AfricaIs aCountry

White People Eat Fried Chicken

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

White People Eat Fried Chicken

By
Sean Jacobs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH_WxJVxHcw&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

Allison Swank
Just as Nelson Mandela went underground as the Black Pimpernel in 1961 to evade the white apartheid government, in this TV ad for  a popular South African fast food chain, this white Afrikaner family goes underground in 1994 to escape Mandela’s black government–what?

And white people eat fried chicken at a food joint whose slogan is “soul food”?

This intermingling of race roles is a clear attempt to normalize black stereotypes of soul and chicken in white culture–which is represented here as uptight and fearful. To sell chicken to white people, Chicken Licken tries to bridge the divide between what is stereotypically white and black, while managing to reinforce both clichés. Over it.

Further Reading

Sovereignty beyond the nation

A new history of the interwar Latin American left recovers the rich debates over race and self-determination that shaped the region’s anti-imperial politics—and still resonate today.

Fields of dependency

As the US-Israel war on Iran disrupts fertilizer supply, Africa’s reliance on imported inputs exposes the deeper political economy driving food insecurity.

Whose progress?

A new documentary reveals how Ethiopia’s manufacturing push redistributes land, labor, and opportunity—delivering gains for some while displacing others.