that we’re really good at doing?
For two, Black people aren’t the only people who love friend chicken! Yeah, we may be type-casted as such, but that doesn’t make it so. Just last year, Black people were accusing Koreans for, in the words of Soulja Boi, jacking our entire fried chicken flow. While it’s true the Black American soldiers introduced the American style of fried chicken to Koreans during the 1950s (I made a whole video about it), it’s not like they weren’t frying chicken before we got there. And how can we get mad at Koreans for “jacking our flow” but then get offended when white people try to associate us with the dish? Oh, by the way, Black people don’t own ANY of the major fried chicken chains in this country. And seeing as we are only 13% of the total US population, we sure as shit aren’t responsible for keeping these multinational businesses afloat. Like I said, EVERYONE EATS FRIED CHICKEN!
Lastly, and most importantly, if Black people are ever going to truly liberate ourselves, we must be willing to do things without respect to the white gaze. All of the anger surrounding fried chicken only matters because, subconsciously, we care about how white people think of us. Focusing on whether or not a school serves fried chicken during Black History Month completely misses the point. Let me be clear: Individuals who think of Black people as feckless, chicken lovin’ primates are fucking racist! And who gives a shit what a racist thinks? If it wasn’t fried chicken, they’d find something else to malign us about. Not to mention, worrying about how they feel about us, also means that we’re leaving a lot of money on the table.
See, if it was up to me, not only would schools serve fried chicken during BHM but there would be “fried chicken friendly” supplemental curriculums provided with those meals. For example, during social studies and/or history class, students would learn exactly why there is a negative connotation between Black people and fried chicken in the first place. They’d have lessons that discuss minstrel shows and their impact on how we and why we associate Black people with certain foods. They’d learn about the entrepreneurial ingenuity of the Black women of Gordonsville, Virigina, they’d watch the clip of Fuzzy Zoeller making his racist comments about Tiger Woods and then debrief on why that was so messed up. They’d create paintings about fried chicken in art class and learn how fried chicken is prepared and consumed all over the African Diaspora. I’d want them to understand the context that surrounds the dish so they’d know exactly why fried chicken is such a taboo topic and how to navigate those waters.
Here’s where the money part comes into play: these lessons would be both developed and sold by Black scholars to interested school districts. The fried chicken served at lunch? It should be outsourced from Black owned restaurants or catering companies. And in a perfect world, school districts would hire Black consultants to develop strategies around the roll out of these meals and supplemental lessons. Schools would make the news about their holistic approach to teaching about the dish and, hopefully, other cultures would get in on the act. Off the top of my head I know there’s a Hispanic Heritage Month and an AAPI Heritage Month. They should be able to do the same thing, for their respective months, as well!
For now, this is all just a dream. With the slew of anti-CRT laws popping up all over the nation, it would make it difficult—if not outright impossible—to have honest dialogue around why things are the way they are. But even if my fried chicken curriculum concept is never implemented, it wouldn’t matter so long as Black people were willing to be associated with a food that we such a long history with. You can’t shame someone who is proud of their association with the thing you’re trying to cast dispersions upon. At some point, we’re going to have to be okay with living the best version our lives. In my mind, that includes a life where we don’t give a shit about what anyone says about our cuisine. Because at the end of the day, fried chicken is finger lickin’ good. And if anyone deserves to enjoy it, without guilt, it’s us.
ONE FINAL NOTE.
I told my friend, the one who inspired this post, that there is a level of privilege sprinkled throughout these fried chicken convos that makes me…uncomfortable. Often times the people who are up in arms about the association of African-Americans and fried chicken are those who have the option to not eat fried chicken all the time.
Some of you may not know this, but I am a full-time community organizer. And in one of the neighborhoods I work in, the ONLY places to get hot food in walking distance is a Jamaican restaurant, a Church’s Chicken franchise, and a corner store. The lack of both a grocery store and wider variety of restaurants is always a topic of conversation, but never have I heard any of the parents or neighborhood association leaders I work with complain about being associated with fried chicken. Pardon the pun, but they have bigger fish to fry.
The individuals whose health is impacted by the fact that the only hot food served in their communities is fried chicken and corner store hot dogs ARE NOT the ones going on Michelle Obama’s internet and making a fuss about KFC’s marketing campaign. I’m almost positive that plenty of the parents who I work with would welcome being featured in a fried chicken ad campaign because who wouldn’t want to get paid to do something you’re already doing anyway?! Instead, these complaints are mainly coming from those of us who can afford to spend $50+ on an elevated brunch experience featuring fried chicken, waffles, grits, and unlimited mimosas. I can’t exactly put a name to the feeling but if I had to say one, I’d say “disingenuous”. That’s not to say they don’t mean well, but the hypocrisy feels crazy.
SHEESH! That was a long one but thank you so much for reading it. Please leave a comment and tell me what you thought about it. If you enjoyed it, consider sharing the article with a friend. Shit, even if you didn’t like it, make sure you share it with two people! I’m trying to increase the number of haters I have. THANKS! 🤙🏾
This is a really interesting newsletter! Glad I subscribed.
Very educational and with a good helping of humor. It’s the first time I’d heard about the ladies in Gortonville.