'Ghetto Talent Show,' Watermelon Eating Contest Outrages Community

[truthpusher]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/wplg/20050726/lo_wplg/2846468

'Ghetto Talent Show,' Watermelon Eating Contest Outrages Community
----------------------------
Tue Jul 26, 5:49 PM ET
----------------------------
Miami city leaders are apologizing for a news release that invited summer campers to a ''Ghetto Style Talent Show'' and ''Watermelon Eating Contest.''

The release said that children participating in the summer camp who "know the meaning of ghetto style" would have a chance to "prove just how ghetto they are.''

Members of the black community expressed outrage at the wording of the invitation to the talent show. The show will be part of the grand finale picnic for the city's summer camp program to be held Friday at Hadley Park.

After being criticized by residents of the nearby Model City neighborhood and community leaders, Miami Parks Director Ernest Burkeen, who is black, released a formal apology and announced the renaming of the talent show.

The show will now be called the "Funky Talent Show," according to Burkeen's written statement. The watermelon contest will still be part of the event.

(snip)

complete story: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/wplg/20050726/lo_wplg/2846468

[Blue_Tires]

1. poor taste n/t

[jojo54]

3. Very poor taste, indeed! n/t

[Julius Civitatus]

2. Idiots. Complete idiots.

What were they thinking?

[pseudostar]

4. LOL

Just from the post I said "This has to be Florida"
2 points for 'star

Im surprised they renamed it 'Funky' and didnt go for the newer secret code word 'Urban'.

:yoiks:

[Racenut20]

18. In St Pete it is "midtown" and "diversity". Our own little code for the

South Side of town.

[Coexist]

5. I don't get the connection between ghetto and watermelon?

I like watermelon. It has a lot of iron.

[TahitiNut]

6. A picture is worth a thousand words ...

[Coexist]

9. Oh my - I had no idea

sorry for my ignorance and thanks for the photo.

Now I am sitting here wondering if I have ever unknowingly insulted anyone by offering them watermelon. I have it at my house all the time as dessert in the summer.

[bemildred]

11. Probably not.

It's the Ghetto-Watermelon connection that does it.
It's an old racial stereotype, but it has nothing specific to do with the virtues of Watermelon as such.

[Sequoia]

12. Watermelon story.

First off, it's a shame that the wonderful watermelon and blacks are associated in a such a very neagative manner. During the slave days, they would plant a watermelon in the cotton fields and would be able to have it on hot days.

A few years ago a woman from NJ that I worked with brought in photos of a party she had. I noticed a big watermelon and said, "Oh, look you have a watermelon at your party". (It wasn't summertime). She got this worried look on her face and looked at the phots, and said, "Where, we didn't event any black people". My jaw must've dropped to the floor and said, "What!? You call black people watermelons! What's wrong with you?!"

Watermelons and weed, negative associtatons for God's gifts to us.

[SemperEadem]

7. then you should research racial imagery in the early 20th century media

and then you'll make the connect.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. Please tell me that you are kidding....

...please.

[Coexist]

10. sorry - I'm not - I truly didn't know.

I feel bad if it makes you feel any better.

[powwowdancer]

30. you'll find this a shocker...

In all the "antique malls" (read, "junk stores") in the south, this kind of outrage has a ubiquitous presence that is at once both chilling and nauseating. Viz, African-American children in various "comical" situations, usually from old advertisements, and involving, you guessed it, watermelons or worse, their genitalia and body functions. I just did a quickie search at eBay, and came up with an example of the watermelon variety for you: LINK
That these things are so poplular as collector's items that they have spawned modern "replicas" is quite telling about our society. Notice that this particular image is being sold from Atlanta GA.

:dem:
powwowdancer out

[bitchkitty]

32. Why note that it's being sold in Atlanta, GA?

Sure GA has a racist past, and there are still racists there, but I live in Oregon, and there is very little diversity here. It's everywhere, not just the South.

[powwowdancer]

33. there's diversity, and then there's...

