# Stereotypes about black people **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 19, 2011, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808 "2011-09-19T10:10:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/61 "2011-09-20T02:15:56Z")
What I don’t understand is why people are constantly hung up on black people? I don’t mean to sound all indignant and stuff, but really. Black folk just aren’t that interesting. Even though the OP said he didn’t actually want to hear this, I am black and I don’t like watermelon. In fact, I hate all melons. I love fried chicken (doesn’t everyone?) but grape soda takes back seat to Coke or Sprite. I mean, if the choice is between grape soda and water, I’ll take grape. But I’m not a fan. What I want to know is why white people don’t like macaroni and cheese as much as black people do. It is an abomination to see a festive dinner table missing a casserole dish of baked macaroni and cheese. An abomination, I say! If I go over to your house and all I see is mashed potatoes and green bean casserole, I’m gonna knock the table over and act like Kayne West. OH, HELL NAW!!! ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/62 "2011-09-20T03:06:35Z")
I think the racist association is not so much that black people like watermelon and chicken so much as they _go nuts_ for them (according to despicable racist stereotype). Also, wasn’t it part of the whole minstrel blackface schtick that a black man would be caught trying to steal melons from the melon patch or chickens from the roost? (“Ain’t nobody here but us chickens!”) I get this impression from watching Spike Lee’s [Bamboozled](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0215545/), which is pretty distressing and humbling for a purported comedy. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/63 "2011-09-20T17:44:26Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Most of the stereotypes that have developed in the twentieth century about American blacks came from interactions with whites in northern and western American cities when there first developed large neighborhoods in them consisting of mostly blacks. This is why the stereotypes developed about blacks eating things like fried chicken. Previously such food had been mostly confined to the South, but they weren’t black food so much as foods of rural poverty. In a sense, the blacks who moved to northern and western cities during the twentieth century were immigrants. They were immigrants from the South. > [@CheeseDonkey](#): > > I don’t disagree there, I’ve always said myself I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like fried chicken. Mmmmmm. > > I just wonder why it was black people who were stuck with that stereotype and no people in general. Anecdotally, living in a post WWII industrial Auto city, I can see the truth in that. But it wasn’t so much, _fried_ chicken, perse. More than a few times, picknicking at parks and beaches I have noticed black family Reunions and Summer get-togethers where they are using the park grills to BBQ chicken and Ribs- Good old fashioned Southern BBQ. While invariably, the white folks would be grilling hamburgers and hot dogs, that is not to say I haven’t seen black folks grilling the same, but I have sometimes looked over or smelled what they are cookin’ and felt a bit of BBQ envy as I eat my hamburger or hot dog. At my West Virginian family Reunions there is almost always Fried Chicken… Hell, at One of the get togethers in the hills of WV, the reunion was essentially “catered” by KFC. But yea, black folks might have the chicken stereotype, but don’t white folks have an equally true stereotype of being hamburger and wiener gobblers? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/64 "2011-09-20T17:45:31Z")
I knew a black guy who refused to eat fried chicken ever just because of the stereotype. He did eat hotwings, though. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/65 "2011-09-20T17:56:35Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > What I want to know is why white people don’t like macaroni and cheese as much as black people do. It is an abomination to see a festive dinner table missing a casserole dish of baked macaroni and cheese. An abomination, I say! If I go over to your house and all I see is mashed potatoes and green bean casserole, I’m gonna knock the table over and act like Kayne West. > > OH, HELL NAW!!! I’m with you 100% on this one. And to add to it, I get similarly outraged when I find a so-called “BBQ restaurant” that doesn’t serve peach cobbler. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/66 "2011-09-20T18:34:56Z")
> [@CheeseDonkey](#): > > I don’t disagree there, I’ve always said myself I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like fried chicken. Mmmmmm. You don’t know any vegetarians? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/67 "2011-09-20T18:36:48Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > You don’t know any vegetarians? One can be a vegetarian for ethical or health reasons without having a dislike for meat. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/68 "2011-09-20T19:08:24Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > One can be a vegetarian for ethical or health reasons without having a dislike for meat. Like Hitler. \ ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/69 "2011-09-20T19:12:56Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Like Hitler. > > \ It’s traditional for me to threaten you with an act of horrifying violence for such a remark, but I don’t feel like it today. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/70 "2011-09-20T19:16:18Z")
