As we reported last week, Melbourne restaurant FAT Fried and Tasty found itself in the middle of a racism row after comedian Aamer Rahman took to Facebook to call out the restaurant over offensive images featured in the eatery’s decor.
Rahman cited a Photoshopped image of late hip-hop legend Biggie Smalls holding a fried chicken drumstick, a 1950s image of a white family with each of the members holding guns, and an image of racist stereotype Aunt Jemima as examples of gentrification.
In the wake of Rahman’s post, FAT Fried and Tasty’s official Facebook page was flooded with angry commenters, who left scathing missives for the owners. “Hopefully these racist ignoramuses will go out of business pretty soon,” one commenter wrote.
However, as The Age reports, not all of the vitriol was directed at the proper target. Celebrity chef Shane Delia, who owns and operates the Biggie Smalls kebab shop, received abuse from irate commenters who mistook his restaurant for FAT Fried and Tasty.
In addition to being named after the slain rapper, Delia’s Collingwood restaurant features numerous portraits of Smalls, though none are doctored and the eatery specialises in serving Middle Eastern food.
That reality, however, did not stop an angry commenter from labelling Delia “Privileged white hipster scum profiting off, and taking the piss out of African-Americans and their oppression.”
“White people with guns fgs! … A talented rapper simply labelled ‘FAT’ stop appropriating African-American culture. It’s not yours,” the commenter continued, with Delia responding that the woman’s hate was “misplaced”. Sadly, this did little to sway her.
“Thanks for clarifying that your racist paraphernalia was sourced from another racist shit-hole. Could you cretins get any more unoriginal? Eat your junk? NOPE. Even if I did eat tortured animal corpses, I wouldn’t get them from a hipster’s shit-hole,” she replied.
Speaking to Fairfax, Delia defended his shop, saying, “We’re a kebab restaurant paying homage to hip-hop culture. We have had people saying we’re taking advantage of black minorities. In some ways it’s reverse racism.”
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“This is not something I have latched on to because it was cool,” Delia, who’s been a fan of Small since he was a teenager, added. “Most people are educated enough to know we’re two separate businesses. The minority take fire at any target.”
Meanwhile, FAT Fried and Tasty’s owners have no plans to remove their own homage to the rapper, though they have since removed the gun-toting family and the image of Aunt Jemima, acting on the advice of PR expert Suzanne Jones.
“They want to keep Biggie because they like his music and they want him to be part of their restaurant,” Ms Jones told Fairfax.
