Why is fried chicken a stereotype

Alongside curry goat and curry chicken, his mum would often make it, as would the other Jamaican aunties living nearby. So, like mango juice, hardo bread and sugar cane, we made the most of it on our trips to the city.

Already, I was noticing a pattern. The cheap chicken shops, fronted with happy cartoon chickens, were always concentrated in poorer areas, ones with a bigger black population. They boasted about the happy lives their chickens enjoyed, and how they honoured them with hour buttermilk baths and shiny, homemade glazes. There was almost always a boneless option, too, presumably catering to an audience for whom the skeleton is an unwelcome reminder that what they were eating was once alive.

Sometimes, it was. It lacked soul. In the end, I, too, would make a living out of fried chicken, but not southern fried. It was karaage , the Japanese iteration, made with boneless I know and skinless chicken thighs marinated in soy sauce, mirin, ginger and garlic.

I became hooked after my Japanese sister-in-law made it for me. The club was held in my home, with all the furniture pushed back against the wall to make space for collapsible tables, and the menu changed constantly, but karaage was a permanent fixture.

And while I loved it, I still preferred regular fried chicken. Karaage sat comfortably because I perceived in it a refinement I overlooked in its deep south counterpart. It contained ingredients I could source only in specialist shops. And, ultimately, it was Japanese, from the same nation of sushi and sashimi, of culinary refinement and gastronomic precision.

Back then, I was not even conscious of the racist baggage fried chicken came with in the US. But it was seeping into my subconscious, and I felt it.

As with most things, what happens in the US winds its way over to the UK. Including, it turns out, racist tropes. In my day job as a writer on a national newspaper — my supper clubs then were still a hobby — I sat next to someone who would often crack the same joke when I stood up to go for lunch.

Many slaveholders allowed enslaved people to raise chickens and sell or barter eggs. Chickens acquired divine significance in West Africa where the animals were used in a number of religious rituals, and enslaved Africans transplanted those spiritual practices to the Americas.

During the 19th Century, the dish became a route to economic empowerment for many African Americans. Because fried chicken travelled well before refrigeration, white passengers would frequently buy the food from African American cooks through open train windows. Predictably, however, it was a white entrepreneur who caused fried chicken to really take flight in the US.

Wherever the franchise landed, it often gave people in other countries their first taste of Southern-style fried chicken. But interestingly, just as Scottish immigrants may have introduced their fat-fried tradition to the US centuries ago, different methods to fry the birds from around the world have flapped back to the US in recent decades, as new generations of entrepreneurial immigrants have arrived. More recently, a proliferation of high-end US restaurants serving everything from bite-sized Japanese karaage fried chicken thighs to Palestinian fried fowl seasoned with za'atar a Middle Eastern spice blend featuring sesame seeds, a variety of dried herbs and salt have popped up across the US.

Every food tells a story, and as people around the world continue to look for that perfect bite of fried chicken, chefs, food writers, and restauranteurs have a tremendous opportunity to inform them about its origin. But all is not lost. Perhaps with more Scottish cheerleaders, and fewer Kentucky Colonels, fried chicken can finally come home to roost. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Culinary Roots Food. The surprising origin of fried chicken.

Share using Email. By Adrian Miller 13th October Fried chicken is as emblematic of the US South as collard greens and sweet potato pie. But it may be more Scottish than Southern. As the Associated Press reports , school officials are apologizing because that was a really, really horrible idea.

The school's principal wrote a letter to parents, who were offended, and said the school doesn't "perpetrate racial stereotypes. I n honor of Black History Month, we'd like to explain exactly why your fried chicken and watermelon lunch is ill-advised , with the hope that people will find better ways to honor this month. Why is fried chicken racist? Fried chicken isn't racist. Eating fried chicken isn't racist. A lot of people like fried chicken, and some happen to be black.

QuestLove was not impressed, and stirred up a Twitter storm when he tweeted the picture. The problem stems from the way fried chicken is associated with black people, and the historical baggage that comes with it.

The same way blackface recalls minstrel shows, the "black people love fried chicken" image recalls negative portrayals of black people. In one scene:. The message to the audience: These are the dangers of letting blacks vote. Some of the legislators are shown drinking. Others had their feet kicked up on their desks.