When Attorney General William Barr threatened to skip testimony at a hearing with House Democrats to explain his misrepresentation of special counsel Robert Mueller's report, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) denounced him as a "chicken." And when Barr followed through and failed to show up, Cohen drove the point home by bringing a bucket of KFC and snarfing it down in front of Cohen's vacant seat.
It was a memorable stunt. But to Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, two African-American Trump supporters who go by the social media names "Diamond and Silk," it was racist.
"It's racially insensitive is what I think," said Hardaway on Friday's edition of "Fox & Friends." "And can you just imagine if that was a Republican doing that to a Democrat, I mean just think about that for a moment."
Consuming too much fried chicken is broadly recognized as an offensive stereotype against African-Americans, who often had to rely on chicken as a staple meat during bondage in the South. But Barr is not black, and the expression "he's a chicken" to suggest cowardice has completely different roots, dating back to performances by 16th-century Shakespearean comedy actor William Kemp.
Incidentally, Cohen represents Tennessee's 9th District, which is home to one of the highest black populations of any congressional seat in the United States.
Watch below:
Fox's Diamond & Silk accuse Rep. Steve Cohen, a white man, of being "racially insensitive" by eating fried chicken… https://t.co/SorR4ZQncG— Bobby Lewis (@Bobby Lewis) 1556882389.0
