StreetVerse

Etymology of Fried Chix Stereotype

Posted By: The Rational Investor
Filed Under: Food, Opinion on March 7, 2010

Mmm, Fried chicken/Fly vixen/Give me heart disease/But need you in my kitchen
- Nasir Jones, Poet of the Streets

Yes the black people fried chicken stereotype. Is it offensive? If I was Black I’d be Ed Reed and say HELL NAW! The rice and beans stereotype has been around since Puerto Rico itself and I’m goddamn proud of it. Too bad White people aren’t smart on PR culture to know that we actually dickride Mofongo more. Is the classification really that simple though? Can I laugh any time a Black person is eating Fried Chicken since it can be a positive stereotype the same way Puerto Ricans eating rice and beans is?

I’ve searched the Google web space far and wide and to answer the All-American question: Where does the black people fried chicken stereotype come from? No one really covers the origins. The best I could find is this excerpt from a wikimedia cookbook:

Fried chicken has a dual origin in the rural American South. The Scots had a tradition of deep frying chicken in fat, unlike their English counterparts who baked or boiled chicken. Later, as African slaves were introduced to households as cooks, seasonings and spices were added that are absent in traditional Scottish cuisine, improving the flavor. Since slaves were often allowed to keep only chickens, frying chicken as a special occasion spread through the African American community. After slavery, poor rural southern blacks continued the tradition since chickens were often the only animals they could afford to raise. Since fried chicken could keep for several days, it travelled well, and also gained favor during segregation when blacks normally could not find places to eat and had to carry their own food. Southern whites also continued the tradition of frying chicken. While not limited like blacks socially, poor whites were no better off economically. Therefore, fried chicken continued to dominate as “Sunday dinner” or on other special occasions.
Source: Wikibooks

So basically that rich Scottish prick Carnegie thought his chicken tasted good, a Black person tried it, became Ed Reed said HELL NAW, added flavor and made it taste good. After the Civil War the freed slaves remained poor (doy) and the cheapest protein they could live off of was chix. Fair enough, so the stereotype is not offensive and can remain since it has some meaning in history right?

Wrong. While the cookbook does a good job explaining the fried chix origin in the African American community. It completely ignores this shit:

These were all postcards/ads/other media used during the early and mid 1900s. Southern whites connected the fried chicken stereotype to Blacks to dehumanize them and portray them as a bunch of chicken chasing watermelon eating buffoons.

So Australian shit like:

and Korean shit like:

and American shitty news like:

should all be considered as hurtful and dehumanizing to the same degree that classy word whites had for black people is. It’s not the same as calling a Puerto Rican a Beaner or an Asian a Math Whiz or a White a Cracker. There’s a long hateful history associated with it. I’m done laughing at the stereotype now that I understand its history.

So next time you walk by a Colonel Sanders looking mf from the South make sure you let them mf know “Thanks a lot mf now I can’t laugh at the Blacks and Fried Chicken stereotype.” Make sure you look him directly in the eye when you say that, then continue walking past him and towards the nearest KFC since you allowed imagery of Fried Chicken into your thoughts.

About the Author

The Rational Investor whirlwinds through streetverse at a crazy rate. He holds a G.E.D. in Illness.