Australians & Racism: Now discussing KFC advert

I am an Aussie chick and we have had serious bad press in regards to me and my fellow country men being racist. ie KFC ad on the T.V. Now I am really concerned that perhaps we are a really racist society. Are people becoming over sensitive or are we really just a pack of bastards.

PS Keep writing fan fiction writers I love it!!!


Editing subject to be a bit more descriptive

 

What? No, we came from behind to smash Pakistan in the test, we don't suck.

Honestly, 2 things.

One, yes, we're racist.

Secondly, the KFC ad wasn't racist, a bunch of culturally insular but arrogantly prescriptive folks in the US got their panties in a bunch because they assume what happens in America happens elsewhere. If they played sports against other countries they might understand the ad better, but it seems they can't see outside their own borders where black people + chicken = racist. I'm sure in America it does, but they're not African-Americans. They're West Indians.

ES

 

Suck what?

 

I saw the ad in question and I would interpret it one of two ways.

* The inference of African Americans eating chicken

* The inference of a foreigner trying to gain acceptance with KFC

For the former I seem to remember a cartoon image of an African American girl eating chicken while there was an advertisement for cultual diversity. Oops! But really this stereotype is really old, and I might simply not have seen it but I cannot recall any complaints about the inference being used in Full Metal Jacket.

For the latter, I think there is a stronger csse for that, but that would have to do with human nature, not racism.

As for Australians sucking, being racist, I think the white Australians, indiginous Australians, are just as racist as anyone else.

And on a side note, a foreigner murdered in India, would that be a race crime like it is claimed the deaths of Indians in Australia is?

 

I feel somehow like we've already talked about this, but I never got how black people eating fried chicken was racist.

But yeah, it's just our media being hyper-sensitive as usual, always looking for controversy to sell. Some people here think that Australia is one of the states, England is a city in Africa, and the Pope is Jewish. True stories. So don't get too upset

 

I wasn't even aware of the inference of a black person eating chicken until the whole furore erupted. standalone's Point #2 would be pretty much what was intended by the ad and what it's audience (ie. Australians) would see it as.

 

I say, down with Australia!















oops. wrong forum.

 

I think the outrage over it is ridiculous. What its basically saying is "well, its a stereotype because its true, so anywhere there's black people, the stereotype must similarly exist" which seems far more racist a stance. If it was being aired in the U.S., yeah, there's at the most generous, questionable judgement in airing it, but to act as though a stereotype of African-Americans would apply to black people in every country is nonsense.

Here's a link to an article that contains the video as well.

 

It was not racist because "blacks like fried chicken" because that is simply Americans exporting their own cultural prejudice onto another culture.

More problematic is the crowd itself. Exactly what was awkward about the situation he was in? Yes yes he was surrounded by West Indies supporters, but how was it in anyway focused on the narrator?

The only reason it was awkward was because they were acting like stereotypes of west indies supporters, which he was apparently embarrassed by... or something? It's a stereotype that, by providence of make all of them black takes on a racial aspect.

Contrast the difference to if he has booed something contrasting the cheers and whathaveyous of the surrounding supporters of the other team, then saved himself by sharing his fried chicken.

It's the difference from focusing on the natural sports rivalries made topical by the West Indies Cricket team and a point about how those windies fans sure are weird eh mate?

 

As farraday suggested, the chicken issue is very much beside the point. The crowd's behavior itself calls on stereotypes. While it's fair to point out that some stereotypes about race are parochial, we should also note that racial theory was founded and propagated most strongly in an age of global empires. There very much are widely known stereotypes about any number of ethnic groups.

 

Well farrie, I don't think that the crowd situation has anything to do with race. It might as well be Lakers vs Suns fans in the US context - see, if you played international sports more often, you'd get it!

It's probably a one day international (ODI) match rather than a test, because tests are played for time and patience rather than for the most number of runs in the shortest time. ODI matches are comprised of an innings for each team of 50 overs or 11 fallen wickets, whichever comes first. I've been to a half-dozen Australia vs (Someone) ODI in my time and yeah, the atmosphere gets tense and competitive. If the team in the first innings established a modest tally, then the game will go one way. If they got a largish tally (>300 runs) then it goes another way. It's not sedate - that's the Eton v Oxford XI or most 5 day test matches.

The way I see the ad is that the tension arises because either a) Australia is thrashing the Windies or b) the Windies are thrashing Australia. Either way this makes the situation awkward because of the lone fan surrounded by other fans lacks support.

Bear in mind that even when Australia was dominating international cricket, the West Indies were one of those teams Australia never took for granted because they've always been consistently good. This is why, i think, there's a lot of annoyance at the cultural ignorance and haughty arrogance of reactions to this in the US. If we'd used the Kiwis, for example, we'd definately have made fun of them for being Kiwis. We're not doing that to the Windies because we highly respect them. "They", being them what get upset-like, got us all wrong. We're a racist nation but not in this instance.

ES

 

What E_S said.

 

Well the KFC ad comes out after the Blackface Jackson 5, which was just all sorts of racist. I suppose it would be similar to if you handed out tacos to a bunch of loud partying Mexicans at a soccer game or something. But considering things like this, the fact that to Americans they look black it magnifies the racism. And the reason it is at least partially racist is because the assumption is that chicken will work differently on them than on a bunch of civilized white people.

Obviously Australia hasn't had to confront racism in the same way America has, and if nobody had ever done a blackface routine before and they just started doing it today, then it probably wouldn't be that big of a deal because it wouldn't carry with it all the history of oppression and steriotypes it does now.

 

It just seemed like a typical good West Indy crowd. Do the critics even watch the cricket and see how fans from the different countrys cheer their side?

 

You're asking if (American) critics watch cricket. Sounds to me like you know about as much about America as I do about cricket.

 

I'm not sure I see how it's presenting that assumption as I don't see where its saying where it won't work on white people. Particularly given how Australia is crawling with KFCs to begin with.

 

Look at the ad again E_S, what is awkward about the situation?

The message of the ad campaign is that KFC calms down awkward situations, yes? So what was awkward? We'll he was a fan surrounded by opposing fans, I suppose that could be considered awkward, even if, as we see there is no interaction. Great, so what changes when we add the chicken? Well he's still surrounded by people he disagrees with, but they're not playing music/dancing anymore. So, in the context of the commercials own logic, the awkward situation that was calmed down was the westies singing and dancing.

Huh? This quite simply transforms the message from sports rivalry to westies sure are weird eh?

If you want to change the point to ending his isolation(see point about lack of interaction) you do so by having him join in the dancing.

In isolation this appears to be less about cricket rivalries and more about kfc socializing people to an expected norm.

Which is really just stupid. Not as stupid as people projecting their own racist beliefs onto third cultures, but pretty stupid.

 

I'd wonder if cricket is really so different a sport that the general sports dynamic of the initial hostility of being surrounded by supporters of the opposing team until you've given them reason to not view you as the enemy doesn't exist at all in cricket as it does in other sports. And I'm figuring, I can't be the only person that, in general situations of potential conflict, ended it with food. Though in my case it was pizza, but I don't think it HAS to be chicken. It's a peace offering.

 

The Enemy?

If you want to show it... show it. Start with a close up of your Australian, have him say "have you ever been in an awkward situation?" and then pull back to all the westies around him glaring at him.

Show me awkward, not "boy these guys are are loud... I know what will quiet them down!"

Calm is one of those words with lots of meanings, and by highlighting the music and dancing in the first part, that's what you're calming down. Not any sense of hostility, which was noticeably absent.

 

I agree Farrie but this is a KFC ad for Australians who eat KFC, not Saatchi's latest Chanel campaign. If your target audience is buying KFC nuanced sophistication isn't required and can be left at the door.

ES

 

I just had KFC for dinner tonight.

I proved you!

...

 

Chav...



ES

 

farraday, have you gone to sporting events? I'm pretty sure that every so often when someone from the visiting team ends up in the section I am for football, even without the glares, with the band down front and the cheers going on pretty much constantly, it's a decently awkward situation for them. Which is why my initial question was tied to if its really going to be that different for cricket compared to other sports where there is that mentality. The rest of my post wasn't really based on the commercial, its based off of the games I go to personally and saying that there being an awkward situation seemed right.

 

The ad is just one in a series.

Other ads feature the Aussie cricket fan getting a better seat by pretending to be a security guard and sitting on the oval on the other side of the barrier and then offering the other (real) security guard a piece of KFC chicken so as to distract him. So I suppose you could argue that KFC, and by extension, all Australians, support fraud and the bribery of cricket officials. In other ad, our Aussie cricket fan notices that his mate is preoccupied with eating his piece of KFC chicken and not watching where the cricket ball is being hit - his mate gets hit with the ball and is rendered unconscious. This is deemed to be a fortunate and somewhat hilarious event by the Aussie cricket fan as he can now eat his mate's piece of chicken. So I suppose you could argue that KFC, and by extension, all Australians, are an uncaring, opportunistic lot, as well as being a bunch of theives.

In yet another ad in the series, our intrepid Aussie cricket fan pretends to be a police officer and confiscate's a scalper's cricket tickets (to be used for his own benefit) - once again, the KFC chicken is used to distract the ticket scalper. Again, clearly KFC, and by extension, all Australins, support illegal and dishonest behaviour, in particular, the illegal impersonation of a police officer to gain a financial benefit, ie, fraud. Failing to report a known ticket scalper to ther authorities is also illegal.

Clearly we are seeing a pattern of behaviour here. I understand the unedited version of the West Indies ad showed our Aussie cricket fan actually pickpocketing the West Indies fans as they delved into the bucket of greasy KFC.

I hear the next ad, although I think KFC may put it on hold now that the Yanks are on the case, depicts our Aussie cricket fan actually performing an armed robbery of the ticket counter at the MCG with a "pistol" which is just a cleverly disguised piece of KFC chicken.

As E_S said, it's just an ad for fried chicken. It probably took 11 minutes to conceptualise and film. Get over it.

 

Of course I've been to sporting events. Can you not tell which team I'm supporting by my awkwardly tilted hat?

And I am aware of the other ads, but lets make it clear here two of them are actual conflicts where chicken makes things better(scalper, seat hopping). Stealing your friends chicken after he's been unfortunately laid low is a bit of slap(crotch) stick humor.

At best in the westies commercial there is implied conflict. We'll okay implied conflict, but the resolution isn't the removal of the source of conflict(being surrounded by opposing supporters) it's getting them to clam down and stop singing/dancing.

There is a thematic divide between the food fixing the conflict, and the Australian fixing the Westies behavior, which this ad is on the wrong side of.

There's a way to do this ad right with very little in the way of changes, instead they settled with westies are weird eh?