'Are Fried Chicken And Watermelon Racist?' MTV's Franchesca Ramsey Asks...

[SoCalDem]

55. Watermelons are inherently photogenic

They are colorful and HUGE...and so very tasty...and looking waaay back to when slaves had to scrounge for foods, it made sense to appropriate certain foods that the master could not begrudge them..

I grew watermelons once, and my back yard was literally overrun with melons..the vines were all over and every day they got closer to the back door.. It was a bodysnatcher attack of the melons .. a slave master would raise a ruckus if pigs or cattle came up missing, but chickens were abundant and fast growing so of course slaves would catch & eat chickens.. and families always pass down recipes & tastes from generation to generation

Had white folks been the downtrodden ones, their photos with foods they preferred, could have been interpreted the same way....



Society always appropriates "trappings" as a coded identity shortcut.. There's a reason why certain items become iconic for certain groups & eras in time..