Inner Solace

(via Sarah K - Facebook)

Stumbled across this one and it made me laugh.  Much better than the “Fuck Off! We’re Full!”, “We Grew Here, You Flew Here” and similar bumper stickers that are floating around the place.

The one that reads:

Advance Australia Fair
For those who’ve come across the seas
We’ve boundless plains to share

Is also very clever. Seeing as it’s part of the national anthem.

Knowing that I live in the same proximity as people with such strong, negative feelings about race and migration makes me feel less than warm and fuzzy, especially considering the history of Australia.  At some point, the forefathers of these people would have flown or sailed here whether as explorers, convicts, merchants, travellers or other.  Would even the seventh/eighth generation Australians say that to their n*great grand parent who wasn’t born here?

But here’s me trying to debate the irrational with logic.

I was thinking more about the Australian cricket season KFC ad that offended the US.  Probably more time than I should have.  And the same question came up that I pondered when the White House watermelon scandal happened: So what’s with the stereotype about black people eating fried chicken and watermelon?

There’s something about black slaves eating watermelon… Not sure why. Because it was hot working the fields? Because it was cheap? I’m still not sure what exactly made it a ‘slave food’ that turned it into a stereotype.  Did white people of that era also not eat watermelon at all because it was ‘slave food’?

And the same with fried chicken.  But this one boggles me more.  Here’s my thought progression aided by the Internet: KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Kentucky is classified as a Southern state. The business was founded by a white guy.  This white guy made fried chicken which, as a cooking technique, originated from the Scots and kinda propagated when they migrated to the South and it became known as a Southern food.  Black slave cooks apparently made a lot of it and it went from there…

But my head kind of gets all fuzzy and pained when I try to figure out the logic of mostly[2] white people bashing the ads of a business started by white people for using a product created by white people which was introduced to black people by white people who used and sometimes abused and persecuted black people, because they think it is racist.

Somewhere along this thought process, I think the expression “Pot calling the kettle black” crossed my mind, which then had to apologise for the obliquely racist reference purely because contextually or even not contextually, someone might misconstrue it as an offence.

And seriously, who doesn’t like fried chicken and/or watermelon[3]?

[1] The photo is of a Colonel Sanders statue in Japan during the summer season.  I deduce this from the Japanese writing behind the statue, the yukata on the statue which is a summer outfit, and the knowledge that watermelons are an iconic seasonal fruit in the country and not actually an attempt to offend Americans.

[2] And where I say ‘mostly’, I use the term to refer to the quantity of white people rather than their genetics. You know, just in case someone gets offended.

[3] Aside from vegetarians and possibly asthmatics.