Posted on 04/24/2009 6:37:35 PM PDT by janetjanet998
Rachel's Take
I was a little concerned tonight about the Popeye’s story.
Not because I don’t think it was a legitimate story. Customers called our newsroom wanting us to do the story about the chain running out of chicken after promoting a big special. They said the Lake Ave. location had long lines of cars.
When we went to the Lake Ave. Popeye’s, there were indeed long lines of cars. Some people took it in stride. Other people were downright angry. A few people made jokes.
The idea of people up in arms over chicken was pretty funny. I think saying the word “chicken” over and over again was funny, too. Some of the things the customers were saying were hilarious, especially the woman who said the store should have had a trailer out back filled with “chicken on ice.”
What concerned me about the story was the stereotype of black people liking fried chicken. Everyone in our story was black. We interviewed a dozen people. Even though the suburban Penfield location also ran out of chicken, and even though a whole lot of white people also like fried chicken, I was worried some viewers would think we were doing the story because of the stereotype. I was worried we were reinforcing or making fun of the stereotype.
I think the story was a story because it was a consumer issue, customers were upset, and some customers were even laughing. The conflict was just so – human. Would I have felt better about it if we talked to white people, too? Yes. Should we have gone to the Penfield store, too? Maybe. On the other hand, do we ever pause when our stories are filled with only white people? Not often - and that's sad.
I was comfortable with running the story. It accurately reflected what happened on Lake Ave. tonight. When I get upset at a business, I am the first person to express righteous outrage. That said, I wish I hadn’t put the story together at such a late hour, because I would have loved to make a bunch of calls to get more opinions on the stereotype issue.
The video of the story we ran is linked to this blog post. We took it down for a time as our newsroom debated this issue, but you probably need to watch it in order to have an opinion.
I'd really like to hear your thoughts. Be honest. Be thoughtful. Be respectful. Any hate language will be removed. Norma's Take Norma Holland (© 13WHAM-TV) Norma Holland (© 13WHAM-TV) Criticism is often leveled at 13WHAM that we do not feature Black people or other people of color in our stories unless they are criminals. As a person of color myself, I am sensitive to this.
So, you can imagine my thoughts when I saw our report last night about two local Popeye’s running out of chicken and the mayhem that ensued. My gut reaction was that the story--although a legitimate consumer complaint—seemed to reinforce a cultural stereotype about Black people and chicken. I know for a fact that no one on our staff meant for that to be the point of the story, but the fear that we would be accused of this sounded an alarm to me. It’s sad that I even had to worry about this.
The story was what it was: customers, who happened to be Black, expressing anger about a heavily advertised special that ran out. Our job as journalists is not to “whitewash (sorry, no pun intended)” the news. We aren’t here to manufacture, make up, or tamper with what exists so we ran the story. In hindsight, I’m glad we did. Race aside, it is a perfect consumer story…and consumers have a right to be angry.
However, the report sparked a discussion in our newsroom about the way we portray people of color. I have to admit, we tend to overlook the importance of being inclusive in some of our reporting. Gay, Lesbian, Hispanic, Senior, and Physically Disabled people have opinions on any number of topics, yet we tend to only interview them in relation to stories that affect their specific groups. What’s the sense in that?
This conversation is ongoing and I’m so proud that we are able to have it.
LOL!
This is hysterically funny.
"Well, that's interesting," I said. "I feel exactly the same way about white bread and mayonnaise!" I thought the guy was going to die laughing.
I'm surprised they didn't call 911.
I agree with the outraged customers! Popeye’s is some of the best chicken you can buy at a drive thru. When they advertise a special like that one (eight pieces for $4.99) they have to know it will be a best seller! BTW, Zaxby’s has excellent fried chicken, too!
Churchs has the best tasting chicken. I call it Holy Bird.
Church’s! I haven’t had any of theirs in decades, but you’re right, they have excellent fried chicken ... and their biscuits used to be the finest!
The format is not the greatest, but here are the lyrics for White and Nerdy by Weird Al and the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw
"White & Nerdy" They see me mowin' My front lawn I know they're all thinking I'm so White N' nerdy
Think I'm just too white n' nerdy Think I'm just too white n' nerdy Can't you see I'm white n' nerdy Look at me I'm white n' nerdy! I wanna roll with- The gangsters But so far they all think I'm too white n' nerdy Think I'm just too white n' nerdy Think I'm just too white n' nerdy I'm just too white n' nerdy Really, really white n' nerdy
First in my class here at M.I.T. Got skills, I'm a Champion of DND MC Escher that's my favorite MC Keep your 40 I'll just have an Earl Grey tea My rims never spin to the contrary You'll find they're quite stationary All of my action figures are cherry Steven Hawkings in my library My MySpace page is all totally pimped out I got people begging for my top 8 spaces Yo I know Pi to a thousand places Ain't got no grills but I still wear braces
I order all of my sandwiches with mayonnaise I'm a whiz at minesweeper I can play for days Once you see my sweet moves you're gonna stay amazed, my fingers movin' so fast I'll set the place ablaze There's no killer app I haven't run At Pascal, well, I'm number 1 Do vector calculus just for fun I ain't got a gat but I gotta soldering gun Happy days is my favourite theme song I can sure kick your butt in a game of ping pong I'll ace any trivia quiz you bring on I'm fluent in Java Script as well as Klingon Here's the part I sing on
They see me roll on, my Segway! I know in my heart they think I'm white n' nerdy! Think I'm just too white n' nerdy Think I'm just too white n' nerdy Can't you see I'm white n' nerdy Look at me I'm white n' nerdy I'd like to roll with- The gangsters Although it's apparent I'm too White n' nerdy Think I'm just too white n' nerdy I'm just too white n' nerdy How'd I get so white n' nerdy?
I've been browsing, inspectin' X-men comics you know I collect 'em The pens in my pocket I must protect 'em my ergonomic keyboard never leaves me bored Shopping online for deals on some writable media I edit Wikipedia I memorized Holy Grail really well I can recite it right now and have you ROTFLOL I got a business doing websites When my friends need some code who do they call? I do HTML for them all Even made a homepage for my dog! Yo! Got myself a fanny pack they were having a sale down at the GAP Spend my nights with a roll of bubble wrap POP POP! Hope no one sees me gettin' freaky!
I'm nerdy in the extreme and whiter than sour creme I was in AV club and Glee club and even the chess team! Only question I ever thought was hard Was do I like Kirk or do I like Picard? I spend every weekend at the renaissance fair I got my name on my under wear!
They see me strollin' They laughin' And rollin' their eyes 'cause I'm so white n' nerdy Just because I'm white n' nerdy Just because I'm white n' nerdy All because I'm white n' nerdy Holy cow I'm white n' nerdy I wanna bowl with- the gangsters but oh well it's obvious I'm white n' nerdy Think I'm just too white n' nerdy Think I'm just too white n' nerdy I'm just too white n' nerdy Look at me I'm white n' nerdy!
Bush’s is a local chain here. Beats Popeye’s and Churches by a mile. The best burgers in Waco are at Zeb’s in China Spring and the one in Hewitt.
Don’t forget the fried okra in a french fry bag.
He’s really going to hate the Walley’s Watermelon story.
Hard to beat Popeye’s Spicy! Hard to put up with the attitude at Popeye’s.
Anyone ever see anyone working at Popeye’s who wasn’t of African decent? How is it a black owned business can only hire folks of color? Course the chicken may not be as tasty if some honky was cooking.
More like "Unholy Bird". At last report, Church's was owned by an Islamic investment bank. There was a thread here about it some months ago.
The only Popeyes I ever visited was in El Paso, Tx. Everyone in there was Hispanic.
excerpt:
A Baltimore couple has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Islamic investment bank that owns the Church's Chicken fast-food chain, alleging their franchise failed because the bank's strict adherence to the religious code of Shari'a prohibited the couple from selling pork.
http://www.islamist-watch.org/blog/2008/04/churchs-chicken-an-example-of-islam-in-the.html
Haartz has an excellent buffet at lunch abd their rolls are wonderful. They are so good they take orders for them at Thanksgiving; and they sell a ton of them.
As I said; they fry up some damn tasty chicken.
LOL!! Handwringing liberal scumbags like “Rachel” crack me up!
Charles, u beat me by a couple of minutes.
sigh
if only i hadn't added that last sentence
And at Zaxby’s you can get cherry fanta and mushrooms, too!
Same nonsense the politically correct have been playing for years.
I had no idea that there was a special Wednesday night when I drove cross-town to order some. There was a line going back out into the street where we were. I didn’t know what was going on until one of the women in line behind me commented that there was a special of 8 pieces for $4.99.
Well, I looked everywhere for a sign announcing the special and there wasn’t one. I didn’t doubt the special but I just thought it odd they had no signage about it if it was such a big promotion.
I’d say about 80% of the customers I saw were black (a few Hispanics). I and one white woman looking as clueless as I were the only white faces in the place.
They were not out of chicken like this one in Rochester but they announced just before I got to the front of the line that they had run out of white meat. I told the man I’d come back another day.
