| | | Watermelon has been the food I list as my favorite since I was a small child. I have grown patches of watermelon, enough that I could sell them off the back of my truck some forty years ago.
They are still the favorite. Just for fun when my daughter was young we kept a chart on the wall in the summer. We would rate each watermelon we got for ripeness, crispness, sweetness, and visual appeal each summer to be able to award a winner by the end of summer.
This summer she noticed something weird about how people associate watermelons with black people as a funny thing. I had a hard time explaining how stupid it is to snicker about something like that. I asked her to just forget it but it was bugging her so. I talked about it. I know it can be embarrassing for black people. There has been art, music, stories, postcards, jokes, even movies mocking black people eating watermelons. It sucks but I have seen black people look over their shoulder before picking a watermelon or just avoid them altogether (except when at my table of course). Who doesn't like watermelon? Well, it is a stereotype that somehow painted black people in slavery times as being simple and easy to please. ehhh, what could I say to my kid? Its a shame. Yeah, its easy to please me, so pass me a nice sweet ripe slice of watermelon. tsk
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