KFC Denounces Republican Group’s “Obama Bucks” Racist Slur

October 25, 2008 Franchise Publicity

Activist groups love to denounce YUM Brands’ KFC for everything from not killing delicious chickens more politely before we eat them, to making us fat after we eat them.

Let’s see if anyone gives KFC a little credit for immediately lashing out against the racist propaganda called “Obama Bucks” distributed by a California Republican group named the Chaffey Community Republican Women Federation. The asinine graphic, which appeared in the group’s newsletter, depicts a phony foodstamp depicting Presidential candidate Barack Obama, a bucket of KFC chicken, a slab of ribs, Kool-Aid, a slice of watermelon and the words “Obama Bucks.”

A story in the Black Voice News Online reported that KFC demanded that the group responsible for distributing the racist material immediately cease and desist from further use or distribution of KFC images or trademarks. KFC spokesman Rick Maynard stated that the company has requested a public statement from the group “acknowledging that KFC had no part in the creation or distribution of this material.”

“It was just food. It didn’t mean anything else….”

According to the Black Voice News report:

Under intense pressure the group’s president Diane Fedele has agreed to resign and says she plans to send a letter of apology to her members and to make a public apology at the club’s meeting this week. Fedele did not respond to an interview request Monday morning seeking reaction to the latest developments.

She accepted responsibility for the October publication, which she created. The illustration was something she said she downloaded from a chain of e-mails and decided to re-print it. She said she wanted to deride a comment Obama made over the summer about how as an African American he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

Fedele told The Press Enterprise which first aired the story on its website she does not associate the food items with stereotypes about African-Americans.

“It was just food. It didn’t mean anything else. It was strictly an attempt to point out the outrageousness of his statement.”

She said she also wasn’t trying to make a statement linking Obama and food stamps, although her introductory text to the illustration makes a clear association between Obama and food stamps.

Read the whole story here: Black Voice News Online

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