I have the feeling that I probably need to go out and buy a lottery ticket. Yeah, I’m feeling kinda sorta like the blog fortune teller. Yeah, call me Negrodamus Jenkins or some shit like that.
About a week ago I made a post about Fried Chicken (Fried Chicken:The Next Movement) being the next movement. In that post, I featured a commercial for a Korean fast food chain that specialized in fried chicken, in Korea. Well, the commercial was racist as hell (trust me you have to see it to understand – just click the link above). Even so, just like I said on the post, I thought it was funny.
Ok, so not that the commercial was funny, or racism for that matter, but the idea of a commercial like that in this country would be funny. Ok yeah, so of course it would be offensive and deemed inappropriate, and that wouldn’t be funny. What would be funny is to see Negroes up in arms about it, and even staging protests and boycotts. Well lo and behold, the shit is happening right here in America, in my beloved New York City, in the very area where I call home known as Brownsville out in East New York. Yes, my mother still lives there to this day, as does many of my relatives, and yes it is home.
See the pic above? That’s the banner to a restaurant in Brownsville that serves fried chicken. One would think that the owner of this restaurant loves Barack Obama and voted for him. Uh huh, one would think that the owner of this restaurant is so much of an Obamaholic that he felt the need to change the name of his restaurant last week to show his support of the president. Well, that’s not exactly true. Just like everybody, this guy is cashing in on Obama-mania. Yup, this guy didn’t even vote for Barack because he just moved to this country from Bangladesh in January. Umm, that’s India for you geographically challenged readers; and no, it’s not some town in Louisiana where Bobby Jindal played in the movie Slum Dog Millionaire.
Well, my brothers and sisters in Brooklyn aren’t taking too much to the name change, and have been protesting. Let’s see, fried chicken good, Obama name to sell fried chicken bad. Therein lays the dilemma and hence the reason why I think it’s funny. Surely there are always going to be the people among us who would overlook all the controversy and walk right in and still buy that chicken. And then I’m sure there are some who like a junkie fresh out of rehab would be tempted to give way to the drug that is the yard bird and relapse. Yes, somewhere in Brownsville there are a few fried chicken Pookies running around because that shit just be callin them.
Uh huh, and to me that’s what’s funny about this. I mean stereotypically speaking: it’s kinda like a sex addict boycotting the strip club because there’s a picture of a sexy stripper dressed as a nun on the marquee. The owner of the restaurant had pledged to change the name after being told of the community disapproval. Well, as of right now, dude has reneged on the name change and has decided to keep the name. Yup, the war over Obama Fried Chicken is on son! And this is why this is even funnier to me. Damn right, and I hope they get the NAACP, and all the rappers in on this.
Ok, so yeah you might say that it’s wrong for me to find humor in this, and I should support my brothers and sisters in Brooklyn since I always preach and speak of social change and justice. Yeah you’re right I always do, but if you’re not laughing at this, it’s because you’re not paying attention. I mean we’re talking about fried chicken here. Fried chicken that is being sold in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Sold by a dude from Bangladesh, who is down the street from a business called Obama Beauty Supply, that is owned by a dude name Mohammed Seraji whose hot item is the Michelle Obama wig that sells for $49.99. Hello?!! What’s wrong with that picture? Why protest the fried chicken joint instead of using your energy and enthusiasm to open your own fried chicken restaurant?
I mean hell, is changing the name of the restaurant going to stop the rampant Black on Black crime in Brownsville? Is it going to bring down the Black unemployment rate in the neighborhood, the city of New York, or the country? Right now Metro cards are going up in prices (that’s the transit system) because the state in running in the red, but people wanna protest Obama Fried Chicken?!! Do you see why I think this is funny now? Hell, maybe this is just a little poetic justice on the part of the guy from Bangladesh. For years, especially since 9/11, anyone who looks like they’re of Middle Eastern or East Indian descent is often referred to as a “Habib”. Uh huh, maybe the guy who owns this restaurant sees this as payback for his brothers and sisters being insulted and degraded. After all, people think Barack is Muslim, right?
Oh well, I think I’m gonna go out and buy a lottery ticket – you know buying lottery tickets is a Black thing too right?-yeah, hopefully I win a few millions so I could open my own fried chicken joint in the hood and call it Bin Laden Fried Chicken. We’ll see just how many people would be willing to boycott that joint. Hell I got one better: why don’t we all protest Spell Check because everytime I type the name Barack Obama I get those red squiggly lines.
QUESTION:Do you see the name “Obama Fried Chicken” as racially insulting?Checkout the throwback Brownsville anthem: