Racist Australians or Politically Correct Americans?

[shazza]

...or a bit of Column A and a bit of Column B?

http://www.news.com.au/world/kfc-ad-...-1225816554071

AN ad by KFC Australia showing a man giving fried chicken to West Indies fans has been labelled racist in the US.

In the "cricket survival guide" ad, an Australian fan named Mick asks viewers "Need a tip when you're stuck in an awkward situation?" after being surrounded by cheering West Indies fans.

He then shares a bucket of KFC chicken with fans around him to calm the situation.

Is this ad racist? Tell us below.

The video has caused a huge stir in the US after it was posted on YouTube. The ad has been seen by some in the US as a reference to racial stereotype that African Americans eat fried chicken.

User "ThunderCurls" posted the ad on the video sharing website with the title "Racist KFC advertisement?"

The description states "How do you survive a crowd of "awkward" black people? According to KFCs latest advertisement a bucket of fried chicken will do the trick".

The video has caused a lot of debate, attracting more than 200,000 views and 2000 comments.

KFC Australia has acknowledged that the ad could be perceived as racist. It said the ad had been "misinterpreted by a segment of people in the US" in a statement released this morning.

"It is a light-hearted reference to the West Indian cricket team," KFC said.

"The ad was reproduced online in the US without KFC's permission, where we are told a culturally-based stereotype exists, leading to the incorrect assertion of racism.

"We unequivocally condemn discrimination of any type and have a proud history as one of the world's leading employers for diversity."

Media commentary sites in the US blasted the ad, claiming that the ad supported stereotypes, according to The Huffington Post.

On Mediabistro, Kiran Aditham writes of the ad: "Here, a flustered white guy gets out of an "awkward situation" - which in this case appears to mean being stuck in a crowd of happy, cheering black people at a sporting event - by ordering in fried chicken."

Meanwhile Buzzfeed's Jack Shephard introduced the video by saying, "What's a white guy to do when he awkwardly finds himself in a crowd full of black folks? KFC has the answer".

Here's the video in question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FftZt-Dw_hQ

--

Personally, I think America needs to chill the fuck out.

P.S: Can you make YouTube videos embedded on this forum?

[The_Missing_Link]

Yeah, I don't think KFC Australia was thinking, "What can we do to piss the US off today?"


Very stupid on them anyway for making a commercial that could draw fire but the intent wasn't there

[shazza]

The stereotype of African American's -- or our natives here -- eating chicken doesn't exist; there is nothing wrong with the commercial.

[The_Missing_Link]

The stereotype of African American's -- or our natives here -- eating chicken doesn't exist; there is nothing wrong with the commercial.

I know, I just meant commercials like that could backfire if shown internationally. But then again, KFC Australia was just producing a commercial for Australia so it's just been blown out of proportion. As always, people are looking for fights that aren't there

[shazza]

ARE YOU CALLING ME A FUCKING LIAR!?!?

...Nah, I agree completely.

[Roy Karrde]

I can see how in Australia it can be perfectly fine, each country has its own stereotypes and I doubt blacks there have the same stereotypes as say African Americans in the deep south.

That being said over here Fried Chicken and or Watermelon in the Deep South does play into a bit of a racist stereotype, that has been seen as late as the 60s and 70s.

That being said people need to realize that what may be a stereotype over here may be a innocent joke across the ocean. And if KFC were to ever air such a Ad on television in the US ( Which I doubt they will ) they need to consider how such a image could be seen toward the local audience.

[Crazy Elf Boy]

I was wondering how long it would be before this came up. I don't see anything wrong with the add but I can see how it could be misconstruded as racist, personally I just think everyone should chill out.

[Master Rudy]

That being said over here Fried Chicken and or Watermelon in the Deep South does play into a bit of a racist stereotype, that has been seen as late as the 60s and 70s.

Don't forget about the grape soda.......or as my boss calls it when he does his impression of an angry black man "PURPLE DRANK!!!"

I think everyone just about has this covered. Some civil rights jerkoff apparently had nothing better to do than to blow this thing out of proportion when the same stereotype doesn't even exist over there. As a result it's spread like wildfire and now your going to have the idiots here in the US make a big deal about something that was unintentional. However when it comes to an ad being shown internationally these problems could potentially come up. Either people will shrug and not make a big fuss or they'll scream for blood.

Kinda reminds me of the Snickers commercial that Mr. T did in the UK with the speed walker. You have typical Mr. T shouting "You a disgrace to the man race!" and all of a sudden Mr. T is now a homophobe. Perhaps it's more a case of the world needs to calm the fuck down more than anything else

[Drago]

The way I see it, if we really want these racial slurs not to be a part of today's society, then all we need to do is stop reading shit into EVERYTHING. I swear, the world's perception on racism is still seeded in our past. Back in the days of racist society, we kept the whites and the blacks segregated. Now, we're supposedly seen as equal, but DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT THEM. This whole fried chicken thing is so far in the backwards ass past that we shouldn't even be aware of its existence these days.

