Said Gabrielle E.W. Carter, "a multimedia artist and gardener in Apex, N.C.," quoted in "Summer’s Greatest Prize: Watermelons, With Seeds, Please/For many Americans, juicy, scarlet watermelon is a must for Juneteenth. The heirloom varieties are a sacred summer fruit" in The New York Times.
I did not know that it was possible to write an article about black people and watermelon, but here it is.
All season long, you’ll find watermelon eating in its purest form — palms clenching the rinds over gingham tablecloths; all pleasure and no tropes — at family reunions, at get-togethers on terraces and around patio fire pits. Consuming the fruit is a sacrament of an American summer, and, for many Black Americans, a must for Juneteenth, the Texas-born holiday gaining national recognition that’s celebrated with red punch, strawberry spoon cake and dry-rubbed ribs.
On the received wisdom that it's racist to discuss black people and watermelon, here's "How Watermelons Became a Racist Trope" (The Atlantic).
[T]he stereotype that African Americans are excessively fond of watermelon emerged for a specific historical reason and served a specific political purpose. The trope came in 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....
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....
Many slave owners let their slaves grow and sell their own watermelons, or even let them take a day off during the summer to eat the first watermelon harvest.... [S]outhern whites saw their slaves’ enjoyment of watermelon as a sign of their own supposed benevolence. Slaves were usually careful to enjoy watermelon according to the code of behavior established by whites... the watermelon-craving, juice-dribbling pickaninny....
D. W. Griffith’s white-supremacist epic film The Birth of a Nation, released in 1915, included a watermelon feast in its depiction of emancipation, as corrupt northern whites encouraged the former slaves to stop working and enjoy some watermelon instead. In these racist fictions, blacks were no more deserving of freedom than were children....
[T]he truth is that there is nothing inherently racist about watermelons.... Whites used the stereotype to denigrate black people....
See also, "On eating watermelon in front of white people: 'I’m not as free as I thought'/Racism has a powerful, sneaky way of inflicting shame" by Cynthia Greenlee (in Vox).
ALSO: The pop star Lizzo ate watermelon (with mustard) on camera on TikTok recently and got over 5 million hearts, so there's some kind of repositioning — un-shaming or reclamation — going on.
AND: Lizzo is eating seedless watermelon.
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11 comments:
Steve writes:
For the record, *everyone* in the South loves fried chicken and watermelon. It's always been hard to understand how they could have become a racial slur.
These days eating watermelon seems more of an at home, private affair. Fried chicken, on the other hand, is everywhere. My son relates a story of how he was in line at a concession stand at a local amusement park. The couple at the front of the line were quietly arguing when the woman burst out, "I don't care what the stereotype is, I want fried chicken!"
Damn the bastards that made eating the most beloved Southern foods a racial slur that so many people feel they have to deny themselves (at least in public).
Reminds me of the post the other day about Patrick Sky, who was taken to a "soul food" restaurant in the 1960s and didn't know the term, but, on encountering the the food, said "In the south, we call this food."
Tony Aldrich writes:
I live in Massachusetts now, but I grew up, white, in Texas in the 40s and 50s. Home air conditioning was just coming in, so I went to a lot of picnics and back-yard barbecues in the summer. There was always a LOT of watermelon. We ate a lot of fried chicken, too. And ribs.
So I don't know about this racist trope.
Tony adds: "And I still prefer watermelon with seeds."
Amadeus 48 writes:
You know who loves watermelons even more than humans on a summer day? Elephants! Look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYDBOVcpJWs
I await the long, chin-stroking article in the Atlantic about how the elephant, with its affection for watermelon, became the symbol of the GOP because of the Republicans’ association with emancipation and the freedom of the slaves and how the elephant became the GOP symbol through the catcalling of aggrieved Democrats.
I made all that up, but it is more entertaining than the latest from the White Fragility frontlines, and it has just as much substance.
John Henry writes:
Dick Gregory in his book of the unsayable name (still available via the portal. Don’t know why Amazon has not banned it) discussed this, though more with fried chicken, IIRC. He said that he loved fried chicken but, due to the stereotype about black Americans and fried chicken, he never felt comfortable eating it around white people because it reinforced the stereotype. As you mentioned, this article seems to embrace the stereotype.
Looking for the quote, not finding it, I was reminded that Gregory is now a vegetarian and probably doesn’t enjoy fried chicken in any setting.
Everyday I see more examples of the return of segregation. Today Glenn mentioned an all black coffee shop on some college campus. All for the good of the blacks, of course. I wonder if this article is another attempt on the same lines, to emphasize the old racial divides?
Also, who eats watermelon rinds with their palms? Once or twice I’ve taken a half melon and stuck my whole face it. Cooling but messy and I probably held it in my palms. But most people eat watermelon slices or segments and hold it with their fingers. OTOH, it is the NY Times so they probably have no idea of how... black folk eat watermelon. Especially outside of NYC.
Joseph Bleau writes:
"Mark Twain wrote of his childhood sunny days in Florida Mo. He said that eating watermelon on a summer day was to know what the angels ate. I always argued with my family, they were watermelon salters, I was not. Strawberries in July was another event."
madAsHell asks: "In my garden, the watermelon isn't ready until September, and there were no hot-house gardens in Lincoln's time. So, how did watermelon's become associated with Juneteenth?"
Ron writes: "Dave Chappelle has, of course, done <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8YAK8oMEKI>a bit about racist stereotypes and food</a>."
portly pirate writes:
"Ever heard of the practice of eating watermelon with salt? My Mississippi-born father ate it this way. He also ate biscuits with cane syrup poured over them - - with a fork, as if they were pancakes."
Yes, we ate cantaloupe and watermelon with salt in my family.
We also ate pancakes with sausage gravy.
And scrapple.
michael writes: "As a person [of] palor, I like watermelon also. Or is that no longer permitted? The rules for this new world aren't clear to me, what is permitted, what is restricted, and what is forbidden based on characteristics that I was taught once were irrelevant, but now I am told are crucial to everything."
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