Sunday, September 26, 2010

Chicken Wings, Black-on-Black Crime and Freedom Rides: Finger Lickin' Good in BRA!!

It is a well-known fact that chicken is the number one choice of meat in the Black community. Fried, baked, grilled, crispy, preferably free, with or without bones, in a bucket, in the form of a nugget, stolen by Precious, purchased while hurdling dying people at the Chicken Hut or worse, sold-out because Popeye's and KFC were in a )rut, Black people can go only so many meals without a supplement of chicken.

This past weekend saw chicken wings (no one ran out of them) provide two instances of unnecessary drama and hurt feelings, though in both cases the offending party were merely placating a certain demographic with a public acknowledgment of their love for soul food.

One of the cases involving offensive chicken wing usage was the inappropriate naming of a certain variety of wing - the Black on Black crime wing flavor:
What's in a name? At Big Shot Bob's House of Wings in Avalon, apparently it's everything. Channel 11 News featured the restaurant in the Pittsburgh “Best Wing” contest, but it’s a name of one of the flavors that caught the attention of many WPXI viewers and Facebook followers.

"If I had any idea this would happen, it wouldn't have gotten on our menu," said Big Shot Bob's owner Matt Cercone. "We've been getting threatening phone calls here, and there are people saying we're going to go out of business."Big Shot Bob's is more popularly known for its 100 different flavors of wings, but it was the "black on black crime" wing flavor that generated the negative publicity.Channel 11 first learned about the controversy through our WPXI-TV Facebook page. A viewer wrote, "How about this for a story. There's a place called Big Shot Bob's house of wings and they have a featured wing called black on black crime.

"Cercone said after he started receiving complaints about the wings name, he changed it. Cercone said he meant no harm and that the wing's inventor, a loyal customer who happens to be African-American, came up with the name."Offense was never part of anything," said Cercone.

Big Shot Bob's changed the name of the wings to "Big Fine Woman 2000." Cercone said they allowed the woman who first brought the controversy to light to name them.
So a Black person named the wing in the first place after a problem that plagues the Black community quite frequently. Black on Black crime is not a mild problem; it is not even a medium problem. Calling it a hot problem would be a crime, so one can surmise that the Black on Black crime flavored wing was most certainly nuclear hot flavored.

If not, this story out of Shreveport fits that description perfectly. A white mayoral candidate in that Black city had the misfortune of promoting a campaign appearance that included free chicken and limo rides to the polls. Rumors that the wings were named Black on Black crime have yet to be confirmed:

Two Shreveport mayoral candidates say a fellow contender's flyer offering free chicken and limo rides to the polls is patently offensive and racist.
At issue is a "Freedom Rally" event purportedly sponsored by mayoral candidate Bryan Wooley. The rally, which appears to have happened on Wednesday and Thursday, featured free chicken and limo rides to early voting polls to residents of Shreveport's Cooper Road area also known at the Martin Luther King neighborhood.
Copies of a flyer advertising the event were posted on Facebook and have generated considerable comment from the social network's Shreveport users.
Calls to Wooley's campaign spokesperson to verify the authenticity of the flyer and event were not immediately returned this morning.

"Words can’t express my anger over this racist move," mayoral candidate Parker Ward wrote in a Friday e-mail sent to The Times. "I am calling on Bryan Wooley to send a public apology to the African American Community."

Fellow candidate David Cox also addressed the issue on his Facebook page. Cox posted a scanned copy of a orange and black flyer depicting Wooley and promising free chicken and limo rides.
"This is a sad day in Shreveport when we have a city council member seeking our highest office ... his office was passing out a distasteful flyer to target a certain part of town," Cox posted to his Facebook page. "This flyer was passed out in the Cooper Road area and it sends the wrong message to Shreveport."

It is impolite to promote a campaign by offering food and merriment that Black people find mirthful and fun, for this form of Realpolitik is a ghastly display of insensitivity at its worst. Though Black people love chicken, this culinary predilection is not available for open source sharing. Riding in limos is a treat that Black people normally are allotted if they are in the driver's seat. To offer two extravagances in turn for a simple vote is what truly upset the white mayoral candidates Black opponents.

Why didn't the opponents think of this ingenious idea first?

One idea that must be retired is cheap wing night in areas where life is regarded cheaply. Though this story is a nearly a year old, the weekend of chicken wing added excitement seems to necessitate its resurrection:

Buffalo Wild Wings has plucked the feathers off its weekly cheap wings promotion after hordes of rowdy students descended on the sports bar, resulting in two separate shooting incidents on Tuesday night.
The three teens caught in the crossfire were not seriously injured, but that did not stop some local leaders from calling for a crackdown on the spicy appetizer emporium inside the Atlantic Terminal Mall.


