“Getting people to trust fast-food is a process,” says Marcia Chatelain, author of the new book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. For many black communities, that process started at a precise moment in history: The resulting chaos following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination created the perfect opening for McDonald’s to step in and promise progress in the form of black-owned businesses. But the resulting relationship has been complex; fast-food has been a source of both power and despair in Black America. “Businesses’ job is to maximize profits,” Marcia tells Bite fellow Camille Squires, “but they can’t set the possibilities for people’s lives.” Plus: Marcia reveals her true feelings about Popeye’s chicken sandwiches.
78 – How Slavery's Brutal Legacy Lingers in American Cooking
77 – "Bao" Director Domee Shi Gives a Sweet Dumpling a Dark Twist
76 – What It Feels Like to Be Big in America
75 – Cooking Chicken With Beto O’Rourke
74 – The Cult of the Chili Pepper
39 – Songs That Make Food Taste Better
73 – The Five-Second Rule, and Other Food Myths Busted
72 – These Spices Will Transform Your Life
71 – When Food Stamps "Turn Your Life Around"
70 – Sheriff Corndog
69 – Samin Nosrat Gets Salty
68 – The Godfather of Mexican Wine
67 – The Shocking Reason Why Millions of Animals Drowned in North Carolina
66 – The Bizarre Fad Diet Taking the Far Right by Storm
65 – What to Cook for Your Favorite Author
64 – Finding Salvation in Salad
63 – Farmers Are Growing Squash That Actually Taste Good
62 – Just Give People Money
61 – Comic W. Kamau Bell on Getting Coffee While Black
60 – (Not) Eating Animals
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