Comments on: About the Chicken Story (and Perils of Running a User-Generated Site)

By: Dexter Wong

Dexter Wong — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 09:09:58 +0000

One more thing, some Asians buy live chickens because they want the freshest possible chicken. When I was a boy, my mother always bought live fish from a fish tank at the market and the fishmonger would kill it with a blow to the head, then clean it. Once again, the freshest fish.

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By: Dexter Wong

Dexter Wong — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 07:03:42 +0000

When I first heard that story, it was in Heb Caen’s column. I don’t remember whether anyone checked out its veracity, but it was a funny story. I rhought it was a way for a woman to make the best out of a bad situation.

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By: Daishin

Daishin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:49:17 +0000

Well my 15 year old extremely white nephew says “he’s all ghetto” living in Marin. The only thing ghetto about him is his sneakers.

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By: Daishin

Daishin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:38:08 +0000

I also heard a version of the same story from years ago but instead of an asian woman killing the chicken, it was an hispanic woman who did the deed before getting on the 14 Mission. Maybe several years ago it might have been my Italian grandma who would have done the same thing. Perhaps just another urban myth!

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By: Houston Bridges

Houston Bridges — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:39:38 +0000

As one of the blogs to which you link without comment, I would like to add something additional to the conversation. I was prompted to mention the often quoted story about the Asian woman killing the chicken after initially being not being allowed on the bus by an announcement from the BART agent that morning advising the woman who just entered the BART system and was heading down the escalator that “Live” chickens were not allowed on BARt.

While I’ve had a lot of visitors to my blog as a result of this link, none have commented on it, so I must have passed the racism smell test, otherwise I’d be awash in negative comments.

Meanwhile, I’m just another urban pilgrim Dancing with Myself at http://rlbtzero.blogspot.com/. (The post that was linked is on another version of Dancing with Myself located at http://rlbtzero.typepad.com/.)

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By: bmtea

bmtea — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:55:16 +0000

To add another angle, as an animal rights advocate, I wish more animals would be slaughtered in the open. People need to know what they are supporting. We want our cheap meat, but we also want it to be hidden from our eyes, lest our delicate souls get offended, oh my!

Whether this story is true or not, a point to keep in mind is that there is NO country where more chickens are slaughtered in more horrific and barbaric conditions (ever seen footage of a chicken farm or slaughterhouse?), than the United States of America. So for Americans to be “offended” at situations like this is indeed curious. Even if some version of this story is true, that chicken probably had a WAYYYY better life than the average American chicken. Keep that in mind, the next time you sit down to your chicken dinner.

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By: Anon

Anon — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:20:32 +0000

I can’t believe that nobody had called you out on this, to presume that this person must have assumed that the person is chinese, because nobody can tell, is a little racist on its own. I guess they all look the same. As a 35 year resident of SF, growing up in the richmond district, I am pretty good about discerning nationality on looks alone. Also you are assuming that looks is all this person used to make that observation, perhaps she was speaking Chinese to someone as she got on the bus, or he recognized her accent when she responded to the driver.

All of that aside, we, as a society need to get to a place where describing someone by skin color is no more biggoted than describing by hair color, it is, after all the most noticeable trait on most people.

Finally, to be racist, it has to be negative, if that really happened, that woman would be awesome. I get flustered when I am told I can’t bring a cup of coffee on muni.

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By: jeff

jeff — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:39:04 +0000

ah, you’ve touched on something good here: context. you’re totally right in that comedy often indulges in these racial and otherwise bigoted exploits. some comedy wouldn’t be comedy if it didn’t. and i agree that it can be very funny and speak to who we are and how we relate to one another. running an online forum full of stories of mass transit, i would argue, is a bit different. we’re not comedians, though we might from time to time play to comedic writers. and yes, the chicken story is meant to be slightly funny and definitely uncomfortable. it wouldn’t be worth telling (and not half as crowd-pleasing) if it didn’t involve most elements in it. the story of guns and knives on the 22, to my mind, is a bit different. which brings me back to our original intent here: we moderate this site, and the main things we’re looking for are: calls to violence against individuals or groups, and hate of the same. making fun of a group of people is fine; calling for their extermination or outcast, not so much. luckily, so far, there hasn’t been too much of that, though you’d be surprised at the some of the comments we’ve had to delete from Muni Diaries.

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By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:59:43 +0000

But Jeff, if the world thought twice or thrice about what they say and whether it _might_ offend them, you’re basically destroying the entire comedic profession.

Most comedy is predicated on poking fun of someone or a group of people by like characteristics. The laughter is a mix of uncomfort (did he really just say that?) and acknowledgment (because most stereotypes become stereotypes _for a reason_).

Yes, someone makes a joke that is poking fun of a race _might_ offend them. But the chicken story? It may not be completely 100% harmless to the chinese, but it’s relatively harmless to compared to, say, beating them up for being chinese. It’s really the offended person’s problem – there’s multiple ways to handle the situation.

I still say: lighten up.

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By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:26:31 +0000

Muni Diaries crew: Don ‘t beat yourself up over it…Riders With Drinks was an awesome event and people getting their panties in a wad over an urban legend and forgetting to simply recognize the amusing tale is just a reflection of the bay area..everyone has a soap box!

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