Supermarket apologises for fried chicken slur

Ananova | 13:01 Wednesday 6th February 2002 | UNK

[greydog]

Ananova

Supermarket apologises for fried chicken slur

A Pennsylvania supermarket has apologised for advertising a sale on fried chicken in honour of Black History Month. Giant Food Stores customer Lance Sellers brought the advert to the attention of the manager of the store in Union Deposit east of Harrisburg.

Paula Diane Harris, president of the Greater Harrisburg Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, said the sign reinforces racist stereotypes.

“Not all African-Americans eat fried chicken, greens and chitlins. We like salad, roast beef, low-fat chicken, just like everybody else,” she said.

The sign read: “In honor of Black History Month, we at Giant are offering a special savings on fried chicken.” “I showed it to a few of the other customers ... and they all were stunned,” Mr Sellers said. “When I approached the store manager about the problem he had the nerve to ask me why it offended me so much.”

Giant Food Stores has apologised and said the sign was not meant to be offensive.

“It did happen. It was at that one store only,” said Denny Hopkins, Giant’s vice president of advertising. “We had a customer bring the sign to us and complain and we immediately took it down.”

Giant is sponsoring several programs for Black History Month, including having jazz bands and soul food samples at its Kline Village Plaza and Union Deposit stores, Mr Hopkins said.

Mr Sellers said the sign wouldn’t keep him from shopping at the store. “We laugh about it,” he said. “How could they put something like that out there?”

Story filed: 13:01 Wednesday 6th February 2002

[Cleburne]

Chiken, sounds like (or I should say the spelling looks like) something that you get out a pig! Did you ever eat butterbeans? Squash? Fried green tomatoes? Butterbeans are a staple around my house, and black-eyed peas in season.

[Professional]

Where's the lawsuit? Ain't nobody suin yet?! What the hell is wrong with everybody these days? Sue sue sue.....

[katnip]

Oh heck, let's keep this going.
If they have a sale on Eggs at Easter, I promise I won't be offended.

[katnip]

If they ever have a sale on matzoh at Passover, I promise I'll try not to fall down dead from the shock....

Ah, Waldbaums Supermarkets here in NY always have matzoh on sale at Passover time.

[Calvin Locke]

Took a pricing strategy course when going for my MBA. Jewish holidays are good times to stock up on canned Salmon and spring water.
Particularly in the NYC region. If they happen to appeal to your tastes.

Personally, I associate canned Salmon with Monty Python.

Now some whiner is screwing up sales of desirable items for the rest of us...

[sneakypete]

Well,I can sure see why they were offended. After all,no black anywhere in the known universe has even been known to eat fried chicken. All those people in PopEyes are white people wearing clever disguises.

[rdb3]

Not all African-Americans eat fried chicken, greens and chitlins.

Well, this American black man does eat all of the above. And I don't care who says what about it.

Just pass me the Tobasco with the chitlins and some hot cha-cha with the collards! I know, I know. Chitterlings. But that sounds like it's served on 5th Avenue.

Watermelon is nasty in my book, though. Ick!

[mafree]

Gee I got a Black History Month special last week. It was fried chicken, the restaurant is in a black neigborhood, and I am black. Was I offended? As much as I like fried chicken how could I be? Also, I gladly eat it in public and I don't care who sees me.

The same is true for eating watermelon. Once I was at a beach party, started eating some watermelon along with others and the only other black in our group said to me "Don't you know they all think we eat that?" I said "Yeah, and now they know for sure that I do- so what?"

Whoever would hassle this store over this has too much time on their hands.

[koba]

What upsets me about the store was that they offered discounts on fried chicken but not sweet potato pie and watermelon. Come on people, if you're going to do this discount thing, please do it right...

[prambo]

This thread is freakin' funny!!! If you can't laugh at yourself you're hopeless - sort of like, well, you get it.

rpambo

[Aarchaeus]

He was a walking, talking 'stereotype' and he knew it.

Ain't nothin' wrong with being stereotypical. In fact, it's fun sometimes. I growed up in the hills of Arkansas, and I still have my shoes off every chance I get. It's comfortable. And I can tell you from experience that coon meat is OK, but can't hold a candle to possum. If you can tolerate the greasiness, possum is about the best tasting meat there is.

P.S. I am white. Stereotypical hillbilly.

[monkeyshine]

"At Giant food mart, you can't beat our meat!"

[Dan from Michigan]

I guess I should be insulted when they have green beer, potato, corned beef(not a fan of that stuff), Guinness, and Harp specials on St Paddy's Day....

I'm not insulted. In fact, I love it when Guinness is discounted. It's the only time I can afford it.

[aruanan]

PC is now stronger than marketing. Who woulda thunk it?

Not to say that I don't love fried chicken. Good fried chicken is one of the tastiest things around.

[Colombia59]

This is why the Black Sambo Pancake Houses don't exist anymore, they were politically incorrect. The same will happen to the Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins, and Atlanta Braves.

[suni]

FYI

[montag813]

Fried chicken and watermelon is to Blacks what corned beef and gefilte fish are to Jews and what "macaroni and gravy" and "pasta fazool" are to Italians. What the heck is the big deal?

[katnip]

"If they have a sale on diapers on Ramadan, I promise not to be offended." - Arafat

Ok, I just woke my husband and son up laughing!! Thanks.

[Fraulein]