Black people love fried chicken.

E! News has released an article reporting concerns of racism regarding a KFC advertisement from South Africa that’s causing domestic outrage. The ad depicts a young black girl finding cultural refuge in a Bangkok KFC restaurant.

Backlash from the ad seems to be the result of a hyper-sensitive generation of controversy-seekers and a recently entitled subset of African-Americans.

We, as African-Americans, must stop victimizing ourselves.

The ad, created by the Ogilvy & Mather South Africa ad company, features a South African girl regretfully navigating the Bangkok streets, toiling through her new cultural environment.

A native classmate notices the South African girl’s struggle.

In an effort to alleviate her depression, the helpful classmate licks her fingers toward the distressed migrant girl as a nod to KFC’s “finger-lickin’ good” slogan. The South African girl seems to know exactly what that means.

The ad ends with the two classmates enjoying a fried chicken meal together in cultural harmony.

It appears that in the eyes of some Americans, this advertisement is racist in intent.

First and foremost, this ad is entirely South African. I would urge my fellow Americans of all races to refrain from being so vain as to think that the entire globe operates along the American social construct. 

As for the African-American population retaliating against those responsible for the advertisement, let’s get over our insecurities, shall we?

Yes, racism is still alive and well in our country, and I feel the effects of such a notion in my own everyday life.

Regardless, we as a people only work to belittle our progress when we race speedily to pass ourselves off as victims of racism where there is no racism.

How can we make a statement that we are a proud, overcome community and at the same time grant our delusions of oppression a national stage? 

The ad company behind the KFC commercial produced a domestically acceptable advertisement.

Ogilvy & Mather describe the video on their website, ogilvy.co.za, “Everything is unfamiliar – the local food, the language, the culture. But she finds comfort in the familiar taste of KFC, which helps her create friendships.”

Associating black people with fried chicken in a manner free of mal intent is not racist.

Surely, there is a domestic stereotype in place that relates fried chicken to African-American culture. There are also stereotypes in place that tell us Italian-Americans are likely to enjoy a pasta dish or a slice of pizza.

These stereotypes are in place because these foods are historically and culturally attached to the people they originated from.

Last month, a school in Sacramento, Calif., was pushed to apologize for serving fried chicken, corn bread, and watermelon during a commemorative black history lunch, according to CBS Sacramento.

What were they supposed to serve? Shrimp etouffee? Maybe a more colorful Cajun cuisine would have been more accepted. The problem is, Cajun cuisine originated from the French speaking Acadian people deported here by the British.

Soul food, the cultural designation of choice for many African-Americans regarding our cuisine, features fried chicken.

When I return home from long trips to college, I am often greeted by a family gathering around a large dinner of, you guessed it, fried chicken.

Why is it that we as African-Americans respond negatively to other races acknowledging our cultural properties? But, we’re fine with appropriating the dish in question to our culture in movies such as “Soul Food” and “Madea,” or restaurants like Church’s Chicken and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen?

Honestly, the racial stereotypes found in “Soul Food,” such as the Aunt Jemima-esque Mama Joe or the perpetuation of the ghetto-centric loud-mouthed black woman in “Madea” are much more racist than the KFC commercial here. And these are our own creations.

There is plenty of home-brewed racism that can be considered actual cause for concern. Associating fried chicken and black people though, here or abroad, is not one of them.

– Fletcher Bailey is a junior communication major from Seattle. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of Student Publications.