Well, let's just say that absence of African Americans is by no means equivalent with the kind of deep-seated, insidious, ubiquitous race hatred that has smoldered in the south for centuries. (I'm from the south, so I feel comfortable painting it with such a broad stroke.) And hey, if you're from TN KY AL GA VA WVA FL the Carolinas or MISS, (and to a lesser extent, TX AK Missouri & OK, who were basically "settled" by folks from the aforementioned states), you know exactly what I'm talking about. Even if strides have been made, (and I'd not want for one second to minimize the risks taken and lives damaged in the struggle against racism, for some of the greatest battles were fought in the South), and even if it hurts to think of a place you love being the continuing victim of this mercifully diminishing cancer, it remains an ugly truth. And yeah, bigots is bigots wherever you go, I'll give you that, but... bigotry has it's roots in the slave trade, (and a whoppin' dose of the european gestalt of imperial hubris and notions of racial superiority, but that's another can o' worms for another day), and the American slave trade truly flowered in the south. I apologize if I have hurt your feelings, but I call it as I have seen it. To say the south is no more racist than any place else is just not so. Race hatred, (American style), was born and bred here, and God help us, because of that, it is here where it will breath it's last. I welcome the day. It just ain't today.

:dem:
powwowdancer out

[bitchkitty]

35. Have you ever been to Idaho?

Montana? Utah?

I'm half Southern, wasn't born there but I have a Southern family and lived much of my life in Georgia. I agree that Georgia has more than its share of rednecks, but this side of the country has almost if not as many - they're just quieter about it and hence MUCH more dangerous, IMO.

[belle]

34. I think it's good that some people don't know--means the stereotype has

faded a bit at least in some parts. I bet 50-70 years ago you wouldn't find many people who didn't have that image as part of their unconscious, not to say conscious. fewer, probably.

[Sequoia]

14. Say, HHNF, Cut some slack for this person.

Not everyone knows this. A lot of people posting here are young 'uns and weren't taught all the history of the USA. School text books sweep negative things like slavery and lynching under the rug. When I was a kid our history books showed happy healthy slaves singing in the cotton fields while the white ladies sat on their porch with another slave happily fanning them. As if.....!

Besides, where are any gardens in a ghetto? Watermelons take up a lot of space and the quality of the soil isn't the best for growing seeing as how it might be contaminated with chemical runoff from the toxic mill.

[donco6]

19. Definitely wouldn't want to eat watermelon from contaminated lot

That baby would be packed full of pollutants. Yuk. :(

I still can't believe they put that flyer out like that. Even growing up in lily-white Kansas I would have known better.

[Deja Q]

13. Sounds DYN-O-MITE if you ask me.

:mad:

Definite Jmmy Walker's style of humor... and that was unnatural too.

[KittyWampus]

15. What Are Your Bananas Riding On?

[Ian David]

16. Related articles: Black people, watermelons and racism

When I was a freshman in college, there was a talent show. A popular and well-intentioned young (white) lady decided to do a tribute to Donna Summer.

Fair enough.

But as part of her tribute, she painted her face black.

The strange thing is, none of her friends (including the black ones) told her this would be a bad idea.

She didn't have an inkling there would be a problem until she took the stage and was greeted with stunned silence.

See:
Blackface Minstrelsy
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/minstrl.html






Well, of course there were several weeks of the obligatory flame wars in the school newspaper.

To make things worse, there was a second uproar when the paper made an unfortunate typo.

One well-intentioned letter sent to the editor included the phrase, "You People of Color..."What actually made it into the paper was, "You people..."

That extended the flame-war by another month or so.

On the one hand it is good that some racial stereotypes are passing out of mainstream recognition. On the other, it is tragic that we are forgetting the history and context of what is in the past.


