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Williams-Forson Stealing Chicken Analysis

1295 Words6 Pages

Williams-forson situates her work in the intersection of race; gender and identity arguing that the kinds of food people eat are the key aspects of the cultural identities they are associated with. She draws a comparison in his work regarding the black people’s food preferences and argues that they have been engaged in ideological wars concerning food and race for so long. Williams-forson presents her idea that the cultural aspects of African American people is the key reason why a man should take a big piece of chicken since in most families they are the sole bread winners and are therefore entitled to a large portion of any delicacy cooked in such family. She associates her work on African American food ways with the African cultural heritage …show more content…

Williams-forson feels that the cultural practice of stealing chicken is a subversive one when she uses rock’s humor and the entire act to show black people cultural aspects concerning chicken. She sees this as a retrogressive culture since she notes the subversive ways where food is used to contest hegemonic representations of blackness portray a complicated aspect of identity. The whole idea of people competing for food in rock’s humor shows aspects that tend to portray black people with a culture that is not acceptable since food is a basic need that should be available for everyone. The whole idea of glorifying chicken is itself a subversive act that needs to be changed. All people should have equal portions of food regardless of who brought it to the table and this act of competing for a big piece of chicken shows how the African American culture is subversive and an unacceptable cultural behavior. Due to this food contest, Williams-forson feels the whole culture is …show more content…

The term ethnocentrism in sociology refers to the acts of evaluating other people’s culture based on one’s culture. It’s a common phenomenon that fuels racism and other discriminations based on cultural factors. This ethnocentrism is evident when Rock portrays the African American practice of contesting for chicken as an outdated and an inappropriate one. Its shows that in his own culture such acts are not practiced and therefore evaluates the credibility of African American culture based on his culture. This ethnocentrism is also portrayed when the different roles pertaining each gender are compared. Rock feels that some of the roles concerning men and women need to be changed to encourage equality in them based on his cultural reasoning. When the writer criticizes the credibility of African American cultural practice on the credibility of the man demanding a big piece of chicken. Because it’s not a practice in his culture, he feels it not normal. He therefore portrays

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