I thought this was old news. The link to the report from Deutsche Welle I’m adding here is dated March 10. But the story hasn’t been widely seen.
In short, a frozen product called “Obama Fingers” has appeared in German freezer cases: just pieces of fried chicken (with curry sauce, yikes). When asked if anyone was aware that a racial, uh, problem arises when you link an African American “brand,” even a presidential one, to a fried-chicken product, the Fingers spokeswoman basically shrugged her shoulders and said, “Warum?”
We Germans don’t pay attention to such things.
Now, it could be that such non-culinary distractions are easy to overlook — if you believe that food doesn’t have meaning. But it does.There’s no such thing as value-neutral food. Food and race, for example, go together like … rice and beans, gefilte fish and horseradish?
“They could have made a full Obama Finger dinner if they added Wassermelone, lol.”
It’s not exactly a secret that blacks have borne the brunt of Aunt Jemima Uncle Ben advertising as well as wildly racist food “humor” for decades and decades — you may know what “alligator bait” is. And that hasn’t been limited to the U.S.: guess what some folks call Cadbury bars (phrase starts with an N).
Nasty fingers will poke everywhere, so it’s smart to poke back.
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Well, it’s bad taste, even though I’m not sure it was meant racially. After all, you have “chicken fingers”, too. People have this idea of a “fingers” dish being some sort of chicken strip. At least Obama HAS fingers, LOL.
I suspect this company would have created the product, even if Obama hadn’t been a black man. I think it’s simply his popularity (not his color) that caused this.
Angela
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Obama symbolizes hope throughout the world. I believe that it was his world wide appeal that generated this idea. My experience, as an African American, with Europeans, generally speaking, is that they do not fully understand the impact of America’s historical context and how it “plays out” in all aspects of American life. I would not impose our American biases/prejudices on Germans. Until we shine the light on our own prejudices and tackle them, who are we to admonish another country for what they do.
I don’t think it is racially motivated either, just a company trying to associate themselves with a good brand.
shoprider sovereign
This is not racial. This is publicity. This is to make the customer’s curious and taste the thing out – which means more business for them.
— Mark
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This post was hilarious! Germany of all places? I really think this whole ordeal was coincidental and not intended to be racist. Why is the black community always associated with chicken?
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