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

[LWolf]

33. I love fried chicken and watermelon,

although I don't know that I've often eaten them together. I've never thought of either as "black" food; nor have I thought of other things like collard greens, which I love, as ethnic food of any sort.

Probably because I've never lived in the South, or BEEN to the south outside of 2 days in Houston for work purposes, barring 2 months in Atlanta when I was 4. Which I remember almost nothing of.

I AM aware of the fried chicken/watermelon association as "black" food, even though I don't relate. It would never have occurred to me to promote it as representing a culture, though, even if there were no negative connotations attached, since my 53 years of eating good chicken, watermelon, and greens have no ethnic associations, one way or another.

The fried chicken? I learned to cook fried chicken, fried okra, ham hocks and beans, biscuits and gravy, and a variety of greens, from my grand-mother-in-law back in the '70s; she was of mixed race, Cherokee and caucasian. She was, growing up and in her younger adulthood, a migrant farm worker.

I don't eat any of those things very often, because they aren't good for my weight, blood sugar, or heart. I still love them, though.

I had to explain to one of my students just recently why, when he was going to role play MLK being interviewed, he could not make his face black. Other classmates were dressing as the famous people they were portraying, and he wanted to, as well. He'd never heard of "blackface," and didn't know the historical use in minstrel shows. He was horrified when I explained.