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Showing Original Post only (View all)Here's Why Your Fried Chicken and Watermelon Lunch Is Racist [View all]
By Arit John
February 6, 2014 5:31 PM
A private girls' school in Northern California wanted to incorporate Black History Month into lunch time, so it decided to serve fried chicken, watermelon, and cornbread. As the Associated Press reports, school officials are apologizing because that was a really, really horrible idea. The school's principal wrote a letter to parents, who were offended, and said the school doesn't "perpetrate racial stereotypes." Unfortunately, that's exactly what they did.
In honor of Black History Month, we'd like to explain exactly why your fried chicken and watermelon lunch is ill-advised, with the hope that people will find better ways to honor this month.
Via Authentic History.
Fried chicken isn't racist. Eating fried chicken isn't racist. A lot of people like fried chicken, and some happen to be black. In 2010, a black chef at NBC served fried chicken and collard greens in honor of Black History Month. QuestLove was not impressed, and stirred up a Twitter storm when he tweeted the picture. I dont understand at all. Its not trying to offend anybody and its not trying to suggest that thats all that African-Americans eat. Its just a good meal, the chef, Leslie Calhoun, told The Grio, adding, I thought it would go over well. It did not.
The problem stems from the way fried chicken is associated with black people, and the historical baggage that comes with it. The same way blackface recalls minstrel shows, the "black people love fried chicken" image recalls negative portrayals of black people. According to Claire Schmidt at the University of Missouri, it started with Birth of a Nation, the 1915 film on the founding of Ku Klux Klan. In one scene:
A group of actors portraying shiftless black elected officials acting rowdy and crudely in a legislative hall. (The message to the audience: These are the dangers of letting blacks vote.) Some of the legislators are shown drinking. Others had their feet kicked up on their desks. And one of them was very ostentatiously eating fried chicken.
"That image really solidified the way white people thought of black people and fried chicken," Schmidt said.
http://news.yahoo.com/39-why-fried-chicken-watermelon-lunch-racist-223129517.html?.tsrc=tmobustoday