Freedmen Nation Boycotts KeyTV’s “Southern Fried Rice” for Cultural Erasure and Institutional Exploitation

Freedmen Nation
Oct 23
3 min read

A Formal Boycott Statement from the Freedmen Reparations Fund Trust and American Freedmen Legal Fund

The Freedmen Reparations Fund Trust and its cultural protection arm, the American Freedmen Legal Fund, are issuing an official boycott of the KeyTV Network series titled “Southern Fried Rice,” recently promoted by Keke Palmer. This public statement serves as a formal notice of rejection, cultural objection, and institutional defense against the misappropriation of Freedmen identity and our educational legacy.

1. The Premise is Harmful, Not Harmless

“Southern Fried Rice” centers a fictional narrative about a Korean-American girl raised by Southern Black parents and navigating identity at an HBCU. While marketed as a “coming-of-age dramedy,” the storyline trivializes and disrespects a lived cultural experience that is not fictional. HBCUs are not experimental playgrounds for identity switching. They are sacred legacies founded by Freedmen for Freedmen, born from slavery, Reconstruction, and denial of equal access to education.

To position an outsider as the lead voice in a Freedmen-constructed institution—while descendants of American slavery still face exclusion from reparations programs and legacy admissions—is more than offensive. It is cultural exploitation.

2. HBCUs Are Not Set Pieces for Entertainment

Historically Black Colleges and Universities were founded by the very people whose names and labor were stolen for centuries. These institutions exist because Freedmen fought for the right to read, to teach, and to build post-slavery educational systems that have endured generations of neglect and underfunding. The use of this context to showcase a fictional struggle around outsider assimilation is a violation of cultural truth.

3. Our Story is Not for Sale or Satire

Keke Palmer’s statement framing the show as “a good story with some heart, a little humor, and a lotta mess” is part of the problem. The true story of Freedmen survival in the South, of intergenerational displacement, institutional creation, and resistance to misclassification, is not “messy”—it is sacred, political, and ongoing. This show co-opts our frameworks and reassigns them to characters with no cultural, historical, or jurisdictional claim to them.

4. There is a Pattern of Replacement and Erasure

This series is not an isolated issue. It reflects a larger media trend of sidelining Verified Freedmen, replacing our voices with proxy narratives, and entertaining the public at our expense. From reparations movements to cultural content creation, non-Freedmen individuals are increasingly showcased in roles that depend on the history, pain, and legacy of our ancestors, without regard for legal, genealogical, or cultural standing.

5. This is a Line We Will Not Allow to be Crossed

We issue the following demands:

Immediate removal of the series “Southern Fried Rice” from KeyTV’s distribution channels
A public apology from Keke Palmer and the KeyTV Network for exploiting Freedmen identity for fictionalized entertainment
A platform commitment not to distort or reassign Freedmen cultural frameworks to individuals who are not part of our lineage, identity, or governance structures
Opportunities for Verified Freedmen to tell their stories through authentic, jurisdictionally accurate platforms with narrative control and reparative licensing in place

6. Effective Immediately: National Boycott Enforcement

We are calling on all Verified Freedmen, allies, and cultural integrity advocates to:

Boycott all viewership, sharing, and promotion of “Southern Fried Rice” and KeyTV Network
Publicly reject this narrative as inauthentic and misrepresentative
Educate others about the historical jurisdiction of Freedmen institutions and why appropriation is not diversity

This boycott is being issued and enforced by the Freedmen Reparations Fund Trust and American Freedmen Legal Fund under our Cultural Governance Enforcement Policy. We will be monitoring responses and reserve the right to escalate further legal, cultural, or digital protections if this exploitation continues.

Protecting Our Name. Our Institutions. Our Identity.

This is not simply a television show. This is a pattern of erasure we will not accept. HBCUs belong to the people who built them—not to fictional stories that repurpose our pain for streaming content.

We speak now to protect our future.

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Freedmen Reparations Fund Trust

American Freedmen Legal Fund

Verified Freedmen Nationwide