Councilwoman Letitia James (D–Fort Greene) pointed the finger at the management of the sports bar for recklessly promoting its 50-cent “Wing Tuesdays” to students.
“I want this Tuesday restaurant promotion stopped, or the lease of this business revoked,” James said.
Within hours, the wingery responded by announcing the indefinite suspension of the promotion, which was long popular with students and even the ever-economical sluggers from the Brooklyn Cyclones.
As such, the joint was packed on Tuesday evening with students — many from outside Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, police said — swarmed the mall.
Most of the students did not actually make it into the packed restaurant, and instead congregated at the mall, where things quickly became out of hand. The restaurant closed its doors early, and the cops were called to restore order.
Outside the mall, gunfire erupted, though details are sketchy. One shooting was at Hanson Place and Flatbush Avenue, and the other was near the bow-tie intersection of Fulton Street and Lafayette Avenue.
“Although there was a huge police presence at the mall to address the condition and turn the thousands of students away and send them back home, apparently a few rogue groups managed to cause trouble while heading home,” Capt. Anthony Tasso of the 88th Precinct said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the sports bar, which has 635 locations nationwide, said that the “Wing Tuesdays” promotion was not directed solely at students.
More likely, the crowds were driven by circumstance: this week’s 50-cent wing night fell on the day before Veteran’s Day — when schools were closed.
“It’s an unfortunate situation, but we weren’t enticing kids to come,” Liz Brady, the spokeswoman said.
Then again, it’s not the first time a buffalo wing binge has gone haywire at that location. James said that other promotions at the eatery have required police intervention.
She added that cops had approached her after the incident and said, “We got to do something about Wild Wings.” Of course, crime at the Atlantic Terminal Mall doesn’t only occur at the wing joint. Just last week, a man entered a candy store, brandished a gun and made off with the cash in the register — and the money in the tip jar, too.

Yes, Black people love chicken, though it is unwise to point this fact out, name a wing after a common incidence in the Black community, or to premise a political campaign nf giving Black people a ride in a limo and a bucket of chicken in exchange for a vote.

Life in the waning days of Black Run America (BRA) is going to provide a whole slew of gaffes and belly laughs and it is wise to understand the truly revolutionary power of jokes. Nothing de-stabilizes and de-legitimizes a power structure like heaping plates of scorn, ridicule and laughter.

And a side order of chicken wings, flavored Black on Black crime.

Video for Big Shot Bob's story can be found here.

The story on chicken and limo's can be found here.



12 comments:

Blue Eyed Devil said...

One can only speculate as to what it was that made the individual bust a cap in some fool at Buffalo Wild Wings. Possibly it was a text message stating that Jets WR Braylon Edwards was going to be sat down for the 1st quarter against the Dolphins due to his DUI earlier in the week. If not, I guess any old excuse will do if your hellbent on brandishing a gun in a public setting and shooting someone. I'm sure whitey can be blamed somewhere in the equation.

Joe-6 said...

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Dave said...

"Councilwoman Letitia James (D–Fort Greene) pointed the finger at the management of the sports bar for recklessly promoting its 50-cent “Wing Tuesdays” to students."

Black "youths" are now so insane that you cannot market a product or promotion to them due to the fact that people will die wherever they congregate.

What if Buffalo Wild Wing made no effort to market to the D'Brickashaws or Dezirees of the world? Letitia James would have to hold a press conference to declare aloud "das racist" and the new movement for chicken wing reparations would begin. 40 wings and a biscuit is the start to real social justice.

Ozzie said...

Well, the could make it for whites only. THe only dip provided is mayonaisse, and the soundtrack to "THe Sound of Music" and "Fiddler on the Roof" is pipped in through speakers. Wha-la.

update : It also seems a cover charge is also like goats blood on the door.

Percy Kittens said...

The problem that Buffalo Wild Wing is having reminded me of a lawsuit that was filed against The Tavern in Buckhead two years ago. Buckhead is an affluent, well-to-do area straight north of downtown Atlanta. The Tavern is an upscale restaurant. A former NBA player and a local lawyer are suing the restaurant for race discrimination because these two men were asked to give up their seats at a bar so that the restaurant could let two women who were standing sit down.

http://www.examiner.com/arts-in-atlanta/atlanta-tavern-accused-of-discrimination-again

I agree with the lawsuit, but not for the reasons these two men have brought forth. Why should a restaurant be allowed to practice "gender discrimination" and forcibly remove two men just so two women can sit down? From my point of view, these guys have got it all wrong. They should be suing for gender discrimination because the restaurant used off-duty cops to escort them off the premises. But I digress...

