Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

African Americans object to watermelon caricature at State Fair
Sacramento Bee ^ | 08/28/08 | Stephen Magagnini

Posted on 08/28/2008 4:16:14 PM PDT by steveo

Jim Thrasher and his wife were enjoying the California State Fair this weekend until they came upon the Colusa County exhibit.

For the African American couple from Sacramento, the exhibit's depiction of "Waldo Watermelon Seed" conjured up painful images of the Jim Crow era.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: 2silly4words; countyfair; crybaby; offended
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last

1 posted on 08/28/2008 4:16:14 PM PDT by steveo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: steveo

Mrs. steveo and I were at the fair and walked right by this display and didn’t think a thing of it.


2 posted on 08/28/2008 4:18:19 PM PDT by steveo (Hi mom!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo

Mr. Thrasher and company are working overtime in their attempts to be offended.


3 posted on 08/28/2008 4:20:20 PM PDT by johniegrad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo

‘Jim Crow era’

Those evil Democrats have left a legacy that still hurts people today. Have they no shame?


4 posted on 08/28/2008 4:22:52 PM PDT by BGHater (Democracy is the road to socialism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: johniegrad

Congress recently established National Watermelon Month. Where’s the outrage?


5 posted on 08/28/2008 4:23:08 PM PDT by nobama08
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: steveo

If that other character was black, they’d complain about the lips.


6 posted on 08/28/2008 4:25:34 PM PDT by frankjr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo

7 posted on 08/28/2008 4:25:43 PM PDT by Snurple
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo
If they are 58 like the article says, I can see their point to a certain degree,

I can understand why they would think it was offensive.

But, OTOH, how about not being so damn sensitive and realize this country had moved beyond your painful memories and almost nobody will give it a second thought.

In other words, grow up already. Not every white person is racist

8 posted on 08/28/2008 4:25:43 PM PDT by Popman (McCain as POTUS is odious, Obama as POTUS is unthinkable.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo
Jim Crow is a Democrat. Has anyone told that to Barry Obama?
9 posted on 08/28/2008 4:26:32 PM PDT by HighlyOpinionated (“Anybody who has used or advocates using a contraceptive knows when life begins”.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo
at least it wasn't a theoretical object in space that is so dense even light can't escape.
10 posted on 08/28/2008 4:28:28 PM PDT by txroadkill (Liberals believe that the only oppressed people in Cuba are the terrorist in GitMo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo

And now for some ole work songs.


11 posted on 08/28/2008 4:28:32 PM PDT by Joe Boucher (An enemy of Islam)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo

They would probably not like this one either.

12 posted on 08/28/2008 4:29:41 PM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Conservation? Let the NE Yankees freeze.... in the dark)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo
After The Bee's inquiries, Colusa County representatives took down the image Wednesday. “They don't want to offend anybody and will modify the exhibit,” ................

Ok a watermelon seed is black and the exhibit is going to be modified. What flipping color are you going to make the watermelon seed? This s**t is getting out of hand. When will people begin to stand up to it. I guess when we can no longer call nighttime dark because it offends someone. Sheesh...........

13 posted on 08/28/2008 4:30:08 PM PDT by onlylewis (libs want a two class system, one rich one poor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bert
No, probably not.

(LOL!)

14 posted on 08/28/2008 4:32:08 PM PDT by SIDENET (Hubba Hubba...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: steveo

I stole this from another FReeper

Conservatives don’t care about race and ethnicity. They care about principle, they care about individuals and their rights and responsibilities as individual citizens.

The DNC is the party of racial politics, group politics, racial and ethnic obsessions. Conservatives care about you as you.

Not everyone gets it, and not everyone is ever going to get it. If you are ready for color-blind citizenship, you’re almost a Republican. If you think color-blind citizenship is unrealistic, impossible, even undesirable, then you are probably a Dem, and the DNC is frankly where you belong. If you define yourself by the color of your skin, whatever color it might be, if you define yourself by your ethnic or cultural antecedents, then you are probably a Dem and God bless you. If you define yourself as you, and as a citizen, you are probably headed our way politically.

You know, the GOP was born in 1854 as the original abolition party. The Democrats of the time were pro-slavery, and the Whigs were “pro-choice” on the matter. Christians who were fed up with a party that would not take a stand abandoned the Whigs, and formed their own minority party, the GOP. A decade later, slavery ended.

For the next hundred years, the GOP position was color-blind citizenship. The Dems were the party of the Ku Klux Klan (the Klan was historically the terror wing of the Democratic Party), they were the party of Jim Crow race repression, lynch mobs, fire hoses, night riders, and all that went with it.

It was Woodrow Wilson, Dem, who made Jim Crow (race repression) into federal law, and Coolidge, Repub, who repealed it. It was FDR, Dem, who refused even to sign anti-lynching legislation.

It was Eisenhower, Repub, who sent the troops into the south in modern times to put down Jim Crow. It was the Repubs who backed Civil Rights laws to put an end to Jim Crow.

When you look at old photographs of lynchings and firehoses putting down demonstrators, you and your friend should be aware that there is not a Repub to be found in those photos. That was a Dem phenomenon.

Now that Jim Crow is effectively dead, the DNC continues to deal in ethnic politics, collective politics, group politics. They are still the race-obsessed. Its the only way they know.

Look at the current race between Clinton and Obama; the race issue is thick in the air among Dems. Repubs care what their policies are, they could not care less about their ethnic background. If you believe as we believe, you are one of us. If not, not.

Our position continues to be what it always was. Color-blind citizenship. We’ve never changed.
16 posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008 6:00:41 PM by marron


15 posted on 08/28/2008 4:35:20 PM PDT by Delta 21 ( MKC USCG - ret)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marron

ping


16 posted on 08/28/2008 4:35:53 PM PDT by Delta 21 ( MKC USCG - ret)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: steveo

Did any of the rest of you hear the African-American woman giving Hannity absolute hell about using the term “Kool-Aid Drinkers” last week?

Amazing.


17 posted on 08/28/2008 4:37:14 PM PDT by Glenn (Free Venezuela!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo

So what color should a watermelon seed be?


18 posted on 08/28/2008 4:39:59 PM PDT by GregoTX (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo

“The images in advertisements of blacks eating watermelon with their hands “connotes a kind of savagery,” she said. Turner, 53, remembers African Americans eating watermelon with forks in public to combat that notion.”

shhh....dont tell anyone...I’ve been known to slice off a piece and eat it with my bare hands. Savagely I might add.

One more thing. What color is a watermelon seed and what color is a pumpkin seed? That’s what I thought.


19 posted on 08/28/2008 4:45:12 PM PDT by mouse1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo
I suggest putting the watermelon in the white guy's hand....I like watermelon and am not ashamed of it. My parents are from Sicily and you can put a pizza (or gun) in my hand and I will not take offense. It is what YOU are and not about your ancestors background.
That goes for the overly sensitive Italian-American anti-defamation leagues too.
20 posted on 08/28/2008 4:47:23 PM PDT by BilLies
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson