COLONEL OF UNTRUTH:
A fast-food joint in Beijing is using a cartoon caricature of President Obama in an imitation of KFC’s Colonel Sanders logo, sparking outrage among the president’s US supporters. ( weibo.co/binson)
New York, New York: Mar. 24, 2007, Kentucky Fried Chicken Store, FC, 73d Street & 2d Avenue, A Construction Worker Removing Construction Debris from the Shuttered KFC at the Corner of 73d & 2d, #4 (Photo by J.B. Nicholas). (Jason B. Nicholas)
A fast-food restaurant in Beijing called Obama Fried Chicken was derided in America yesterday as a racist rip-off.
Its sign shows a grinning caricature of President Obama’s head on a skinny version of Colonel Sanders’ body.
Below it, written in Chinese, is the slogan: “We’re so cool, aren’t we?”
“It’s insulting, offensive and plays to racial stereotypes,” the Rev. Al Sharpton told The Post.
“What makes it even worse is that when we deal with this global competition between the US and China, for them to be mocking the leader of the free world, I find it even more appalling.”
Not that the Chinese were the first to come up with the idea.
At the similarly named Obama’s Fried Chicken in Harlem, the Chinese knockoff was blasted as fowl play.
“I wouldn’t eat there because of that picture,” fumed Momodou Jallow, 43, the manager of the store on St. Nicholas Avenue.
“You can’t degrade the president like that,” Jallow said. “It’s sketched that way to make fun of Obama so people will buy fried chicken.
“How can you take [Colonel Sanders’] body and put Obama’s head on it and call it OFC? It’s disrespectful,” he said.
When Jallow’s restaurant changed its name in 2009, the manager said, it was intended as an honor for the first black president.
“For us, it’s different,” argued Jallow.
“There’s no disrespectful picture,” he said, pointing to the restaurant’s logo-free awning.