just cacs caccin
While the exact origins of this stereotype remain unclearan association of African Americans and watermelon goes back to the time of
slavery in the United States. Defenders of slavery used the fruit to paint African Americans as a simple-minded people who were happy when provided watermelon and a little rest.
[6The stereotype was perpetuated in
minstrel shows often depicting African Americans as ignorant and workshy, given to song and dance and inordinately fond of watermelon.
At the end of the 19th century, there was a brief genre of "watermelon pictures" – cinematic caricatures of African American life showing such supposedly typical pursuits as eating watermelons,
cakewalking and stealing chickens, with titles such as
The Watermelon Contest (1896),
Dancing Darkies (1896),
Watermelon Feast(1896), and
Who Said Watermelon? (1900, 1902).
[10] The African American characters in such features were initially played by black performers, but from about 1903 onwards, they were replaced by white actors performing in
blackface.
[10]
Several of the films depicted African Americans as having a virtually uncontrollable appetite for watermelons; for instance,
The Watermelon Contest and
Watermelon Feast include scenes of black men consuming the fruits at such a speed that they spew out mush and seeds. The author Novotny Lawrence suggests that such scenes had a subtext of representing black male sexuality, in which black men "love and desire the fruit in the same manner that they love sex . . . In short, black males have a watermelon 'appetite' and are always trying to see 'who can eat the most' with the strength of this 'appetite' depicted by black males uncontrollably devouring watermelon."
[11]
Early-1900s postcards often depicted African Americans as animalistic creatures "happy to do nothing but eat watermelon" – a bid to dehumanize them.
[5] Other such "c00n cards", as they were popularly known as, depicted African Americans stealing, fighting over, and becoming watermelons.
[12] One poem from the early 1900s (pictured right) reads:
[13]
"George Washington Watermelon Columbus Brown
I'se black as any little c00n in town
At eating melon I can put a pig to shame
For Watermelon am my middle name"
In March 1916, Harry C. Browne recorded a song titled "
****** Love a Watermelon Ha!, Ha! Ha!".
[14] Such songs were popular during that period and many made use of the watermelon stereotype.
[5] The script for
Gone with the Wind (1939) contained a scene in which
Scarlett O'Hara's slave Prissy, played by
Butterfly McQueen, eats watermelon; the actress refused to perform this.
[8] Usage of this stereotype died down circa 1970, although its continued power as a stereotype could still be recognized in period films, such as
Watermelon Man (1970),
The Watermelon Woman (1996), and
Bamboozled (2001).
[5] Watermelons also provided a theme for many racial jokes in the 2000s.
[12]
Protesters against African Americans frequently, among other things, hold up watermelons;
[2] racist imagery of President Barack Obama consuming watermelon has been the subject of
viral emails circulated by political opponents. After his election, watermelon-themed imagery of Obama has continued to be created and endorsed, some of it by members of the
Republican Party.
[5]
In February 2009,
Los Alamitos Mayor (and Orange County Republican Party Central Committee member) Dean Grose tendered his resignation (albeit very temporarily) after forwarding the White House an email deemed as racist. The message displayed a picture of the White House lawn planted with watermelons.
[15] Grose claimed that he was not aware of the watermelon stereotype.
[16] A statue of Obama holding a watermelon in Kentucky drew criticism; the owner of the statue maintained that the watermelon was there because "[the statue] might get hungry standing out here."
[1
Just the smell of it makes me nauseous.... Yuck
