The fried chicken stereotype is an anti-African American racist trope that has its roots in the American Civil War and traditional slave foods.
The popularity of fried chicken in the Southern United States and its portrayal in films like The Birth of a Nation contributed to the development of this stereotype. Restaurants such as Sambo's and Coon Chicken Inn further commercialized the stereotype through their mascots. Though fried chicken is now also celebrated as soul food, its association with African American culture is sometimes considered a sensitive issue.
Public figures like Tiger Woods have been targeted with fried chicken-related remarks, and organizations have been criticized for serving it during Black History Month or making racially insensitive references.
Since the American Civil War, traditional slave foods like fried chicken, watermelon, and chitterlings have suffered a strong association with stereotypes of African Americans and blackface minstrelsy.[1] The reasons for this are various. Chicken dishes were popular among enslaved people before the American Civil War, as chickens were generally the only animals enslaved people were allowed to raise on their own.[2] Race and folklore professor Claire Schmidt attributes the stereotype both to the popularity of fried chicken in the cuisine of the Southern United States and to a scene from the film The Birth of a Nation in which a rowdy African American man is seen eating fried chicken in a legislative hall.[3] The stereotype was commercialized for the first half of the 20th century by restaurants like Sambo's and Coon Chicken Inn, which selected exaggerated depictions of Black people as mascots, implying quality by their association with the stereotype. Although also being acknowledged positively as "soul food" today, the affinity that African American culture has for fried chicken has been considered by some to be a delicate, often pejorative issue.
On two occasions, the golfer Tiger Woods has been the target of remarks regarding fried chicken.[4] The first occurred in 1997 when golfer Fuzzy Zoeller said that Woods should avoid choosing fried chicken and collard greens for the Masters Tournament Champions' Dinner the following year;[5] the second when golfer Sergio García was asked in a press conference in 2013 whether he would invite Woods to dinner during the U.S. Open to settle their ongoing feud. García, a Spaniard who was unaware of the existence of the stereotype in American culture, committed a gaffe, saying: "We will have him round every night ... We will serve fried chicken", which Woods said was "wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate". Both Zoeller and García subsequently apologized to Woods in each case.
Various groups and organizations have been criticized for serving fried chicken during Black History Month,[6] [7] making references to "Obama Fried Chicken"[8] [9] and other racial stereotypes associated with the food.[10]