Here's Why Your Fried Chicken and Watermelon Lunch Is Racist

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15. These foods have a history

I can understand why eating watermelon is associated with relaxing and doing nothing. It's a sloppy food and you need time to eat it. It takes a long time to grow and ripens in Summer when something wet is very refreshing. It tastes best cold so it has to be iced down or put in the creek to chill for a long time. All these activities are not something a slave master would want their slaves to do.

A watermelon plant takes up a lot of room in the garden for just a few melons. It is not something a hungry slave would plant because it would take up too much space in the very little land they were allowed to garden to feed their families. And a watermelon does not have a high calorie content, not compared to potatoes, garlic or corn. So the watermelon would most likely be given to a slave. A slave master would see that as a waste of money or believe the watermelon was stolen.

It is my understanding that fried chicken has a different history. It is one of the few meats that if cooked right will not spoil rapidly. It can be carried around easily and can be eaten easily without too much mess. Chickens were one of the more common animals raised on farms in the 1940s. Chickens are cheap to feed and quick to grow to maturity. Most anyone can clean a dead chicken by themselves, not like a hog or sheep that requires a long time to process.

During Jim Crow, African Americans were not allowed to enter many restaurants. If they wanted to travel, they had to pack a lunch. Fried chicken was the most common lunch packed because of it's easy availability and transport.

Identifying these foods as if they are favorites of African Americans today is antiquated, ignorant and propagates the slave master's bigotries.