The Blackface Stereotype
Manthia Diawara

<snip>

THE STEREOTYPE AND THE CONTENT OF HISTORY

I was looking at more than 150 prints of Levinthal's in my living room one day when my 13-year-old son came along and asked what I was doing. I showed him the pictures and explained that white people used to make these images to show that black people were inferior to them and to justify racism and segregation. I introduced him to Aunt Jemima and said that white racists wanted people to believe that all black women were fat and dressed in a white apron and a kerchief as a permanent fixture of white peoples kitchens. Black people were also represented as porters and shoeshine boys at train stations. Those who rebelled against these portrayals of themselves and their race were depicted as Rastus, uppity niggers and called "Zip Coons." When we got to the image that associated black people with watermelons, he asked, "Oh yeah, why are they always smiling like that, with those big red lips?" I told him that whites used to malign black people as watermelon and chicken thieves. They would say that during the night, when it was pitch dark, black people would go to the masters field to steal watermelons, or, like foxes, to the chicken coop to steal chickens. But supposedly, these black people were always betrayed by their white teeth and white eyes which shone in the dark like lightning. So they could not hide, even in the darkest of nights, even though they were so black. That was why their smiles were cut like slices of watermelon and they were considered, like chickens, to be cowards. My son laughed and remained pensive for a moment before resuming his mundane activities.

More:
http://www.blackculturalstudies.org/m_diawara/blackface.html


Also:


Talking Race Over a Slice of Watermelon
By Keith M. Woods

The watermelons seemed like a good idea at the time. Rain had dampened the celebration at Campbell Park, and the photojournalist, trying to salvage a story, searched for a picture that would say, "rained out." She found the watermelons, stacked two-high and dripping in the drizzle, symbols of all the fun that had been washed away that day.


<snip>

Some of the Fellows said they'd never heard about any stereotypes associated with watermelons. Maybe that means the stereotype is fading away, one Fellow suggested, so why sacrifice a good photo for a has-been stigma? Another said she recognized an insult immediately and cringed at the thought of publishing the picture. Follow one instinct and the photo, already on the website, would stay. Follow the other, and it would be deleted. The options, at first, seemed fairly stark.

There was a time when the best decision would have been clear: Spike the picture.

Since the earliest days of plantation slavery, the caricature of the dark-skinned black child, his too-red lips stretched to grotesque extremes as they opened to chomp down on watermelon, was a staple of racism's diet. Over time, the watermelon became a symbol of the broader denigration of black people. It became part of the image perpetuated by a white culture bent upon bolstering the myth of superiority by depicting the inferior race as lazy, simple-minded pickaninnies interested only in such mindless pleasures as a slice of sweet watermelon.

Like all racial and ethnic stereotypes, this one's destructive properties have, through the decades, stretched far beyond mere insult. It has helped poison self-esteem, pushing some people to avoid doing anything that seemed too "black," lest they be lumped into the company of Uncle Remus, Aunt Jemima, or some other relative of racism.

More:
http://poynteronline.org/column.asp?id=58&aid=42722



Also:

All in The Family

Episode 123.
BIRTH OF THE BABY (PART 1)
December 15, 1975
Stuck in a phone booth in an Italian restaurant, Gloria goes into labor while Archie is busy rehearsing for his lodge's minstrel show.

Episode 124.
BIRTH OF THE BABY (PART 2)
December 22, 1975
Archie arrives at the hospital direct from his minstrel show -- in
blackface -- just in time for Gloria's blessed event.

More:
http://www.allinthefamilysit.com/episodes_part3.shtml


Back in 1987, my girlfriend (her family was from Taiwan) had this tube of toothpaste in her bathroom.

[psychopomp]

20. Your second photo shows Japanese men

I am sure of it; Japanese people still wear blackface, I've seen it firsthand on several occasions. The most recent was in a city parade a couple of months ago. A national newspaper (Mainichi Shinbun) had a reggae theme and all the guys were in blackface with fake dreadlock wigs and red, gold and green tams.

My Jamaican friend who was not told of this element before he showed up to ride the float was not amused.

[Ian David]

21. Man, that does suck.

I hope your Jamaican friend was also progressive to speak-up about this:

Homophobic lyrics in Dancehall Music and It's Impact on the Careers of Jamaican Artists

As dancehall music experiences an all-time high in worldwide popularity, pressure from gay activists in the U.S., the U.K., Jamaica and elsewhere threatens to hamper the careers of its artists.

