Can I Eat Fried Chicken?

As we finished up Adventures of Huckleberry Finn this week, we touched on one last issue involving the portrayal of African Americans.  We discussed how they appear in the media, and how those appearances shape our opinions of African Americans today.  I said how they are portrayed to be users of vulgar language, due to rap songs and press conferences with African American  athletes, where there are almost always words that are censored.  Anyways, The channel that I watch the most in my free time is ESPN.  Since so many professional athletes are African American, and there are also many commercials involving African American actors, I am constantly seeing the media's portrayal of them.  In the commercials, it is very evenly balanced.  Both black and white people are shown doing stupid things in beer commercial, both black and white people are shown buying and driving cars, and both black and white people are shown evenly in almost every type of commercial.  The one red flag that I found though, is fast food.

It is a common stereotype: African Americans love fried chicken.  Even though a large portion of African Americans may enjoy fried chicken, it is still rude to group them all together, and make it seem like there is not a single African American who doesn't like fried chicken.  I thought that the commercials on ESPN would try to be more balanced, showing both whites and blacks enjoying fried chicken.  In McDonalds commercials, Taco Bell commercials, and Burger King commercials, there are both blacks and whites.  Yet, I still remember a certain Popeyes add that made me cringe.  I could not find this specific add on YouTube, but I found plenty of others that showed only African Americans eating their fried chicken.  Personally, I love fried chicken, and would eat it all the time it it weren't so unhealthy.  Yet it seems like in our society, fried chicken is viewed as an African American's food, which is an unacceptable stereotype.