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New York fried chicken joints under fire for Obama name

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31 Comments
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Obama Fried Chicken!! Sounds like the fate of the US troops destined for Afghanistan.

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KFC quality can really be up and down in the USA and I'm sure OFC isn't much better.

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The Germans beat em to it.

"Obama Fingers"

It's Europe. What did you expect?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,612684,00.html

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"Obama Fried Chicken & Pizza"

Har!

"Bam Fried Chicken & Pizza"

Har har har har hardy har har!

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I don't understand how using someone's name to try and sell your product works to 'insult and degrade' anyone. How is 'Obama Fried Chicken' any different from 'Kennedy Fried Chicken' (apart from the KFC people objecting because of the trademark)?

Isn't the message 'this very high-up respected personage likes our product, please buy it'?

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Maybe the owner just likes Obama rather than it being a racist thing?

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I am really unable to connect the dots on the racial implication of using the name Obama and Fried Chicken in the same ad, name, or product. Sounds like something only a racist could come up with. In fact, I would wager that the whole reason this came up is because Obama is black. Still don't see a racial connection. Guess I've been out of the US too long.

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Next will be Obama's watermelons! I dont see what the big deal is?!?!!

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In russia they sell icecream with the pictur of Obama on it titled Black in White (meaning Black man (chocolate) in white house (milk))

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Making a link between black people and friend chicken can be racist. But it's not automatic. The problem with protests like this is that we don't know the intent of the owners. My guess is that they were trying to get some free promotion by naming their place after the President. In that case there's obviously no racism involved. But to pretend that linking Obama and fried chicken cannot be anything but racism is where they cross over the line.

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Love - "Obama... Black man..."

He's only half black. His mother was "white as milk." ( the president's words )

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Let the free market decide. If people buy it means the name is popular; if not, change to another name...no need for more law, too many already.

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"Let the free market decide"

Too late - Americans have elected Barack Obama president and given control of Congress to the Democrats.

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Stuff the places calling themseleves Obama, he is part of the New Order created to make us slaves to the few, hasn't got anything to do with chicken shops in good ol USA.

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Yes, obama is only half black, but being labeled as black regardless of his mixed heritage has more to do to what society as a whole would see him as. Honestly, if he wasnt the President of the United states and you saw him on the street as an average joe, I can assure you that 90% of people who came in contact with him would just assume that he was Black.

By the way, I actually find this kinda funny. I am not gonna deny the possible racial overtones that exist, but it is funny nonetheless.

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Cleo:

It sounds bizarre to me too, but for some reason the USers think that little chickens are racist. Obama beef or Obama fish would surely be OK. Obama pork probably not, the local religion of peace would object. Don´t try to look for logic in this stuff...

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I see no problem with Obama opening a chicken shack and putting his name on it. But I like to see good quality for my Obama dollar.

Reagan: Jelly Belly Carter: Peanuts Obama: Chicken

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WilliB at 02:45 AM JST - 5th April Cleo: It sounds bizarre to me too, but for some reason the USers think that little chickens are racist. Obama beef or Obama fish would surely be OK. Obama pork probably not, the local religion of peace would object. Don´t try to look for logic in this stuff...

Racists have been using fried chicken to insult Blacks in America for far too long. Anyone American who tried to play this off has unlined motives. If you have never heard of this then you have been living in the woods or under a rock.

Now about this story, I personally think the owners of these chicken joints were complete fools. Number one President Obama is the President of the United States. Number two, did the owners think, just because the place has the Presidents name that will bring in more Black people? You have to be a complete fool to use his name.......

I hope they close their door not for using his name but because they are fools.

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JoeBigs:

" Racists have been using fried chicken to insult Blacks in America for far too long "

That´s what looks so bizarre about idiosyncratic hangups to non-USers. "You are a fried chicken!" Yes, I am humbled by your monstrous racist insult, LOL! Whatever tickles you. You are natto!

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Don't be absurd. No one calls black people "fried chicken" and you know that. The insult is in the stereotype that fried chicken and watermelons are ALL black people eat, degrading us by lumping us all in a stupid little box, the same one that says that we are somehow inferior. Cleo appearently hasn't spent any significant amount of time in the states if she doesn't get it. Americans know the significance. Since I personally have had this insult directed at my person, I can tell you this is as serious as being called the N word. It's the same as saying Japanese only eat sushi, or Italians can't touch anything without tomato sauce, or Jews only eat bagels. You get it now? It's prejudice.

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Cleo appearently hasn't spent any significant amount of time in the states if she doesn't get it.

Actually none at all, apart from a few hours kicking my heels in transit in Anchorage before they started direct flights to the UK that didn't involve using Aeroflot.

