With a click of 13 letters, two space bars and the return key, anyone with youtube.com access can witness what could be considered one of the biggest displays of “coonery.”
Anyone with access to the Internet can easily find the “Fry Dat Chicken” video, among many others by the same person.
The video shows a slightly obese black man grasping a whole, raw chicken and wearing two women’s wigs, blue stretch pants and a Georgia peach shirt.
Ms. Peachez, as he is affectionately known, and numerous children parade around a wooded area as they sing about how everyone wants a piece of his (or her) fried chicken.
What appears to be a grown man’s attempt to have a good time turns into a video that possibly sets black people back about 75 years.
Search for “Fry Dat Chicken” on facebook.com and you will see one group, among many others of the same nature, with about 43 white members. And the group’s display picture is a Sambo-like caricature with the words “Coon-Chicken Inn” inscribed in its teeth.
While blacks are justified in being upset at the group, is it right to place all our anger on the white people in that Facebook group?
Shouldn’t we be upset at Peachez and his (or her) camp for perpetuating the stereotypes many black people have tried so hard to ditch?
Maybe we need to be angry with other blacks who further perpetuate black stereotypes (e.g. Flava Flav, Maceo, Pretty Ricky).
Or maybe we should be mad at the blacks in the Facebook group, located directly above the aformentioned, “Dem Folks Who Luv Chicken, Ribs and Fish!!”
Brandon D. Oliver for the Editorial Board.