If you dig a little deeper into this article (and several others that I have read on this subject matter for the past two years, as the lawsuit has been in the pre-trial stages since 2006) you'll find that the plaintiffs have dug up other instances of "racial discrimination" such as: "the restaurant limited the number of African-American hostesses on busy nights, removed Heineken and Hennessey Cognac from the menu because they were popular among young black customers....During the February 2003 NBA All Star game, Tavern management knew the restaurant would get a large influx of black patrons so it hung up two large "Welcome Rodeo Fans" banners and instructed its musicians to play country music..."

I think I remember in another article a year ago that The Tavern had removed "buffalo wings" from the appetizer menu in an effort to discourage black people from wanting to come to the restaurant.

I bring this lawsuit up because it sort of underscores Dave's point about what would happen if Buffalo Wild Wing "made no effort to market to the D'Brickashaws or Dezirees of the world". To answer Dave's question: Buffalo Wild Wing would be sued for patterns of racial discrimination if they didn't attempt to do at least some marketing to the black American demographic in their area.

And yet, when they attempt to market to the black American demographic, one of two things, or sometimes both, happens: they're called racists (if they're lucky) or they end up having massive amounts of unruly customers patronize the store, create problems (including fights and other disorderly conduct), and bad publicity ensues, or both.

And finally, it comes as no surprise to me that Letitia James is a Democrat. Only a Democrat could make a statement as uneducated as this one: "I want this Tuesday restaurant promotion stopped, or the lease of this business revoked."

Spoken like a true anti-business, anti-capitalist, Socialist-welfare statist.

In a country with 10% unemployment (New York City's rate may even be higher than the national average) we have here a city councilwoman, a civic leader, actually calling for yanking a business' license just because they marketed to students? In BRA it is now reckless endangerment to market chicken wings to students, black people, or both.

Anonymous said...

"Spoken like a true anti-business, anti-capitalist, Socialist-welfare statist."

You have that one right. I thought of Caesar Chavez right off the bat. Same thinking pattern as the half black prince...or as SPDL affectionately refers to as MEIN OBAMA !!!!

Percy Kittens said...

Anonymous said: "You have that one right. I thought of Caesar Chavez right off the bat. Same thinking pattern as the half black prince...or as SPDL affectionately refers to as MEIN OBAMA !!!!"

-----------------

And it's not like I have any love for the Republicans. But it's such a Democratic thing to say that it borders on cliche at this point. Without having read the "D" next to her name or having seen a picture of her, I knew she was black and a Democrat, just like I suspected that the lone holdout in the Rod Blagojevich trial was a female...and was black.

But go back to Letitia's statement and analyze it: she wants to use her position as a City Councilwoman and the power of government to tell the business that they can't offer reduced prices on chicken wings on a Tuesday, or market the special to financially struggling college students or black people. And if Buffalo Wild Wing refuses to capitulate (which they already have) she wants to have their business license taken away. You couldn't be any more anti-business than if she'd told a plumber from Ohio that she 'wanted to spread the wealth around'. And President Obama and his administration wonder why they are rapidly gaining the reputation of being "anti-business"?

I bet you dollars to donuts that a simple background check would show that Letitia James has no real world work experience. I know *NOTHING* about her so far, but am willing to make a bet: if she graduated from college she probably went right into social work. My guess is that she's never started up a business, had to meet a payroll, or had to manage the assets and interests of a company. After a couple of years as a community "activist" and social worker, she went into politics and reached for the lowest hanging fruit she could find (city council) which, incidentally, reminds me of a time back in the late 90's or early 00's when MARTA (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) put a welfare queen/community activist on their board of directors. I wish I could remember more about that appointment; if I can find more information I'll post it or send it to the editor of this blog.

Anyway, as for Letitia James, she'll be suckling on the teat of government for the rest of her life, and in order to justify her own existence as a politician, she'll be making sure as many people as she can are as dependent upon the government to run their lives and make decisions for them, from the cradle to the grave, as she is.

Douglas said...

If they would have thrown in watermelon as dessert can you imagine the carnage?

A white business just can't win with black folk.

Anonymous said...

