Fried chicken?

Disclaimer: I feel extremely uncomfortable posting this. I started this assignment by looking for Vines that told the same story, and that led to a couple searches on YouTube and Google. I promise that I'm not a racist and I don't want to perpetuate any stereotypes!

In that light, I give you the story that we often find in the media about black people loving fried chicken.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE0sQ_wPHeA (a Vine)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soHOUc2WSpo (another Vine)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pyW6w5B7Aw (a news spot about Popeyes running out of chicken in a city in New York. The anchor is white, but all of the people interviewed were black. And the story seems unnecessarily long, given that it's not exactly hard news.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5peC9wFu64w (a bizarre KFC commercial that aired in Hong Kong)

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/burger-king-apologizes-to-mary-j-blige-for-controversial-ad-20120405 (a news story about a Burger King commercial that showed Mary J. Blige singing about a chicken wrap)

ANALYSIS

The fried chicken stereotype is fairly common in mass media in the United States. I read a couple of articles that said the stereotype became widespread after the 1915 release of Birth of a Nation. In that movie, which glorified the founding and history of the KKK, there was a scene that showed a black man eating fried chicken obnoxiously. And that's it. Since that time, the fried chicken stereotype has spread throughout the country. Obviously, Birth of a Nation had repercussions for both society and the film industry, but it's interesting to think that the fried chicken stereotype was one of those repercussions. Most people today disapprove of Birth of a Nation, but we unknowingly perpetuate one of its stereotypes when we associate fried chicken with black people.

The "artifacts" above present the single story that all black people love fried chicken. The Vines were created by two separate black guys who are turning the stereotype into something funny. The Popeyes news story feels more racist because of the way it's presented (see above). The KFC commercial is an interesting parody that shows A) how the entire world is Americanized to at least some extent and B) how stereotypes can pop up in unexpected places. Finally, the Burger King article seems like poor planning and lack of forethought on the food chain's part, and it's no wonder that the commercial was controversial.

The single story told here is limiting in a number of ways. The artifacts above don't represent all of the stories the media tells about black people; however, it's interesting that there are so many artifacts existing on the Internet about this single stereotype. These artifacts are limiting because they imply that anyone who's black has to like fried chicken, while there are obviously people of all races who like fried chicken and people of all races who don't like it. The overall social implication here is that you can describe any large group of people through a few generalizations about the food they like, the clothing they wear, and the way they act--I strongly disagree with that implication.

Overall, I think it's highly interesting that such a prominent stereotype originated in one of the most notorious movies in film history. I don't like the idea of generalizing a large and diverse group of people with one stereotype because that implies that "one story fits all." Stereotypes like this make me feel uncomfortable, and I wish that they weren't a part of our society.