Every so often, some stupid shit pops up and I find the contrast between sense and nonsense just so glaring and pronounced, it warrants a comment. Fireal…
Me ain’t know about you, but apparently a furor has been brewing for a week or so about a ‘racist’ KFC ad aired in Australia. Being interested in Down Under (have no idea why, but I love the country, the Aborigines, the accent, and the insouciance of the Aussie character) and having several friends either originating from there, or currently residing there, I clicked this link in @mashable‘s twitter timeline, and read their non-commentary about KFC’s embroiling by the American public taking offense to this ad.
My #WTIArmy mates, have probably seen this but it is above (for convenience and the lazy).
I agreed 100% with One Pot Chef, who’s video is included as part of the Aussie reaction to the ad’s controversy…
Now, all of a sudden, I’m seeing some commentary popping up here and there from Americans who are flat out declaring this as racist. I saw the link included on Racialicious (<– LOVE THIS BLOG!) and HAD to add my own comment.
ON THE MATTER OF THE ‘RACIST’ KFC AD: I am West Indian, the ‘Black People’ in the ad that are supposed to be offended by KFC’s ‘racism’.
First off, if you are not part of the major cricketing countries in the world (and the chances are the Americans who are complaining about this ad, have no damn clue what cricket even is, and why should they, since their football doesn’t involve the feet, and real football they’ve conveniently renamed for their own devices ignoring the rest of the world) you have NO IDEA WHAT THIS AD IS ABOUT!
Let me explain: it’s not a ‘white man’ in an awkward moment surrounded by Black people. It’s an AUSTRALIAN cricket supporter surrounded by WEST INDIAN cricket supporters… KNOWN FOR THEIR PARTYING IN THE STANDS!
I am NOT a cricket fan. I hate cricket personally. However, this is a cultural difference between the former ‘British Empire’ now named the ‘Commonwealth’, and what in my opinion are some hell fired, self-important, arrogant-ass, final arbitors that are the largely uneducated Americans appropriating and dictating to the rest of us what constitutes racism.
This whole debate is shockingly stupid, and could only have been instigated by ignorant, insulated, self-absorbed, self-important Americans LOOKING to start some ish.
I do not hate Americans nor America. Yet, I MUST point out this is the kind of thing that typifies American interaction with the rest of the world… hear what, oui? Cultural imperialism of any kind is wrong… The world isn’t really filtered through American-coloured glasses. Because you see the world through the limited, narrow, neo-Puritan, post-race (HA!) scope that the American media limits you to, it doesn’t mean everyone must heel-toe to that beat.
Get over yourselves… and your own opinions about other people’s cultures.
… and then HAD to ADD!
It’s not that Australia isn’t a racist country! The whole continent of Australia belongs to the ABORIGNES! It was stolen like so much land, and the original owners are BARELY beginning to recover from the atrocities committed to their families, communities and to the land they took care of for tens of thousands of years before Britain decided to annex it… so to construe racism in this KFC ad, and to ignore their story is like UNBELIEVABLY offensive to me personally. Shucks man…
Fireal….
Now I’ve read a number of West Indian people saying they agree the ad is racist, because they’re uncomfortable with the link between the man’s whiteness, and his discomfort, plus the whole passing around of the KFC bucket as a way to ‘control’ and ‘calm down’ the Black people around him.
I actually read someone say they’re West Indian and to their knowledge, fried chicken is ‘not a West Indian’ thing… my ass nearly fell off the bed. WHAT? Clearly this person never stopped and stood in line for twenty minutes at 3.20am on a damn Saturday morning, while stale drunk people, still drunk, still drinking and other night owl people bought and consumed the SELF SAME KFC on the corner of Independence Square, PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad & Tobago (bandit be damned 24-hour KFC joint). What de ass I hearing at all? At ALL? Not a West Indian ting? SMDH.
Uhuh… my thing is, in the ad I see his Aussie jersey, about three other WI flags, and unlike a lot of other people, I’ve stopped looking for racism under every rock. This to me is deflection PURE AND SIMPLE. I didn’t even get the point of the ad at first, cause my ass is not (as I said previously) a cricket fan. It took me a minute to realise he was flying Aussie colours in the middle of WI colours.
That Americans are getting angry about advertising aimed at a continent across TWO oceans in either direction, strikes me as some stupid shit. It doesn’t to you?
Allyuh want to get worked up over some racism, get worked up over my Aborigine people STILL suffering in Australia.
I added another comment to Racialicious (it looks like the opted not to publish my big mouth ranting comment above)….
One chick says, as far as she knows, they don’t eat fried chicken in Trinidad. I had to ask, we talking about the same Trinidad?
I added this to the ongoing debate:
@Rainy “Do they eat KFC in Trinidad and Tobago or where ever?”
They sure do.. there about 30 KFCs in Trinidad, a good few of them 24-hour joints and there is ALWAYS at least a ten to twenty minute wait because of the lines no matter the hour you go in.
The one downtown is on the busiest corner in PoS, and if you walk less than half a mile or so, you’ll other branches of KFC uptown.
In Barbados–almost same story. There are three KFCs in Bridgetown, about twenty across the island. KFC is the ONLY successful non-West Indian fast food franchise in Barbados…. McDonald’s failed because they didn’t sell fried chicken, and when they introduced their chicken meals, failed cause they couldn’t compete with KFC!
The West Indians who are saying that KFC and fried chicken are not West Indian things are deluding themselves about our culture. It’s not cause we’re Black… I see my East Indian brothers lining up just like everyone else… it’s just a cultural thing.
The West Indians claiming this ad is racist, are either living in America too long or trying to make a mountain out of a molehill… trying to hard to pattern their cultural expression against an American yardstick.
The ad is not racist in my view, it’s an Aussie cricket supporter who happens to be white surrounded by an opposing team that just HAPPENS to be Black…
I am so tired of GENUINE cases of racism, like the ones the Aussie government has institutionalised for two hundred years against the Aboriginal people of Australia, being ignored or never mentioned in these spaces, but you choose a KFC ad that doesn’t have racial overtones (just cricket metaphors) when discussing Aussie racism.
It boggles the mind….
Ragnarok approaches – we actually agree? Angry Aussie said something similar, with many expletives;- http://bajanreporter.com/?p=7283