Ryan Alexander Holmes Instagram – As a kid i heard the stereotype that black ppl liked watermelon & fried chicken & I was like “you mean Chinese ppl?” bc we BOTH LOVE BOTH. who doesn’t?! 🍉
origin: “The watermelon stereotype is an anti-Black racist trope originating in the Southern United States. It first arose as a backlash against African-American emancipation and economic self-sufficiency in the late 1860s.
After the American Civil War, in several areas of the south, former slaves grew watermelon on their own land as a cash-crop to sell. Thus, for African-Americans, watermelons were a symbol of liberation and self-reliance, while for many in the majority white culture they embodied, and threatened, a loss of dominance. Southern-white resentment against African Americans led to a politically potent cultural caricature, using the watermelon to disparage African Americans as sloppy, childish, unclean, lazy, and publicly embarrassing.” – Black, William R. (2018). “How Watermelons Became Black: Emancipation and the Origins of a Racist Trope”. Journal of the Civil War Era. | Posted on 12/Apr/2024 20:28:22
