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Condi Drops a Watermelon

b33fj3rky said:
At my gas station, we're now selling watermelon-flavored blunts. I've tried putting up various signs to boost sales, including "Watermelon Blunts: Live Dat Stereotype, Dawg!" and "Free Fried Chicken Wit A Dozen Blunts, Yo!" As my clientele consists pretty much exclusively of suburban white teenage gangsta wanna-be's white trash, they've failed to comprehend the humor.
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Wow! You can buy a "blunt" at a gas station in Tennessee? :)

P.S. I've always found the "suburban white, teen, gangsta wannabe a comical creature, at least until they open their mouth. (edited to add) Dawg!
 
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CFLarsen said:
Sorry, but when I grew up, chicken was a Sunday treat. Once in a while, thank you very much.

Sure, today, chicken is every day's food. But not a mere 20-30 years ago.

And I'm "white". Or, rather, "dough-colored". "Pig-colored" if you like. "Skin Cancer Prone", even.

Water melon? Can only be consumed in two ways: Outside, or in the bath tub. Where's the "black" connection? "Whites" never ate water melon?

This is so stupid.
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There is a racial connection, Larsen. Putting watermelon and Condi Rice together was not an accident. And it has a particular meaning both to the person using the stereotype and the person who is being stereotyped.

I don't think anybody is saying watermelon or fried chicken are bad.
 
After being raised on fresh black diamond watermelons from a country farm owned by my uncle, I fail to understand the black/watermelon stereotype. Southern whites far more enjoy watermelon. I would like to find the roots of this stereotype some time.
 
CFLarsen said:
Where's the "black" connection? "Whites" never ate water melon?
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Okay, I'm not black, but my understanding of it is this:

Watermelon was something slaves ate lots of back in the bad old days; it was cheap and easy to grow, and, as everyone who's eaten it can attest, it's wonderfully tasty and refreshing, especially on a hot summer day.

From that came the misperception that blacks liked watermelon a lot more than whites, that they liked watermelon better than almost any other food.

Couple that misperception with popular Uncle Tom type caricatures of blacks with big, fat, red lips, greedily gobbling down watermelon, while saying stuff like "Yassuh! Ah sholy does likes mah watah-mellon!" and you see why blacks get touchy when someone associates them with watermelon anywhere except a company summer picnic.

Check out no one in particular's link for some examples:
This google image search may shed some light.
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In particular, this image (warning to the sensitive: the "N" word is in there).
 
I think you've all missed the point... Condi can throw a watermelon upwards at 20 feet a second... implying she should be playing basketball.
 
I think you've all missed the point... Condi can throw a watermelon upwards at 20 feet a second... implying she should be playing basketball. :)
 
you are all missing the point, did the watermelon fall at, or near, "free fall speeds", and if so, how much explosive did she use?
 
sphenisc said:
I think you've all missed the point... Condi can throw a watermelon upwards at 20 feet a second... implying she should be playing basketball.
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I don't think she'd be an effective shot-blocker or rebounder. And can she set up a pick?

Actually, anyone who can throw a watermelon up at 20 fps (I noticed that, too...) should probably be on the US Olympic shot put team.
 
BPSCG said:
Okay, I'm not black, but my understanding of it is this:

Watermelon was something slaves ate lots of back in the bad old days; it was cheap and easy to grow, and, as everyone who's eaten it can attest, it's wonderfully tasty and refreshing, especially on a hot summer day.

From that came the misperception that blacks liked watermelon a lot more than whites, that they liked watermelon better than almost any other food.

Couple that misperception with popular Uncle Tom type caricatures of blacks with big, fat, red lips, greedily gobbling down watermelon, while saying stuff like "Yassuh! Ah sholy does likes mah watah-mellon!" and you see why blacks get touchy when someone associates them with watermelon anywhere except a company summer picnic.

Check out no one in particular's link for some examples:
In particular, this image (warning to the sensitive: the "N" word is in there).
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Why is this relevant in 2006?
 
Zep said:
Thanks for that - I am beginning to understand.

It's a bit like saying all Aussies go around wearing cork-bedecked hats, throwing shrimp on barbies, and shouting Crikey! ;)
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And carrying big knives and saying "this is noife" :D
 
ImaginalDisc said:
Because racism, and racial/ethnic sterotypes are still prevalent.

Please excuse me while I go play dominos, and instigate a revolution.
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Before you go, does that mean that we cannot put "blacks" and "watermelons" in the same sentence?
 
CFLarsen said:
Before you go, does that mean that we cannot put "blacks" and "watermelons" in the same sentence?
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Don't give me that strawman, Claus. I never claimed that was the case. There's little reason to put blacks and watermelons in the same scentence, in a state test. It's just insensitive.
 
BPSCG said:
In particular, this image (warning to the sensitive: the "N" word is in there).
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If we're keeping score, your second link contained "the "N" word" too.

Anyway, it seems rather idiotic to me that the professor for this class thought it was ok to include this question. We can all pretend that racism has gone the way of the dinosaurs, but obviously it hasn't. Giving this question to the entire class is certainly unprofessional and while it may not have been intentionally racist, it would make me question the professor's competency. Sheer stupidity on the professor's part IMO.
 
CFLarsen said:
Before you go, does that mean that we cannot put "blacks" and "watermelons" in the same sentence?
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You probably want to use some judgement, anyway. In this instance, I don't think there's any question the anonymous author of this math problem intended it to be a racial slur.
 
At first I thought this was a total non-story - that it was about some "hyper-sensitivity" to race, however reading the article again I think there are perhaps some hints that this was more then that.

The article states that:

...

The test question was originally written with the name of a comedian, Gallagher, whose signature shtick was to smash a variety of objects, often watermelons. Later, the question was rewritten, and the name was changed to Condoleezza, Floten said.

...
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And if you do a quick search you find that he is indeed associated with water melons (http://www.gallaghersmash.com/), you can even join the "watermelon vine" mailing list. So using his name in this type of question would be typical of an academic trying to make the questions a bit more fun or *shudder* trendy.

However some teacher decided to change this reference to something that makes no sense at all. I mean why pick the Secretary of State to become the subject - is there some on-going joke about her throwing stuff up in the air? (I couldn't find any evidence of this but perhaps someone from the USA could confirm that she doesn't have such an association?). Since there seems to be no such association the next thing is to look at who the person is, we know she is a politician, so perhaps the motive could be political (in switching to using her as the subject)? But that then raises the question what political point could the question be making or what political agenda could it be serving? Also keeping in mind that since the question was being changed why continue to keep the object a watermelon since the reason for making it a watermelon (i.e. the association with the comedian) had been removed?

Can't come to any definite conclusions but the whole thing does seem a bit strange and suspicious.
 
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ImaginalDisc said:
Don't give me that strawman, Claus. I never claimed that was the case. There's little reason to put blacks and watermelons in the same scentence, in a state test. It's just insensitive.
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Can we do it elsewhere, then?
 
Unless you grew up in the US, or are immersed in it's various cultures, I can see how this would be pretty hard to understand.

I would love to come up with an analogy for Clause, but since I didn't grow up in ...whatever ed-forsaken country he is from, I can't.

So...Jose decides to swim across the Rio Grande. He can begin swiming at two miles per hour but slows in a linear fashion by .01 mile per hour per yard. The point of crossing is 600 yards wide. How long will it take the border patrol police to arrest him, make him promise to show up for a deportation hearing, and let him go?
 
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