Growing up Okie, I’d apparently heard of these stereotypes (I remember being aware of them as a kid), but they never really made sense to me because everyone I knew loved fried chicken and watermelon, and all the kids drank Nehi. Oklahoma isn’t Deep South, but we kept a lot of the food traditions. (Dinner last night: fried ham with red-eye gravy, fried okra, fried potatoes, black-eyed peas, biscuits. It was going to be fried chicken, but time was short and ham is a lot easier & faster. My arteries are grateful that we don’t eat like that every night. :p) I also remember hearing about “soul food” and soul food restaurants, which they seemed to only have in the northeast. I kept thinking that one day I was going to get up that way and try out this wonderful cuisine that I’d never seen. I was TREMENDOUSLY disappointed a few years back to discover that “soul food” was the same stuff I’d been eating my whole life, just transplanted up north. I think previous posters have the explanation. These “black foods” are actually Southern foods, which became “black” when a large population of Southern blacks moved north en masse, to locations where those foods were strange and different. Then the stereotypes were picked up and spread via minstrel shows and vaudeville. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/71 "2011-09-20T19:28:49Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I knew a black guy who refused to eat fried chicken ever just because of the stereotype. He did eat hotwings, though. Dave Chappelle took this on in the skit “[In flight meal](http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=71772&title=pixie-stereotypes-in-flight-meal)” (NSFW language) where he is on a plane, presented with the choice of either fried chicken or fish. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/72 "2011-09-20T22:13:44Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > I think the racist association is not so much that black people like watermelon and chicken so much as they _go nuts_ for them (according to despicable racist stereotype). Also, wasn’t it part of the whole minstrel blackface schtick that a black man would be caught trying to steal melons from the melon patch or chickens from the roost? (“Ain’t nobody here but us chickens!”) > [@devilsknew](#): > > But yea, black folks might have the chicken stereotype, but don’t white folks have an equally true stereotype of being hamburger and wiener gobblers? Point in case, [Wimpy](http://www.google.com/imgres?q=wimpy&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1024&bih=578&tbm=isch&tbnid=JMYZvA8sIBYTQM:&imgrefurl=http://www.theawl.com/2010/01/guest-op-ed-do-you-think-wimpy-was-just-asking-for-any-kind-of-hamburger&docid=exzgyOp-GpZqPM&w=300&h=300&ei=kg55Tu3BGMPfqgHK9K3EDw&zoom=1) (“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”). Which is _really_ more racist, Amos and Andy depictions or J. Wellington (freeloader, ne’er do well) Wimpy? He also seemed to instigate fights and play the horses… ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/73 "2011-09-20T22:54:56Z")
I am surprised someone claims to only be able to find mountain dew in black neighborhoods. It has always been stereotyped as middle class or above white “dude” beverage, their marketing is usually “X-TREME!” etc that seems very aimed at white folks. Nothing wrong with that at all. It has always been my experience that mountain dew was the white version of purple drank, actually… ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/74 "2011-09-20T23:05:52Z")
Not in the 70s. Mountain dew was usually not available in the north, it was a regional drink available in the south. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/75 "2011-09-20T23:11:02Z")
White stereotypes don’t matter because they have no social power. Stereotypes about minorities however have played an important role in the system to systematically demean minorities and kern them socially, economically, and politically disadvntaged. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/76 "2011-09-20T23:21:07Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Not in the 70s. Mountain dew was usually not available in the north, it was a regional drink available in the south. Didn’t know that, but it’s not surprising. The same brand can try different strategies in different regions. For example in the Philippines Pizza Hut is an expensive, sit-down dining experience with white table cloths and a front desk host. ---
**Author:** ![CheeseDonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@CheeseDonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheeseDonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/77 "2011-09-20T23:29:11Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > You don’t know any vegetarians? I don’t consider vegetarians “people.” ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/78 "2011-09-21T00:36:59Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Point in case, [Wimpy](http://www.google.com/imgres?q=wimpy&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1024&bih=578&tbm=isch&tbnid=JMYZvA8sIBYTQM:&imgrefurl=http://www.theawl.com/2010/01/guest-op-ed-do-you-think-wimpy-was-just-asking-for-any-kind-of-hamburger&docid=exzgyOp-GpZqPM&w=300&h=300&ei=kg55Tu3BGMPfqgHK9K3EDw&zoom=1) (“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”). Which is _really_ more racist, Amos and Andy depictions or J. Wellington (freeloader, ne’er do well) Wimpy? He also seemed to instigate fights and play the horses… > [@Acsenray](#): > > White stereotypes don’t matter because they have no social power. Stereotypes about minorities however have played an important role in the system to systematically demean minorities and kern them socially, economically, and politically disadvntaged. I don’t know if you were commenting on the Amos and Andy,and Wimpy, and minstrel/vaudevillian thing. But, IMHO, and on the contrary, I believe the comic or comedy context of these stereotypes actually helped level the playing field between blacks and whites and were actually a positive influence in the History of American Racial Dynamics and sufferage. The comics/comedy actually helped people see each other in the light of humanity and laughs. Comedy is the great leveler, brings everyone down to the same level and bonds people for differences, in spite of them. There’s gotta be a Wimpy’s Hamburger and Popeye’s Fried Chicken Joke in here somewhere, but damn if I can see it. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/79 "2011-09-21T01:29:21Z")
redtail23 writes: \> These “black foods” are actually Southern foods, which became “black” when a \> large population of Southern blacks moved north en masse, to locations where \> those foods were strange and different. Then the stereotypes were picked up \> and spread via minstrel shows and vaudeville. Well, not exactly. The movement of blacks to the northern (and western) U.S. happened in the mid-twentieth century, far too late for minstrel shows and vaudeville. The stereotyping of blacks in minstrel shows was considerably more vicious than merely claiming that they ate different food. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypes-about-black-people/596808/80 "2011-09-21T03:06:12Z")
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