Posted on 07/26/2005 2:20:54 PM PDT by Imani
Miami city leaders are apologizing for a news release that invited summer campers to a ''Ghetto Style Talent Show'' and ''Watermelon Eating Contest.''
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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.
Even though the name has been changed, Burkeen did still continue to defend the choice of the name for the show.
"The word 'ghetto' was used to imply a down home show, not something offensive, but embracing the culture of today's youth and their language," he said.
Church and community leaders said that changing the name isn't enough -- the damage has already been done.
"It's almost equivalent to saying, 'We're having bananas at Jose Marti Park' and referring to Miami as a 'Banana Republic,'" the Rev. Richard Dunn said.
Other critics said that the watermelon eating contest is a painful reminder of racially insensitive stereotypes.
"Watermelon, back in the days, was a good food for African Americans, according to the Bible, but at the same time, it had an attachment with slavery and bondage ties," the Rev. Carl Johnson said.
Some members of the community had a different perspective and said that critics were missing the point.
Michael Hardaway said, "They have to understand that the young generation has a whole different style than they do … At a ghetto-style talent show the kids are getting together to show their talent."
Other community activists said changing the name of the contest is just the start of what needs to happen.
Dunn suggested that instead of buying hundreds of watermelons for the contest, the money could be spent on school supplies and backpacks for kids who need them.
Andre Williams said, "No more watermelons --- and as Reverend Dunn says, we need to give books and school supplies to our children."
City officials said Tuesday that the contest is popular and it will not be canceled. The picnic will go on Friday as planned and will include up to 3,000 children from across the city.
In other news, hundreds of Frenchmen rioted in protest of the Brie Talent Show with the Cheese Eating Surrender Contest.
Here's how it happened.
I have a Weimaraner whose favorite toy is an empty gallon milk jug. (If you want to buy $15 stuffed dog toys at PetsMart, fine, but a plastic jug of reasonably appropriate size for the breed makes a fine toy for the dog to carry around, bat around, and retrieve. Replace it, of course, when it starts getting chewed up.) Several months ago, when it was time to replace Atlas's milk jug, I realized I didn't have another one. But I did have a recently-emptied 1.75 liter jug of cheap Kentucky vodka (well, it was bound to happen sooner or later).
So I gave the empty plastic vodka bottle to Atlas, who proudly carried it to the street. The teenage daughter of my across-the-road neighbor, who was hanging out with some of her friends, saw him, and asked: "Is that a vodka bottle?" When I admitted that it was, she responded: "That is so ghetto!"
So, there you have it. I am so ghetto.
How did Elvis ever get away with the song?
I am a blonde, blue eyed white guy of Anglo-Saxon heritage, who grew up wealthy in the Miami of the 1950s. I'm an attorney, with family money, who did a career in the Air Force because I didn't need to make my fortune, and because I was brought up to believe that you put something back. I retired a few years ago, as a senior officer. I'm a little over 50 now, and haven't worked a day since. Nor do I intend to do so. Bear with me here; there is a point to this.
I love watermelon. I mean I LOVE watermelon. My wife thinks this is a PITA because she is the one who gets to deal with getting rid of the rinds every summer.
The last time I saw watermelon served up at a communty picnic was on the 4th of July at Seymour Johnson AFB, NC, in the mid 80s - a little over 20 years ago. The kids loved it. A fair number of the kids were black kids. I was wandering around taking photographs of everything, trying out a new camera, and as I looked through the view-finder, I spotted these kids eating the watermelon, having a great time as kids do, and I just couldn't take the picture. It looked like such a caricature that it literally made me cringe. So I passed. But I've never forgotten that moment.
I find it really hard to believe that if somebody with a background like mine would react that way some 20 years ago, that somebody, anybody, with a brain wouldn't react that way today. Unless they were trying to make a point. And a damned nasty one at that. Sheesh. What was this guy thinking?
I am researching that.
The Bible, Revised Standard Edition
The Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia
Same source - Numbers 11, 5: 5: We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;
no, you're ghetto fabulous!
in college i lived in a house with a variety of folks, and we amused ourselves with our discovery of ethnic/class food preferences...
I rememeber some of the preferred drinks..
All of us remembered kool-aid, but the black kids remembered inordinate amounts of fruit flavored sodas, (ie Grape Shasta)wheras the white kids remembered the "Super Choice" off brand sodas. The mexican guys remembered the bottled pops direct from mexico that apparently were 99% sugar.
we had a ghetto level of meal
Grape Shasta or Sams Choice with hot dogs and chips: pretty ghetto, but standard college fare
Mac n Cheese and instant tea: ghetto, waiting on payday
Ramen noodles and ice water: d@mn, get a job!
some of it was pretty funny, like a black guy who had never eaten chinese food until college, a white guy who thought tamales were somehow grown and placed into little cans, trying to explain what a pork rind is..etc. Your can learn a lot when you're young and broke...hehe.
Before I retired in 1991, one of my black engineers and I were in the line at the cafeteria. As we passed some beautiful slices of watermelon he said "I'd love to have one of those but I wouldn't dare put it on my tray". I asked him which one he wanted, put it on my tray and we went back to my office to eat lunch.
Why do stereotypes allow people to keep from enjoying themselves?
What happened to the perfectly good expressions "white trash," "poor white trash," "trailer park," and "redneck?"
Get your nasty epithets straight, people.
:)
I guess some people still find them to be painful.
The only stereotype that I've suffered from is that white guys can't dance. And in my case that is largely true. But I would just as soon sip a martini and watch. Which in my case, I suppose, is yet another cliche.
And, of course, this is not anything like growing up black in the south during the era of Jim Crow. Which is something that I doubt that I will ever fully comprehend, even if I am not blind to it.
I don't know whether they are or not. There was a post about specific search results on a specific site that came up dry. I vaguely recalled something about melons, so I searched on "melon" and not "watermelon". No more, no less.
Trust me, I am no biblical scholar. I haven't been in a church, other than for weddings or funerals, in nearly 40 years.
"The only stereotype that I've suffered from is that white guys can't dance."
That never stops white guys from cutting a rug, though.
I must be the exception that proves the rule. I can't dance, and I don't try to do so. But I drink a mean martini. Scotch on the rocks too, come to that.
I lived in East NY for 13 yrs as a kid. It was rough 30 yrs ago!
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If you mean worst ghetto in the US you are not even close.
(Love the tagline)
>>I was asked in college by a very sincere dorm mate, if black people ate watermelon a lot.<<
Doh!
However I would trade my entire kitchen for my sister's greens pot.
With respect to the vodka, though I can afford upscale brands now, I buy the cheap stuff for Bloody Marys and the like, since I can't tell the difference between Aristocrat ($9 per 1.75 liters) and Stolichnaya at thrice the price. On the other hand, the gin I buy for my martinis doesn't come cheap.
Your comments about "college ghetto food" brings back memories. When money was a bit tight, for me, being a Southern boy, rice ("swamp seed") was often the base for a cheap meal. Cook it with water and a couple of bouillon cubes and an onion, then add a can of tomatoes, and/or black beans, and/or tuna, and/or a can of condensed cream-of-whatever soup, and/or some cheese -- the permutations were endless. And I survived to tell the tale.
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