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Popeyes Sandwich Strikes a Chord for African-Americans
NY Times ^ | November 5, 2019 | John Eligon

Posted on 11/07/2019 6:36:38 AM PST by rightwingintelligentsia

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The videos of mind-numbing first bites and long lines, the celebratory memes and fawning reviews: The return of the Popeyes chicken sandwich on Sunday has met with the same social-media frenzy that first greeted it last summer.

But embedded in many of the catchy memes and witty messages is not just an affection for spicy seasoning and crisp breading. There’s also a sentiment that Popeyes has struck a special chord for African-Americans and anybody who grew up eating black soul food — specifically, that its celebrated sandwich tastes like something that could have come from a black home kitchen.

One Twitter user, @RocBoy_Mel, wrote Sunday that he did not know whose “grandma” made the sandwiches, “but I finally got my hands on one today and I was very impressed.”

Reactions like that are no accident: Popeyes has aggressively marketed itself to African-Americans, and many of its restaurants are in black communities.

In a Facebook post in August, Nadiyah Ali, a nurse from Katy, Texas, compared the sandwich to a rival’s: Chick-fil-A’s version, she wrote, tasted as if it were made “by a white woman named Sarah who grew up around black people.” The Popeyes sandwich, she added, tasted “like it was cooked by an older black lady named Lucille.”

Black people were saying they liked the chicken not just for its taste, but also for the feelings of home cooking it evoked. It was the type of chicken they could take to a family potluck and not get a side-eye.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Food
KEYWORDS: blacks; cfa; chicken; popeyes; sandwich
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
Marketed to African Americans? Who knew?

Image result for love that chicken from popeyes gif

41 posted on 11/07/2019 7:34:41 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

I hate to break this to all the cultural appropriation folks, but fried chicken actually came to the US with scottish immigrants, not africans.. though African slaves working in kitchens did put their own twist on the food later.

I grew up in the south and love fried chicken, and will admit have not had this particular sandwich.... but I am not a fan of Popeyes fried chicken at all...

One thing is abundantly true... Yankee’s have no clue (regardless of race) on how to make good fried chicken.


42 posted on 11/07/2019 7:41:24 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: I want the USA back

After covering six states as a general-assignment reporter, his beat took on more focus with the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson. Eligon heavily covered the shooting, which he called “a very big moment for black America.” The incident and its ugly aftermath prompted The Times to make him a national correspondent covering issues of race and class.

https://www.schoolnewsnetwork.org/2017/01/26/high-school-reporter-national-correspondent/


43 posted on 11/07/2019 7:42:25 AM PST by MarvinStinson
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To: al_c

Fried chicken was the Sunday dinner staple when I was a kid
back in the 40s. Most every country family had the same.


44 posted on 11/07/2019 7:47:07 AM PST by deport
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

I prefer waffles with my fried chicken, just sayin...


45 posted on 11/07/2019 7:47:32 AM PST by mac_truck (aide toi et dieu t'aidera)
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46 posted on 11/07/2019 7:50:07 AM PST by deport
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To: Rio

Ha!
You got it,
“What you talkn’
‘Bout, Willis?”


47 posted on 11/07/2019 7:51:34 AM PST by Big Red Badger (Despised by the Despicable!)
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To: Hojczyk

We are looking at the space coast to move very soon. Colorado is a lost cause.


48 posted on 11/07/2019 7:53:54 AM PST by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Are!)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

My wife and I are longtime fans of Popeye chicken. We joke that our home town doesn’t have a Popeyes.

That is bad news in that we have to drive 30+ minutes to find a Popeyes. The good news is we have to drive 30+ minutes to eat at a Popeyes. We might weigh 300 #’s if they have one locally. We can drive by a KFC fifty times in a week and never be tempted to stop.

So we were in a town yesterday with a Popeyes and decided to try our luck.

The drive in window lane extended into the strip mall parking lot for over a 100 yards.

