‘Cold War’ singer Janelle Monae was undoubtedly feeling the heat after she took to Twitter to suggest putting up voting booths at Popeyes Chicken locations across America to lure people into registering.
The comment was her reaction to the viral craze that’s swept social media in favor of the fast food chain’s recently unveiled chicken sandwich – a phenomenon that’s seen people storm their local franchise to sample the deep fried bird and record their reactions for Twitter, Facebook, and more. Creating long lines, filmed fights, and more in its wake, the high demand – which reportedly saw Popeyes rake in a whopping $25M as a result of the increased publicity – led to a nationwide outage (causing outrage among fans of the sandwich).
Some of that outrage has been taken out on Monae after she was inspired by a North Carolinian teen who gained national attention for encouraging people to register to vote while they waited in the notoriously long lines for their tasty feasts.
“I decided to register people to vote after I saw there was a lack of young people politically involved. I believe that it is our duty to vote as American citizens and it would be wrong not to exercise our political voice,” he told the press.
However, after the Grammy-nominee echoed his sentiment her slamming was so intense she had to backtrack. Taking to Twitter to apologize, look below if you missed any of the action:
After being peddled with tweets like the below in response to her suggestion:
Janelle Monáe: “Black ppl need to spend just as time at the voting booth as they do at Popeyes.”
Black Twitter: pic.twitter.com/dpKvzvXnNX
— Polo Maruwa (@elchaupo) August 26, 2019
Monae followed up with:
[main photo source: Getty Images]
Your thoughts?
Extremely embarrassing the amount of free advertising black twitter gave this sandwich. AA are still mental slaves I am telling you.
If one of the hijackers had just showed up in the ER with cutaneous anthrax, which would not be “skin irritation “ or a single lesion and not been diagnosed and aggressively treated he would probably have died… Read more <===
Why did she have to apologize? For telling the truth? Y’all need better lives if y’all think telling Black folks that as much time as they spend at Popeyes, they could use that time at the polls as well! Quit bitching about being the oppressed and effing do something about it like skipping Popeyes and go right to the polls!
Exactly. I don’t understand why she apologized for that. Smh.
Girl, Shut up. Black people always come through at the polls. And when they don’t, it’s because they’re intentionally being disenfranchised. It was the white voters that that didn’t do their part. So why whenever black people find something they take interest in, you assume they must be neglecting other areas of their lives. Meanwhile, we don’t even make up a fifth of the population of this country. So why are you and Janelle trying to hold black people responsible for something everybody should be held accountable for?
Ah Stop! Its facts that the minority was NOT responsible for getting Trump in office, and MAINLY African Americans so that’s a lie.
Um… okay? That’s the same thing I said. Learn to read kiddo.
Either way, turnout can STILL be better and improved. Had we turned out even better (and it is a fact that despite African American’s overwhelmingly voted for Clinton / Democrats) this election of Trump wouldn’t happen.
It’s clear we can’t depend on white people or others to turn out the way that we need, so why not improve on that and champion it ourselves?
Also, it was proven that AA’s in the states that very narrowly went to Trump DROPPED because of people feeling “uninspired” or not liking Hillary Clinton.
So miss me with the bull about we turned out enough, we can do better and every racial group of people in this country need to DO BETTER WITH VOTING!!!!
I don’t understand. Black ppl are the only race that gets finger wagged for enjoying something. Our country is in shambles rn and continues to get worse. Please let us enjoy something without feeling the need to be constant activist. Theres nothing wrong with stepping back and taking things light. Shits been so serious nd ppl b**** over small s*** these day. Let folks enjoy some dame food.
You are EXACTLY what’s wrong with this current generation of black people. Our people are getting murdered in the streets by police & racists, white supremacists are occupying the WH and controlling your elected officials and slowly getting ridof our freedoms, but y’all want to ignore all of that just so you can eat chicken sammiches in peace? I purposefully said ‘sammiches’ to demonstrate just how ignorant your comment is.
@SMH AMEN i agree 100 percent with everything you wrote
Who’s to say we’re ignoring anything? Can you not focus your attention on more than one thing at a f****** time. We as blacks are surrounded by that s*** every single day. Should we just bask in misery for the remainder of our lives? This too shall pass like the other fads and viral sensations. Let us f****** enjoy Popeyes and the associated memes and videos in peace. You woke b****** need some sleep because those bags under your eyes aren’t attractive.
@Electra Shame on any black person eafing that disgusting poison Popeyes markets to black consumers!
Im going to translate what you said: “Can we be slow and dumb at eat toxic food in peace”
Answer: Hell NO! Wake the f.uck up. No time to be slow! Why do u think Popeyes and Church’s Fried Chicken are located in the hood? Because the white man is trying to kill us and we are too slow and dumb to realize it!
Her comment was so reckless. Plenty people flock to Whole Foods too, why not suggest putting a voting booth there to register there?
…oh because only unregistered black eat at Popeyes so that makes more sense.
Um, no, its because Whole Foods doesn’t have lines wrapped around the block & fights breaking out in the stores over a loaf of wheat bread. and I guarantee youll find more registered voters at Whole Foods than you will at Popeyes.
I used Whole Foods For obvious reasons. Calm down. Your taking my comment way to literal.
Two things:
1) I cannot believe how much publicity America gave this sandwich and how much money we all put into Popeye’s pockets over this (I admit, I tried it, it was good…but not worth all of this hype)
2) Unfortunately, this is a prime example of why some artists do not need to get into politics.
So black folks are mad because they can’t eat their chicken sammiches in peace.
Throw this entire ratchet generation away. Your parents failed you all.
I don’t see anything wrong with trying to get people to vote. It may could have been worded a little differently but vote. It does matter!!
She’s such a pretentious d***…..
BUT…
The last few elections saw record numbers of voters. Lines wrapped around buildings, polling centers staying open later to meet the crowd demands…. why is it that every time BLACK people have fun, here comes a bunch of hoteps and Debbie Downers crying about voting, paying rent, child support, police brutality and other s*** that they know nothing about?
It comes across as internalized racism and self-hate. Those kind of people need to do some deep soul searching and come to terms with why they’re so miserable and want everyone else to be. I didn’t care for the sandwich but dammit the memes and tweets are hilarious. Let black people spend their $4 and enjoy themselves!!!!
I think the issue derives from a double edged word. We let celebs like Tamar Braxton have a platform to make videos promoting Popeyes poisonous chicken products so we have to be open to more health and politically conscious celebs to make negative promotion about Popeyes poisonous chicken products! You cannot be open to only hearing what you want to hear without accepting responsibility for listening to celebs in the first place.
I wouldn’t expect anyone as materialistic, immature and vapid as Tamar Braxton to endorse anything of substance LOL. But even then, she is in her right to join in on the fun. Celebs are more socially conscious than ever before. Everyone’s trying to use their platform for causes of their choice. People are just miserable and bitter whenever WE are having fun.
MJB Burger King Part 2 ????
I’m not sure why she felt she had to apologize. She made a valid point. Please stand in line to vote – removing Trump won’t be easy and if it means long lines and waiting – we must do that.