Watermelon stereotype

File:I'se so happy - postcard.jpg

A 1909 postcard, bearing the caption "I'se so happy!"

The watermelon stereotype is a stereotype of African Americans that states that African Americans have an unusually great appetite for watermelons. This stereotype has remained prevalent into the 21st century.

History

The origins of this stereotype have been traced to Europe, where the typical watermelon-eater was an Italian or Arab peasant. Described as “a poor Arab’s feast” and "a meager substitute for a proper meal" by a British officer stationed in Egypt in 1801, the locals were portrayed eating watermelons “ravenously ... as if afraid the passer-by was going to snatch them away.” The fruit symbolizes uncleanliness, laziness, childishness, and unwanted public presence — because it is hard to eat a watermelon by oneself.

Watermelons have been viewed as a major symbol in the iconography of racism in the United States since as early as the nineteenth century. The truthfulness of this stereotype has been questioned; one survey conducted from 1994 to 1996 showed that African Americans, at the time 12.5 percent of the country's population, only accounted for 11.1 percent of the United States' watermelon consumption.

The 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. The stereotype was perpetuated in minstrel shows often depicting African Americans as ignorant and work-shy, given to song and dance and inordinately fond of watermelon.

For several decades in the late 19th century through to the mid-20th century, it was promoted through caricatures in print, film, sculpture and music, and was a common decorative theme on household goods. Even as recently as Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and his subsequent administrations, watermelon imagery has been used by his detractors.

In popular culture

File:Who Said Watermelon.jpg

Pickaninny caricature from the early 1900s. The postcard shows a picture of a black boy eating a watermelon, with a stereotypical poem inscribed underneath.

The link between African Americans and watermelons may have been promoted in part by African American minstrels who sang popular songs such as "The Watermelon Song" and "Oh, Dat Watermelon" in their shows, and which were set down in print in the 1870s. The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago planned to include a "Colored People's Day" featuring African American entertainers and free watermelons for the African American visitors whom the exposition's organizers hoped to attract. It was a flop, as the city's African American community boycotted the exposition, along with many of the performers booked to attend on Colored People's Day.

Watermelon pictures

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). 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.

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."

Early-1900s postcards often depicted African Americans as animalistic creatures "happy to do nothing but eat watermelon" – a bid to dehumanize them. Other such "Coon cards", as they were popularly known as, depicted African Americans stealing, fighting over, and becoming watermelons. One poem from the early 1900s (pictured right) reads:

"George Washington Watermelon Columbus Brown
I'se black as any little coon 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 "Nigger Love a Watermelon Ha!, Ha! Ha!". Such songs were popular during that period and many made use of the watermelon stereotype. 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. Usage of this stereotype died down circa 1970, although its continued power as a stereotype could still be recognized in films such as Watermelon Man (1970), The Watermelon Woman (1996), and Bamboozled (2001). Watermelons also provided a theme for many racial jokes in the 2000s.

Protesters against African Americans frequently, among other things, hold up watermelons; racist imagery of President Barack Obama consuming watermelon has been the subject of viral emails circulated by his political opponents. After his election, watermelon-themed imagery of Obama has continued to be created and endorsed.

In February 2009, Los Alamitos Mayor 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. Grose claimed that he was not aware of the watermelon stereotype. 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."

On October 1, 2014, the Boston Herald ran an editorial cartoon depicting an intruder asking if Obama has tried watermelon-flavored toothpaste, to much controversy.

On January 7, 2016, Australian cartoonist Chris Roy Taylor published an image of Jamaican cricketer Chris Gayle with a watermelon in his mouth. Gayle had been in the news for making controversial suggestive comments towards a white female interviewer during a live broadcast. He had also been accused of allegedly exposing himself to a woman during the 2015 Cricket World Cup. In an unrelated story, a boy eating a whole watermelon – rind and all – in the stands of a cricket match had also gone viral. Taylor agreed to delete the story after allegedly learning of the stereotype for the first time, claiming ignorance because he lived in Australia.

Gallery

• Black boy carrying a watermelon lithograph.jpg

  Lithograph of a black boy holding a watermelon, circa 1850–1900

• African Americans dancing around a pile of watermelons.jpg

  Lithograph of Blacks dancing around a pile of watermelons, circa 1900

• 1900sc Postcard-Watermelon 04.jpg

  Postcard ("Coon card") from the 1900s

• 1904 Watermelon Coon Card 1.jpg

  "Coon card" from 1904

• I've been disturbing the piece.jpg

  "Coon card" from 1910

• You can plainly see how miserable I am.jpg

  "Coon card" from 1911, with the title "You can plainly see how miserable I am"

• 

  Reproduction of an old tin sign advertising Picaninny Freeze, a frozen treat.

• Scrub Me Mama watermelon.JPG

  A character from the 1941 cartoon Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat enjoying a watermelon.

• Thomas Hovenden I Know'd It Was Ripe c. 1885.jpg

  I Know'd It Was Ripe, c. 1888 by Thomas Hovenden Brooklyn Museum

See also

• Coon Chicken Inn