What I found amusing is this apparently black reporter upset that all the people she interviewed were black, reinforcing a stereotype that black people like fried chicken. What is so offensive about liking fried chicken? I’m white and I like it. Does that make me stereotypically black? For the record, I also like watermelon. Does this mean I have slave blood?
The customers are just acting like any customers when told that a business is out of whatever they came to buy. It’s bad PR to run out but when you run out, what else can you do? Maybe have someone there passing out coupons as a rain check?
The news reporter did her job well and she shouldn’t be so introspective about who was interviewed - unless she singled out only black customers to interview.
White guilt on parade. What's the sense of interviewing people either directly involved in or directly affected by a NEWS story?
Let's go ask the Dallas Cowboys about those times when they feel... not so fresh or ask the folks at the local synagogue which is the tastiest holiday ham. I know let's go ask the guy living under the local bridge who he thinks the Patriots should draft tomorrow and if $34million in guaranteed money is too much in today's economy.
If you're doing a story about a chicken place running out of chicken, ask the folks involved in the story what they think about it, if they happen to be black, so what? Do the story and let the details fall where they may.
The article didn't mention a special or that they'd run out, so I guess the guy was just a malcontent.
I love both Popeyes & Churches for take out... However, tonight I just tried the grilled KFC, and it was pretty good too. I don't particularly care for KFC's fried chicken. While I like the taste, it's just too greasy for me.
For a "real" chicken dinner, there was only once place though... The "Original" Stroud's in Kansas City, recently reopened in Westwood, KS, but it's just not quite as good as it was.
Mark
Hey, a Washington guy. What’s it like around the Vancouver area up there? Good place to live?
Yup, yup, yup ~ gotta' know the language.
But, back to the story ~ whatever it was, there are black people who love buying chicken at Popeyes because its a black-owned company. There are white people who love buying chicken there because the chicken is good. There are Asian-Americans who like to buy chicken at Popeye's franchises operated by Thai people because Popeye's lets its franchisees "adjust" the method to accommodate taste. Then there are the African owned and operated Popeye's franchises, and if you don't have one of those in your town you are really missing something.
We have a local grocery in Kingsport, TN which makes ‘broasted Chicken’. It is fabulous. The key is to only put the chiken into very hot grease and to pressure cook it just the right amount of time and get it out of the grease without reducing the grease temp and never cook anything else but chicken in that grease.
Church’s Chicken is 100% owned by Arcapita Bank B.S.C., formerly Islamic Investment Bank of Bahrain. Every business decision made by the company must first be approved by a four-member Shari’a panel. This is why Church’s sells only foods that are halal (the Islamic equivalent of kosher).
Church's is now owned by Islamists who refuse to allow pork products to be sold.
Church's Chicken: An Example Of Islam In The Private Sector
I'll never go to another Church's Chicken joint!!!
Shouldn’t it be called Mosques?
Vancouver, WA is a great place to live and housing has become much more affordable. Prices down 25-35$ from the highs a couple of years ago; but I am now living in Baytown, TX.
What the hell is it with Democrats and their obsession with race? And anyway, the history of fried chicken and African-Americans is a long history, featuring ingenuity and perseverance. Did you know that many blacks in the South brought along fried chicken with them in shoe boxes and lunch boxes because no restaurants wanted to serve blacks in the South and they were forced to eat on the go?
I’m laughing right now!
As I said; they fry up some damn tasty chicken.
My brother who lives in Waco took me and my wife and in-laws to some downtown restaurant where I had one of the best burgers I've ever eaten. Sorry, can't remember the name.
I first sampled Popeye’s chicken in New Orleans back in the seventies. It was way too spicy. I think the staff was of mixed ethnicity.
I’ve never understood the stereotype of aframs and fried chicken. Every white person I know, like yours truly, loves fried chicken. And watermelon.
I got to the front of the line that they had run out of white meat. I told the man I’d come back another day.
Could I make a comment about how I prefer dark meat without Bevis and Butthead snickering?
I love the chicken. Hate the watermelon.
I was a boy scout many years ago. When our scout troop would go on overnights in the country, whenever we passed a farm field with watermelons, one of the troop leaders would jump out of a car and grab one. Of course I strongly disapproved of them doing such an un-scout like deed, he said as he spat out the watermelon seeds.
Then I'll go twice as often.
Nothing tickles a kid more than catching an adult being a hypocrite.
I was duck hunting with my dad once on a warm blue bird say. Not ducks flying. A tweety bird flew past and I shot at it. My dad gave me the lecture; Son, never shoot at anything you aren’t going to eat. Bout an hour later a crow flew past. Being an old farm boy my dad shot at it. I said Dad? You gonna eat that crow?
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