We decided to try the restaurant. We found a parking place and went into the restaurant.

There was a line of about 20 customers. About 50% African American, 25% Hispanic, the rest were Asians and snow flakes like my wife. 3-6% of my DNA is African. So, I was that mixed and hidden group.

Everyone was polite and many were joking. No hostilities just polite people waiting to place an order and the tables were full.

We waited about 20 minutes for me to pick up our order. The young woman with our order told me that they were out of Cole slaw and biscuits. So they added an extra Chicken sandwich in place. She said if I said no, they would have to throw away the extra sandwich which might cause a riot. I said that was fine. We shared the extra chicken sandwich for our dinner that night.

We sat by a couple from our home city, and the 4 of us enjoyed our chicken sandwiches and discussions about our home city.

When we left and went to our car, the drive in line was blocking me from backing up. A good size African America, whom, we had talked. Asked a driver to hold up until we could back up. That driver did.

No food riots, race riots or any bad events, just good food. A lot of people took pics and videos of what was happening and the sandwiches.

Before we left the parking lot, my wife put the extra sandwich in the car trunk, to eliminate temptation. It made great leftover dinner

It took about 15 minutes to place our order, and my wife was offered a small table with two seats.


49 posted on 11/07/2019 8:01:20 AM PST by Grampa Dave (If we have a civil warT, the winners will be our enemies: Iran, China, Mexico, & Deep State)
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To: SIDENET

That’s why the gubment mails or electronically transfers benefits.


50 posted on 11/07/2019 8:06:01 AM PST by gundog ( Hail to the Chief, bitches!)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

I live in a really backward part of the country, the Knoxville, TN area and eat at Chick Fil A many times. Never been an incident like that even though the lines are huge. We jus ain’t woke around here.


51 posted on 11/07/2019 8:06:51 AM PST by libstripper (a bit,)
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To: americas.best.days...

Black is good. White is bad.


52 posted on 11/07/2019 8:06:57 AM PST by gcparent (Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
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To: ifinnegan

Only if Lucille used a lot of MSG and hydrogenated oils


53 posted on 11/07/2019 8:17:17 AM PST by kaktuskid
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

I don’t care for Popeye’s chicken...I remember my mother’s fried chicken tho and wish I could get my lips on some of that...And some good watermelon...Haven’t had any watermelon that tastes like real watermelon in years...


54 posted on 11/07/2019 8:17:31 AM PST by Iscool
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To: HamiltonJay
One thing is abundantly true... Yankee’s have no clue (regardless of race) on how to make good fried chicken.

Dang right!

55 posted on 11/07/2019 9:07:58 AM PST by al_c (Democrats: Party over Common Sense)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Another aspect to this story that people seem to be missing is just how bad at logistics is this food chain to keep screwing this thing up so bad so often so thoroughly?


56 posted on 11/07/2019 9:10:40 AM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Tastes like it was cooked by a Fat White Woman Politician who carries Hot Sauce in her Purse and speaks Ghetto Black when making Speeches in Black Churches.


57 posted on 11/07/2019 9:11:34 AM PST by Kickass Conservative (Democracy, two Wolves and one Sheep deciding what's for Dinner.)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Too bad Ralphie May died.

He would have had a great routine about this I’m sure.


58 posted on 11/07/2019 9:22:47 AM PST by Kickass Conservative (Democracy, two Wolves and one Sheep deciding what's for Dinner.)
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To: OrangeHoof

> ... because it is spicy, which apparently is attractive to blacks and there’s no shame in that.

That’s why Hillary “always” has hot sauce in her purse.


59 posted on 11/07/2019 1:04:00 PM PST by Do_Tar (Do I really need a /joke?)
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To: Grampa Dave

That sounds like America might be a decent place. Must be fake news.
< /sarc>


60 posted on 11/07/2019 5:01:50 PM PST by Gil4 (And the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, ax and saw)
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