If you’ve been on social media within the last week (or gone out in search of some fast food), you’ve probably seen the countless posts about the new chicken sandwich at Popeyes. If the photos aren’t of the fried chicken sandwich itself, they’re of cars or people in long lines waiting to buy one. Or they’re of hastily written signs alerting customers that the store has sold out of the patties. Or of exhausted workers struggling to keep up with the influx in customer demands (more on that later).
One Popeyes story that hasn’t yet gone viral but absolutely deserves to is that of David Ledbetter. As first reported by Because of Them We Can, the 17-year-old saw a special opportunity when looking at the long lines of people waiting to try Popeyes new special: Registering them to vote.
“All week I’ve been seeing people waiting in line for the Popeyes chicken sandwich. So we thought that we should register people to vote while they waited,” Ledbetter told Because of Them We Can in an interview.
Ledbetter told the blog that he became passionate about getting others into politics when he attended a caucus meeting. The high school senior realized he was one of the youngest people in attendance and wanted that to change. “I once attended a caucus meeting in Charlotte and I noticed the lack of young people present. I wanted to start an initiative to allow more youth to become politically involved so I thought registering people to vote and handing out information on voting would be the best way to engage,” he explained. In this particular Popeyes line, Ledbetter stated, most people were already registered to vote. Still, he got 16 more people signed up, which is no small feat.
Heartwarming story aside, there’s a lot to think about when one considers the human labor involved with the viral Popeyes chicken. On the one hand, seeing people—even if only over the internet—come together to celebrate something is a relief in an otherwise depressing news cycle. Food is communal, too, so it makes sense that people love to share it and talk about it.
On the other hand, classism and worker’s rights shouldn’t be ignored; some images of Popeyes workers have gone viral on Twitter, for example, with people joking about what these exhausted workers might be thinking or feeling. Without embedding the images here (as they are seemingly taken and shared without consent from the workers), the basic description is that it’s workers of color (mostly black women) in Popeyes uniforms with slouched shoulders, necks bent toward their feet, collapsed on a bench outside of the restaurant. Or struggling to keep up with lines in the store. Or apologizing to irate customers in the drive-thru. Meme culture has turned these moments into opportunities to ask, “What are they thinking??” and “What are they feeling??”
Spoiler: They’re making far from a living wage and are absolutely drained. They’re also not in control of how many fried chicken patties are available at any given moment! And they’re not getting bonuses or commission on these things flying off the, ahem, frying machines, either.
There’s also the issue of cost and how these patties are produced. Is a mass-produced sandwich that costs around $4 good for the environment? What about the wages of the people producing the meat? All of this aside from the obvious discussion about animal welfare.
None of these nuances take away from how cool what Ledbetter did really is. Nor do these considerations have to “spoil” anyone’s fun or enjoyment in a viral food trend. Food is food. But when corporations go viral, it’s important to remember the real humans doing the work behind the logo. Maybe next time you’re ten people deep in line, ask the people around you if they’re registered to vote? Doing some good is always better than doing none.
