She's WHAT?

Annie the Chicken Queen is a racist symbol.  I heard it from the horse's mouth (if the horse is Craig Brimm, blogger for the Kiss My Black Ads campaign at http://kissmyblackads.blogspot.com/2009/04/popeyes-annie-chicken-queen.html.)


Never let it be said I don't offer equal time.


The first question in the blog..." "Annie the Chicken Queen," she actually calls herself that?"  I think not.  I think the actress calls herself Diedrie Henry...a charming and lovely woman who's been recognized in her own right by nomination for the Ovation Awards for her role in Coming Home at the Fountain, Nov 14, 2011 · Awarded for featured acting role in a play in Ebony Repertory’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” and many others...quite a few for a career imdb.com lists at appearances in 18 guest-spots in TV shows and one movie (Beautiful Boy) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1755731/ .  BET and Ebony have mentioned her contributions to Black Entertainment...and now she's being castigated for an ad in which she's denigrated as "a new Aunt Jemima."  Granted, the Aunt Jemima that inspired the name for a new self-rising pancake mix was a vaudevillian in blackface, but Aunt Jemima as we came to know her was Nancy Green, a woman born a slave who went on to become the worlds first  living trademark for a corporation.  She took the first steps along the road that led to Halle Berry's emotional acceptance speech as the first black woman to receive the Academy Award for Best Actress...but the Chicken Queen has been called the most hurtful title to Blacks since Chicken George (unless one factors in Leroy the Biscuit Boy or Mammy the ho-cake chef.)


How is this role for Popeye's Chicken a bad thing?


It's a bad thing because there are still people actively searching for reasons to find offense where none was intended:  people who do not want resentment between races to end.  People who criticize "Annie" for her "post Gone With The Wind" "gumbo" accent also criticize Dennis Haysbert.for being "too white" in his articulation, both as the President on '24' and in his ads for AllState Insurance.


Go Figure.


Silly?   At least to me.  I wouldn't dream of telling anyone they have no right to be hurt, but does it make sense to go looking for reasons?


My horse doesn't understand it either...but the black in my own ancestry is even less visible than the Native American, and since I was never accepted by any of them (or the Irish or the Scot)...while still not able to check "white" on the forms that still ask...I guess I have no right to any opinions at all, beyond my choice of horseflesh.




Is it racially insensitive of me to prefer paint?