"More than Just the Big Piece of Chicken"

The first thing that came to mind when reading this piece is the Popeyes chicken commercial that quite often airs here in Georgia but rarely at home in New Orleans. The spokeswoman and main subject of the commercial is a black woman who speaks in traditional black dialect with the slight twang of a cajun accent. She describes the fried chicken as her own recipe spiced with cajun seasoning and fried to perfection. There have been many times watching this commercial that I am taken aback by the fact that such stereotypes (both of blacks and Louisiana) are so publicly used by such a big corporation. After reflecting on this I found it interesting that the reading mentioned blacks confirming and perpetuating such stereotypes as African Americans are, at least in New Orleans, the main customer base for the chain restaurant. The most interesting and informative part of the reading to me had to do with the bartering process involving chicken in the time of slavery. This was new information to me and I found it interesting to learn the association of thievery with this trade and how that perpetuated white supremacy over slaves.