EXCELLENT POSTING!
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Popeye's Blaxploitation 2009: Attack of the Chicken Pimps
by Sis. Makani Themba-Nixon
Ok family, I hesitated to even post on this. Putting to print anything that involves Black people and fried chicken is a risk. It is airing the dirty linen. You never know where this will end up. Still, I could not let this one go...
Yesterday was the launch of Popeye's national "8 for $4" sale event. And the scene was crazy nationwide. My son texted this description from Atlanta's West End:
"Man, I lost all faith in Black people...Popeyes got Black folk out here, look like cicadas for chicken...with security guards..."
So, I have to admit when I first read the text I laughed. Laughed hard in fact. After all, if you know about cicadas and how they roll, the scene isn't hard to imagine. My daughter sent word that it was going down similarly in NOLA. She says her friends officially revoked her Black card because she didn't want to spend her day in the chicken line.
This just blows my mind, family.
To think that the original meaning of Popeyes has nothing to do with the animated, spinach loving sailor (check it: there's no apostrophe before the "s"). but that it's a derogatory term for Black folk (yup you guessed it - as in Stepin Fetchit, scared popeyes). Add to that the coonish advertising and the hip handed, Safire of a spokeswoman talking about "my chicken". Go to
to see Annie the Chicken Queen in action. Then add that this #$% is helping millions of our folk to an early grave. Something needs to be done.
I know some folk are like, it's a matter of choice. But what we know about the impact of marketing on behavior from alcohol and tobacco work is that targeted marketing means targeted use. There are four factors in advertising that are called the Four Ps: product, promotion, place and price. Popeyes, Church's and other high fat fast food joints are overconcentrated in our communities (place strategy), develop extra fat products that are targeted to our communities (the same company will offer more low fat options (salads, baked chicken, fish, etc.) in other communities and introduce extra high fat options -- certain desserts, poppers, etc., in ours. They pull on cultural markers and position advertising that target our people (promotion) and now they close in to take advantage of the economic crisis to pull folk even further in with price.
Like most people of every cultural background, I know chicken is delicious. I understand why people eat it and how it came to occupy such a central place in the American diet. However, Popeyes' continued pimping of Black folk to sell chicken in its worst form is up there with the marketing of malt liquor and menthol cigarettes. And just as deadly.
We have launched a project to help support community organizing around food and recreation equity to start to address this madness (
HOME | Communities Creating Healthy Environments). I also have to give props to Bryant Terry with Vegan Soul Kitchen
books | Bryant Terry, WEACT (
Environmental Justice - WE ACT) and other folk working to turn things around. We have our work cut out for us, family!
04-23-2009
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