Popular dancehall veteran Beenie Man was axed from a MTV affiliated concert scheduled in Miami as a part of the festivies surrounding MTV’s Video Music Awards (VMA). The cancellation was a result of protests from local gay activists. Activists were quoted in the Miami Herald as saying “The gay and lesbian community is tired of being used by artists who want to obtain publicity at the expense of our community. What these artists lack in talent, they try to make up with bravado. The problem is that their bravado puts people's lives at risk.”

<snip>

Beenie Man is certainly not the first dancehall artist to come under the fire for homophobic lyrics, Shabba Ranks and Buju Banton’s career never fully recovered from the fallout over their songs. While Buju received rave reviews for his recent performance at the Olympic Village in Athens, Greece he was recently axed from the Reggae Jam Festival in Saarbruecken, Germany. Dragan Nikitovic, the promoter of the festival was reported to be so disgusted by the lyrics of Buju’s infamous song “Boom Bye Bye” that he was prepared to accept monetary losses that he may incur as a result of the cancellation. Concert appearances by Buju in Hamburg and Darmstadt were also cancelled. Beenie Man and his on-again-off-again nemesis Bounty Killer have both experienced the recent cancellation of shows in England as a result of protests by the British homosexual community.

Almost every artist in the dancehall industry has included anti-gay lyrics in their music. The quartet T.O.K’s song “Chi-Chi Man” was a massive crossover success in the U.S. and despite protests the group continues to enjoy a similar success rate with their other hits.

While free speech has become a pivotal issue in the ongoing debate many argue that the lyrics are used to incite violence against gays. The recent murder of Brian Williamson, a gay activist in Jamaica has been used as fuel to fire for this argument despite the fact that Jamaican police are treating this as a robbery in which Williamson’s sexuality did not play a role.

More:
http://afiwi.com/specials/2004/homophobia_in_dancehall/

[psychopomp]

22. Speak up to whom?

The parade organizers? I don't think so.

[Ian David]

27. No, I mean his fellow Jamaicans, the Dancehall Music industry, etc. n/t

[JawJaw]

23. "Black & White Minstrel Show"

Second photo is a still from the BBC show "The black & white minstrel show" that ran from 1958 to 1978. It was a top rating show of its era, (even won the Golden Rose of Montreux TV award in 1961)!! All the men performed with black make up, and they serenaded a bevvy of white women.

Some older people still have fond memories of this show as it featured many of the old cheesy music hall songs that don't get played anywhere else.

I was surprised to see that the original cast were again touring across the UK, although they now perform without the make-up.

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/htmlB/blackandwhim/blackandwhim.htm

[psychopomp]

25. Thanks

I used to be more disgusted by this sort of thing but now I consider it only an extension of the ignorance of the person acting out this stereotype.

[renaissanceguy]

17. What, in FLORIDA?

BIG shocker there!

:sarcasm:

[phrenzy]

24. Where Does The Watermelon Connection Come From?

I've always known it's use as an offensive stereo-type (along with chicken wings and Cadilacs or whatever).. .But where does it originate from? Is it from the south?

[Sgent]

28. Yes its from the south

The watermelon was one of the ways for blacks working in the cotton fields to get water (other than carrying it) during the summer and fall.

Note that blacks alone did not use the melon -- every race in the south did, esp. amongst the poorer classes after the civil war. Many ppl in their late 50's still didn't have running water in their youth.

[6th Borough]

26. Gahh...I should have known this would be another Miami related thread.

Some things never change.

[Catfight]

29. shaking head in embarrassment of the state of Florida. Florida hates

diversity.

[Freddie Stubbs]

31. The guy who organized the event is African American

This isn't about diversity, it's about common sense.

[ConfuZed]

36. Oh god trhese people should get over themselves

Is there a problem with african americans eating watermellon now?

[Catherine Vincent]

37. Stupidity at it's finest!