 |
Why do Black people hide the fact that they like chicken? I can’t seem to figure this one out. In the movie “Soul Food,” they ate their chicken openly. I see Black people eating chicken wings in so many places, in the street, in their cars. I see the bones on the ground like tracks. I attend a lot of events and chicken is often the star. If you were raised in a Black home and don’t know how to fix some type of chicken, then you just ain’t Black.
A few weeks ago Burger King rolled out some new commercials featuring well-known celebrities with several new menu items. Jay Leno got to drive through the Burger King in one of his vintage cars, David Beckham ordered a new fruit smoothie from the counter and Mary J. Blige was featured singing about the crispy chicken wraps and may I add that she was reported to have been paid $2 million for the spot. Not bad—she didn’t have to eat the chicken wrap, just sing about it.
Well this is where things started to get ugly. Miss “How you doing?” Wendy Williams goes on her show and says you could never pay her to eat chicken or watermelon on television and Mary J. Blige should be ashamed of herself. But it seems like you can pay miss baby doll hair to tuck notes inside of her wig and eat Twinkies. The commercials featuring Mary have been temporarily stopped; BK says it has to do with licensing of the music. Word on the street says the commercial is too stereotypical of Black people and “they” chicken.
I think if she wants to sing about chicken that is her business. I saw a clip of the commercial and it was fine, she wasn’t rolling her eyes or shuffling her feet or smacking her lips. What was the big problem? I didn’t feel offended. Why no outcry about the Black lady in the Popeye’s Chicken commercials or the Black couple ordering chicken at McDonalds?
This reminds me of the time when groups rose up against Amos and Andy. Black people said they were embarrassed by the show as if they didn’t know people just like the characters on the show and at times acted worse. I enjoyed Amos and Andy, Amos was a cab driver and the sophisticated one of the group. The comic relief came from the antics of Kingfish and Andy, Lighting, Sapphire and Momma.
It seems like no one is happy when Black people are on television. We are either too Black or not Black enough. Haven’t we noticed there are all shades of Black and doesn’t being free mean we can eat chicken where and when we want to? This BK chicken commercial cancellation is taking being politically correct to a whole new level. I was watching an M&M’s commercial and I swear the voice of the brown M&M is Vanessa Williams. Where is the outcry, the uprising about the brown M&M?
These people complaining need to get a life and go out and order some chicken and eat it in public. Power to the chicken.
(Email the columnist at debbienorrell@aol.com.)
About Post Author
