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RACISM + RESISTANCE
How Watermelon Became a Powerful Symbol of Racism, But Also Resistance
An essay about the power of social symbolism
Watermelon is a juicy fruit with dark pink and red hues, black seeds, and a green rind, a favorite go-to treat on sunny days. However, it's also true that the watermelon has become a powerful cultural symbol, one of racism as well as resistance. In America, for instance, the watermelon has come to symbolize a racist trope, one designed to mock and ridicule Black people, but it's essential to note it did not begin that way. Some may be surprised to learn that the watermelon once had a positive connotation for Black Americans, representing their newfound freedom, property rights, and evidence of self-sufficiency during the Reconstruction Era. However, according to historian William R. Black, "this provoked a backlash among White Americans, who then made the fruit a symbol of African Americans' supposed uncleanliness, childishness, idleness, and unfitness for the public square." The goal of spreading this trope in print throughout the 1860s was to promote the political argument "that African Americans were unsuited for citizenship." What once was a symbol of resistance became a symbol of racism, a stereotype spread to delegitimize Black Americans as citizens who deserve equal rights and access to opportunities.
Images of dark-skinned Black men, women, and children with cartoonishly brightly-colored red lips can be seen biting into a watermelon with a vacant look in their eyes in the Jim Crow Museum. According to Keith M. Woods, a scholar from the Poynter Institute, "Over time, the watermelon became a symbol of the broader denigration of black people. It became part of the image perpetuated by a white culture bent upon bolstering the myth of superiority by depicting the inferior race as lazy, simple-minded pickaninnies interested only in such mindless pleasures as a slice of sweet watermelon." Of course, Black people are not the only ones who enjoy eating watermelon, but they are the only group stereotyped for doing so. Is it simple-minded to enjoy a watermelon on a summer day? Certainly not, but that's beside the point. White Southerners, the architects of Jim Crow, were anxious to justify the racial disparities in society, so they regularly used…