"I bet you dollars to donuts that a simple background check would show that Letitia James has no real world work experience. I know *NOTHING* about her so far, but am willing to make a bet: if she graduated from college she probably went right into social work."
----------------------------------------------
You called it.If you consider law school social work and her brand does qualify. Here I saved everyone the effort. Enjoy!

http://council.nyc.gov/d35/html/members/home.shtml

Blue Eyed Devil said...

Tavern management knew the restaurant would get a large influx of black patrons so it hung up two large "Welcome Rodeo Fans" banners and instructed its musicians to play country music..."

That's funny, but can you blame them? If someone ended up getting shot due to some unruly black customers, word of mouth would no doubt keep people from going to the establishment. Kind of a catch 22 situation. Try to deter black folks from coming and risk a lawsuit or hope that if black folks do come in, they don't have some wild west style shootout.

Percy Kittens said...

Thanks for the link to the NYC Council, Anonymous. That is a woman who has no life experience that doesn't involve the government paying her salary. From the moment she graduated college she was immediately drawing a government salary as a social worker for the perpetually poor.

Letitia has never held down a real job where she had to work efficiently, smart, manage money, manage others, manage the interests of the company, turn a profit, and maintain customer relations. She has suckled off the tit of the government for 15 years (or so). And now she's trying to tell others how to run their lives and their business. She's just another "Poverty Pimp" but without the name recognition of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton.

And Blue Eyed Devil...have you ever heard of Freaknic? I'd love for SBPDL to do a story on that. Freaknic is basically a Freaky Picnic. It started off as a small social gathering/picnic between a couple of black colleges in Atlanta in the early 90's. By the mid 90's (maybe '94 or '95) it just exploded one weekend. Anywhere between 100,000 - 200,000 black college kids decided to spend their Spring Break in Atlanta. The city had no idea it was coming. Traffic was brought to an absolute stand still for hours on end in downtown Atlanta. Girls hanging out of their cars with their tops pulled down, "students" urinating and defecating on peoples lawns in Buckhead, Little Five Points, etc...and then the violence came. Rape reports from fellow female Freaknick'ers shot up...lots of arrests for indecent exposure....assault and battery.

The next year the city was a bit better prepared, but it was still a nightmare, with "students" bringing the entire city to a halt with 5 mph rides through downtown. Cruising on a massive scale. More girls flashing their breasts...sex in public...bodily functions on the beautifully manicured lawns of people living north of the city.

After the second year, the outrage of citizens (i.e. whites) against Freaknic was so loud that the city cracked down hard on it the following year. But the "students" were ready. Some had begun to change the name to "Freedom Fest". Some churches tried to set up wholesome activities in the city's biggest public parks, but the kids weren't buying it. They wanted to cruise, drink, and fuck, and no public relations blitz or name-changing was going to stop them.

Why did the city step in and crack down on Freaknic as hard as they did? Because even though we had black mayors at the time (and still do), they saw the white business owners in Atlanta shutting their businesses down over Freaknic weekend, boarding up their windows (literally), and absolutely fleeing to the suburbs or out of state for the week(end). The City of Atlanta was actually losing money on Freaknic because businesses weren't generating any revenue because they were closing down, and the city was having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime to police offers to patrol the streets and mop up the mess Freaknic left behind (looked sort of like Washington D.C. after Obama's inauguration).

I mention Freaknic because, on a smaller scale, what The Tavern did is exactly what The City of Altanta did, except The City of Atlanta didn't get the "racial discrimination" lawsuit label thrown at them the same way The Tavern has.

Anonymous said...

Came across this article while browsing the archives of SBPDL and it hit upon a recent uproar in my own hometown.

Not a chicken-wing place per se, it was actually a medium/slightly upscale restaurant called CIBO's in Owings Mills (one town south of where I am in Reisterstown.

Well the demographics are getting worse for Owings Mills ((compare to Randallstown (not to be confused with Reisterstown which has the opposite demographics) further south with 83% black population)) and when the restaurant's customer base reached a tipping point and became majority black (though problems began well before 50%) the owners decided to close up shop.

Well, now they're being sued by the NAACP for closing down despite the fact that they became unprofitable because 1. few whites dined in the restaurant, 2. blacks skipped out without paying, 3. were rude and time consuming, 4. damaged fixtures, furniture and dining ware. and 5. started fights for which police had to be called in on numerous occasions.

All those things combined to make a classy restaurant in the town next door unprofitable and the NAACP decides to sue them when the owners can no longer afford to do business, want to cut their losses and close up shop.

Welcome to BRA indeed.