The Australian cricket team has a rivalry with the West Indies cricket team. It's an ad for KFC. Hence, diffuse the situation with chicken. If Australia had such a prominent rivalry with a different cricket team, the ad would have been the same.

Had it been an Australian in England, people would have seen the message - 'feed the angry people chicken'.
But simply because these people happen to be black, the message, according to a group of uptight nimrods, has become 'feed the angry black people chicken'.

For Christ's sake. The people who are trying to protect us from racism are somehow constantly just finding ways to snake it into places where it need not belong. I look forward to a day when your skin colour means no more to be than your hair colour... But with the way society goes, that day will likely never come.

[Heald]

I understand the whole thing about the West Indies Cricket team, so no, it isn't racist, just a typical overblown reaction to anything showing a non-white person in a possibly negative light.

[Blademaster]

Black people have been in KFC ads for as long as I can remember. Who gives a shit? I'm whiter than Vanilla Ice in a blizzard and I love me some Goddamn KFC. Hell, Houndy is practically an albino and she'd fucking murder every hooting West Indian there for just to have that bucket to herself.

[Heald]

Black people have been in KFC for as long as I can remember.

Fix'd.

[Blademaster]

That too.

[Jeff]

Oh come on. This is no worse than that Popeye's commercial here where that black woman was going on about her chicken recipe and how Popeye's was selling her chicken for such a low price.

[Heald]

lol, popeyes

[Telume]

Why is the US butting into shit that doesn't matter to them anyway, Australia's a free country just like it (to the extent the law allows anyway) so let 'em do what they want.

[Jeff]

P.S: Can you make YouTube videos embedded on this forum?

[offtopic]
Forgot to mention earlier today that I second this. Assuming it's possible with just the Admin CP. It would help the main site too.

[Heald]

Why is the US butting into shit that doesn't matter to them anyway

See also: Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba, Pakistan, South America, France, the UK, Russia, Japan, China, India, Germany etc.

They don't do it because they have any right to, they do it because no one can stop them.

[Bear]

Well fuck, if someone gave ME some KFC I'd be their best friend for life. KFC is the shit!

[Heald]

I think sometimes the anti-racism movement can be holding back the race they claim to be 'protecting'. No one at all linked BLACK PEOPLE LUV DA FRYED CHIKKENZ CRACKERZ until some asshole piped up going OMG BLAKK PEEPZ AND FRYD CHIKKENZ RACIST O CLOCK! If you're the one still linking fried chicken and black people, then you're the racist, not the people behind the advert.

[Telume]

Truthfully Heald.

I know multiple black people and they ALL call Fried Chicken "Soul Food". I've even asked a couple of my black friends "You want some Soul Food?" and they even replied, laughing, "Sure, where we going? Popeyes or KFC?"

So it's not even racist blacks themselves associate fried chicken with their race. Sure maybe not ALL blacks will respond to that but, that's just an example from my own experience. It's just the media blowing it out of proportion.

Kind of like the whole thing with Jynx. Another friend of mine who is also black said she wasn't offended by Jynx at all SHE actually found it humorous.

[toucheiruka]

now that is just pure bullshit, a few months ago I was joking around with a few black friends about how it would be if I had a cooking show, and then it got to the part of Black History Month and celebrating the occasion with Fried Chicken and Watermelon, and you want to know one thing?

THEY WEREN'T OFFENDED!


ah politically correct americans, how I hate you so.....

[Jeff]

Exactly, whenever that stereotype is used it's usually just used as a joke. The "dumb blond" stereotype is more harsh, but you don't see the National Association for the Advancement of Blonds getting up in arms every time someone cracks a blond joke.

[DarkestLight]

o.o That's stupid, why would that be offensive.

IMA GO GIT ME SUM CHICKN YA'LL!

And wtf, all Aussies are blind racist >> THIS IS A KNOWN FACT.

[Houndoom_Lover]

>: I'd murder every single one of them for a bucket of fried chicken.

There goes dumb American viewers, flippin' a shit for no reason. If they made an ad of cheese where a single black man was hnding it to an all white bowling team, would they get in trouble?

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

Europeans ftw. That is all.

[Magmar]

Black people around here love fried chicken as a cultural norm, not as a racist thing. There are tons of chicken places in the traditional black communities of this city! Hell, I went to a kwanzaa dinner hosted by Harambee at my school and it was fried chicken, rice and soda. And I go to one of the most liberal schools in the country. Nobody thinks of it as racist to associate black people with their love of chicken in much the same way as the obnoxious commercials with fat Italian chefs cooking'a'paaasstaaaa are okay (and my hometown is the most Italian community in the United States--Johnston RI, google it).

Which, if you ask me, are more racist. The show "Jersey Shore" with Pauly D having gone to elementary school with me -_- is even more obnoxious. I think Italians get a rough hand dealt with all our mafia, guido and pasta stereotypes plaguing the media. In reality, people who act like that are usually only friends with other people who act like that, and the rest of the Italian-American community rolls their eyes and laughs at them for acting like idiots. So yes, there are real life guidos all over the place up here (or "Gweeds" as my friends and I call them), and there is a club called Part II that attracts the worst ones (great place for people watching). They live laugh and love a lie, a stereotype they crafted themselves, and people like me just have to live with it.

[Telume]

^ This is also true. I take the bus to college every now and then and while passing through the predominantly black neighborhood of my city (which is actually quite large it spans more than 100 blocks.) there happen to be at least 6 fried chicken chains (yes KFC included) within blocks of each other 1 or 2 of them are doubles of the other chain.

As a matter of fact, if you want to eat at Popeyes in this city you have to go to, yup you guessed it, a BLACK NEIGHBORHOOD! Because that's the ONLY AREA you'll find it.

[RedStarWarrior]

Popeye's is good chicken.

I don't know how Church's chicken stays open, though. Their chicken sucks and all the black people I know would rather go get fried chicken from Cracker Barrel than eat there.

[Ultimate Charizard]

The point that im surprised noone picked up on, and have even said a few times in here....

It caused offence to insinuate that African Americans will do anything for Fried Chicken

Who the hell mentioned African Americans? This is the West Indies Cricket team. To me its just as Racially ignorant to call EVERY black person you see an African American. Its like calling anyone from China/Japan/Korea etc 'Oriental' or anyone from Pakistan/Bangladesh etc 'Indian'. We had an American join our school on an exchange program a few years ago. It took so long to get him to stop calling all the Black students 'African American'. It didnt seem to sink in to him that they were British anyway.

Its another case of the US sticking its nose in im afraid.

[Heald]

It caused offence to insinuate that African Americans will do anything for Fried Chicken

Well then, at the risk of causing offence...

[Telume]

The point that im surprised noone picked up on, and have even said a few times in here....



Who the hell mentioned African Americans? This is the West Indies Cricket team. To me its just as Racially ignorant to call EVERY black person you see an African American. Its like calling anyone from China/Japan/Korea etc 'Oriental' or anyone from Pakistan/Bangladesh etc 'Indian'. We had an American join our school on an exchange program a few years ago. It took so long to get him to stop calling all the Black students 'African American'. It didnt seem to sink in to him that they were British anyway.

Its another case of the US sticking its nose in im afraid.

I just call them blacks, because I'm used to calling them blacks. In Latin America we call them mulato or negro though in certain situations it's just as insulting as any other pejorative.

[Jeff]

Apparently the PC people here think "African American" is the correct term to use for any black person. I remember seeing something on TV a while back when they were talking about great "African Americans" and Nelson Mandela was one of those people they were talking about.

[Telume]

Funny thing is people here in the US talk about how rednecks are low-class white people who like beer and guns and the butt of all jokes about that kinda stuff is rednecks, but, you don't see an uproar being created over every depiction of that.

If there WAS a huge uproar about it then 70% of movies would have to have been guilty of it at some point in their plot.

[RedStarWarrior]

Apparently the PC people here think "African American" is the correct term to use for any black person. I remember seeing something on TV a while back when they were talking about great "African Americans" and Nelson Mandela was one of those people they were talking about.

I know white African Americans.

[Ultimate Charizard]

And there it is in a nutshell. 'African American' has shifted to a Racial Term rather than a description of Ethnicity.

Its like if i moved over there and became a Citizen. Would i be Anglo-American? No I,d just be called White or Caucasian if theyre being technical. And more than likely id have to endure some form of 'friendly racism' with people calling me a limey or whatever the current term for British people is. But its ok cos im white.

[abunaidesu]

every time i pass kfc there are always black people in there

shrug

[Telume]

And there it is in a nutshell. 'African American' has shifted to a Racial Term rather than a description of Ethnicity.

Its like if i moved over there and became a Citizen. Would i be Anglo-American? No I,d just be called White or Caucasian if theyre being technical. And more than likely id have to endure some form of 'friendly racism' with people calling me a limey or whatever the current term for British people is. But its ok cos im white.

limey? Where does that come from, I've never heard it. At least not around here in Florida.

[Jeff]

Back in the day, Brits were known for eating alot of limes to ward off scurvy, which is caused by a Vitamin C deficiency. That's where that name comes from.

[Heald]

More specifically, British sailors, but yeah, you got the idea.