Watermelon Is A Racist Term In America.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Yeah, here in the south, people Shag on the beach board walks and all over coastal area bars. That’s a southern type old people dance BTW.

a reply to: alldaylong

"Watermelon Is A Racist Term In America."

So is "Cracker."

Which cracks me up as being too funny.

www.westminstercrackers.com...

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: alldaylong

Telling black kids no food, no drink, no watermelon is racist.
Watermelon has been associated with blacks as a derogatory symbol for years.

Stereotypical and tone deaf, yes... "racist," I wouldn't go that far. I think we, as a society, have undermined the concept of racism in entirely the worst possible way. Instead of taking the wind out of the sails of actual racists, we've managed to lump making an off color joke or dropping a slur into the same bucket that contains Skinheads and Klansmen. That's watered down the accusation of "racist" to the point where it hardly matters anymore.

It's not isolated to race, either. The same thing is happening when groups treat winking at or whistling at a woman as a "sexual assault," or when someone disagrees with transgendered men using the same toilet as their wife or daughter is referred to as a bigot same as the dudes who killed Matthew Sheppard.

originally posted by: spiritualarchitect
a reply to: alldaylong

"Watermelon Is A Racist Term In America."

So is "Cracker."

Which cracks me up as being too funny.

www.westminstercrackers.com...

Also can be traced back to slaveholder days. It doesn't quite refer to the baked snack of today.

How Watermelons Became a Racist Trope

the stereotype that African Americans are excessively fond of watermelon emerged for a specific historical reason and served a specific political purpose. The trope came into full force when slaves won their emancipation during the Civil War. Free black people grew, ate, and sold watermelons, and in doing so made the fruit a symbol of their freedom. Southern whites, threatened by blacks’ newfound freedom, responded by making the fruit a symbol of black people’s perceived uncleanliness, laziness, childishness, and unwanted public presence. This racist trope then exploded in American popular culture, becoming so pervasive that its historical origin became obscure. Few Americans in 1900 would’ve guessed the stereotype was less than half a century old.

Not that the raw material for the racist watermelon trope didn’t exist before emancipation. In the early modern European imagination, the typical watermelon-eater was an Italian or Arab peasant. The watermelon, noted a British officer stationed in Egypt in 1801, was “a poor Arab’s feast,” a meager substitute for a proper meal. In the port city of Rosetta he saw the locals eating watermelons “ravenously ... as if afraid the passer-by was going to snatch them away,” and watermelon rinds littered the streets. There, the fruit symbolized many of the same qualities as it would in post-emancipation America: uncleanliness, because eating watermelon is so messy. Laziness, because growing watermelons is so easy, and it’s hard to eat watermelon and keep working—it’s a fruit you have to sit down and eat. Childishness, because watermelons are sweet, colorful, and devoid of much nutritional value. And unwanted public presence, because it’s hard to eat a watermelon by yourself. These tropes made their way to America, but the watermelon did not yet have a racial meaning. Americans were just as likely to associate the watermelon with white Kentucky hillbillies or New Hampshire yokels as with black South Carolina slaves.

I knew in general about this, but did not know it originated in Europe as a slur against Italian's and Arab's.

You need only Google the history of watermelons as it relates to African Americans to see how bad it was.

a reply to: 38181

So that's why they call it shag carpet! You won't get rug burns when your doing it.

www.123rf.com...

In Aus, watermelon refers to the green party. Green on the outside but red on the inside.

originally posted by: Bluntone22

originally posted by: alldaylong

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: alldaylong

Telling black kids no food, no drink, no watermelon is racist.
Watermelon has been associated with blacks as a derogatory symbol for years.

As i stated previously, i have learned something new.

May I ask your age?
I'm pushing 50 and this is something I can remember from growing up.
I wonder if it's something younger generations have lost. If so it's a good thing showing home we have grown as a people.

I'm 40ish, and I've never heard of calling a black person directly a watermelon. I've heard the term applied to environmental zealots - green on the outside, red on the inside.

I do know that eating watermelon is a stereotype of African Americans though which is why designing a Black History Month menu with watermelon on it got those private school kids in trouble. It's also one of the things you will hear about from time to time. This or that person brings watermelon to the office and the black coworker gets offended as if blacks are the *only* people in the world who ever eat it (much like fried chicken, it's darn near universal).

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

Just don't come 'round the US and ask to 'bum a fag' and you'll be good

That's a deal.

As long as you don't come to The U.K. and tell a woman you don't know that you have " Plenty Of Spunk "

a reply to: burdman30ott6


I agree that everybody is way to damn sensitive today.
The SAT's are racist...
Hell everything is...

But I think in this case somebody was directly attacking black kids.

a reply to: Blaine91555

Curiously enough, I grew up in a part of the country where it was widely viewed as something eaten by laborers because it's great for hydration when you've sweat your ass off. My Dad used to take them to work with him in the summer, as did a lot of the road workers, and I've just always associated them with the opposite of laziness because of that.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: burdman30ott6


I agree that everybody is way to damn sensitive today.
The SAT's are racist...
Hell everything is...

But I think in this case somebody was directly attacking black kids.

See, "attacking" is way too stern a word here, to me. An off color joke or brief mocking isn't an "attack" and, if it was actually considered such, the American legal system would have a lot fewer people in prison for murder and assault because you're allowed to defend yourself against attack in most states.

a reply to: alldaylong

Everything in the US is all about race. If you are a white Brit and you make the mistake of visiting the US, I would suggest you simply refrain from saying much of anything to anyone except your mates and/or your travelingn compainions.

a reply to: alldaylong

So do we know if watermelon was being served for dessert after food and drinks that day at the museum? If not I would consider it racist, however I would like to hear an unbiased witness to the event because nowadays the "racist card" gets thrown down so often without merit. As far as getting onto the kids for touching exhibits that would seem to be more telling of the groups chaperones maybe being lack in their supervision because kids of that age group can get fairly rowdy if you don't stay on top of it.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

And nobody was arrested.
An apology happened.
But the kids would have been justified to tell the worker to stick it up their cracker ass.

a reply to: alldaylong

It is casual racism in the UK too, wasn't aware the US had ever heard of it. Boris Johnson got in trouble a few years back for calling black people 'piccaninnes' with 'watermelon smiles' while writing an article about the DRC for The Spectator. Was a common caricature that influenced the gollywog doll and was/is on UK Hartleys marmalade/treacle jars.

It's roughly the same level as jungle bunny in terms of offence, too absurd/stupid to take offence to and makes the person saying it look more of a tit than the people it's aimed at. The UK has more to worry about seeing as Boris will be next PM.

Being British this is probably the craziest thing about America to me.

A watermelon is a fruit. How can it be racist? Are watermelons nazi fruit? Do they gang up on the grape and try to exterminate them in the name of watermelon supremacy? help me out here.

a reply to: 38181

Well assuming it was actually said...

I have a feeling this is one of those "I'll take Things That Didn't Happen for 200, Alex" moments (again).

originally posted by: knowledgehunter0986
Fried chicken is also racist towards black people.

So then "Can" black people work at KFC, or is that active racism?

I like how words are "Bad" (aka Weaponized) to this current generation of kids, but I noticed that people who were active in the 50's and 60's with civil rights they'll usually tell people who get up set over words to grow up.

I'm black... and I love fried chicken (and watermelon).

The issue is that depending on the context, it could be considered racist (or tone deaf) and you have to tread lightly. The problem is that there have been a lot of negative images using watermelon to demean blacks. So obviously, black folks are sensitive to it as you don't know if someone is trying to take a subtle dig at you....

Would an Italian be insulted if someone was saying No Spaghetti?