How does calling a fried chicken restaurant 'Obama' suggest that black people eat only fried chicken and is insulting? Any more than, I dunno, 'Tokyo Sushi Bar' suggests Japanese eat lots of sushi and is insulting. Or 'Green Tomato' suggests Italians eat lots of tomato sauce and is insulting. I find it very difficult to imagine that the owners of a restaurant are going to give their establishment a name intended to insult their clientele. Some folk are being far too sensitive about nothing at all.

When you let people know that a particular stereotype bugs you, you give them a tool to bug you with. Ignore it, and it ceases to have any power.

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I would ignore it, if people didn't believe in it. You see, stereotypes usually come wholesale. If you believe one, you are more likely to know and believe the others. Seeing as the times the fried chicken insult was hurled at me the N word always accompanied it solidifies my point. It never behooves one in a job interveiw for the potential boss to think they are sub-human, or in an airport for the security to assume criminality based on skin color. I've lived through these things. It is because these stereotypes went unchallenged that I had to experience these things. Silence is tacit approval. I understand your point about the Tokyo Sushi Bar et al, but one might find all those restaurant names stereotypical and racist. It was not their intention to insult sure, but they cannot claim they did not wish to perpetuate the stereotype. Thus, they have contributed to a culture's malignment, unintentional though it may be. Road to Hell and all that.

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stereotypes usually come wholesale. If you believe one, you are more likely to know and believe the others.

I dunno about that - I 'know' lots of stereotypes about the Japanese (mainly from the 'wisdom' imparted on JT) - but I also know better than to believe any of it.

And regardless of whether it's a stereotype or not, I can't see what insult there is in chicken, sushi or tomato sauce.

the times the fried chicken insult was hurled at me the N word always accompanied it

You were unlucky enough to meet some ignorant slob who knew how to push your buttons - you let him make 'fried chicken' an insult because it was linked with other insulting behaviour. That doesn't make 'fried chicken' in itself an insult, especially in this case where the restaurants are trying to attract customers, not insult them. If someone were to use, say, George Washington's image to sell whiskey, I don't suppose anyone would see it as a stereotype that all white people were drunkards; but if it were accompanied by some ignorant slob snarling 'honkie' or 'whitey', it immediately becomes an insult.

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Is my Obamarugula business still ok?

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"I 'know' lots of stereotypes about the Japanese (mainly from the 'wisdom' imparted on JT) - but I also know better than to believe any of it." Good for you. I'm genuinely glad to hear that. Though the key is you don't believe any of it. Again it is not the simple knowledge of the stereotypes that bothers me. It is when one BELIEVES it to be FACT and acts accordingly. It has been my experience that those who buy into one stereotype, buy into others. I didn't just choose to see "fried chicken" as an insult, that veiw was foisted upon me by racists. "[I]f it were accompanied by some ignorant slob snarling 'honkie' or 'whitey', it immediately becomes an insult." Why? Why do these particular words get your recognition as insults but "fried chicken" does not? They all have harmless origins- even the N word has a innocuous etymology- but what they mean now when addressing certain people is insulting.

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Altria, LOL!

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And actually Clinton comes from Arkansas, the largest poultry producing state in the US.

under fire for putting President Barack Obama’s name on their signs

What, like the President is the only one with that name.

Now, off to O'Donnells Pub.

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"[I]f it were accompanied by some ignorant slob snarling 'honkie' or 'whitey', it immediately becomes an insult." Why? Why do these particular words get your recognition as insults but "fried chicken" does not? They all have harmless origins

They're all harmless - it's the intent of the ignorant snarling racist slob that makes the insult. I really do not think the people running these restaurants intend any insult at all - to them, Obama Fried Chicken is just using the President's name to enhance their product, just as they once tried to use Kennedy Fried Chicken.

I didn't just choose to see "fried chicken" as an insult, that veiw was foisted upon me by racists.

You let the racists decide how you should feel about things? Why not just look on them with the scorn and pity they deserve, instead of letting them into your brain? You don't need them.

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Obama Fried Chicken is just using the President's name to enhance their product, just as they once tried to use Kennedy Fried Chicken

And of course it wouldn't work if the patrons didn't like fried chicken.

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"Why not just look on them with the scorn and pity they deserve, instead of letting them into your brain? You don't need them." Wish I could, but these are the same wastes of space that because they thought I was inferior- no doubt taught this through the racial stereotypes they cling to - they thought it was their right to violate my person. Breaking heads is tiring. I've also encountered these kind of idiots in managerial positions above me, who thought they could cheat me out of equal pay for equal work, and tried to work me 7 days a week and only pay me for 6. I can't afford to just silently pity these people. Not when their racism affects my life and freedoms.

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Violation of your freedoms and civil/human rights is something you have a right to a legal come-back on. Go ahead and sue the idiots till they hurt. But don't let mere words get to you - and more important, don't let the racists see that their words get to you. It only gratifies them to see that they can sting you, and they simply aren't worth the sweat.

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