Cynthia McKinney holds a watermelon......

[cali]

The question actually read: "Condoleezza holds a watermelon just over the edge of the roof of the 300-foot Federal Building, and tosses it up with a velocity of 20 feet per second."

Most of the DUers posting on the two threads I've seen about this, have no problem with it. I think it's racist bullshit, fraught with the weight of history. It's a stereotype, folks, and not a very nice one. You know, watermelons, lazy black people, etc. If you're offended by the phrase in the title, and yet justify the one using the Condoleezza, you're being hypocritical.

(Yes, I know there was no last name in the real test question, but face it, that's an extremely unusual name, and the only person bearing it who's recognizable by most people is the SoS.)

[CatWoman]

1. oh, Christ

:popcorn:

[tocqueville]

2. yes ?

[cali]

3. Please elaborate

on your expression of disgust.

[CatWoman]

11. I'm waiting to see

if she's going to bust a policeman upside the head with it.

[nonconformist]

27. .

:spray:

Damn you!! LMAO

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. I agree

Other examples would include "Omar has three explosive belts..." or "Seamus has five bottles of whiskey...".

I also believe, however, that it is pretty difficult to state with certainty that one is a racist by inferring something that was not written by a poster on a single thread.

[LittleClarkie]

5. Alberto Gonzalez runs across the border

Racist is racist, even if you don't like the person in question.

[Vinnie From Indy]

8. I agree

eom

[NYCGirl]

6. Well, at the very least, it was horrifyingly insensitive. NT

[bemildred]

12. "George has three lines of coke and a half-pint of Jack Daniels ..."

"John had $500,000 in political bribes campaign contributions ..."
It is called "framing", and it is a smear technique.

[nini]

7. Did you come up wtih this or are you referring to something else?

This is so out there I'm not quite sure.

[NYCGirl]

9. It's referring to this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=924970&mesg_id=924970

[nini]

13. Oh Jesus Christ

hell yes, that's racist.

I detest the woman but her race has nothing to do with it. Her evil core is enough.

[MADem]

15. Which would have been a great place to raise your concern about it

...rather than start a whole new thread on the same issue.

That way, you can engage the people who are making the references in the first place.

[cali]

22. That's your opinion. It's nice to have it, but

it's not mine. There have been two threads on this topic with responses that either justified it or brushed it off. I responded on those threads. I concluded that it was worthwhile bringing it to a wider audience. Perhaps I should have used John Conyers or Maxine Waters as an example. In any case, that's not the point. The point is that racial stereotypes are not OK.

[tatertop]

10. Just cannot seem to lay off Cynthia McKinney, can we?

[gatorboy]

14. She's officially the Michael Corleone of the DU

Just when she thinks she's out, they pull her back in.

[Vinnie From Indy]

18. LOL! You're killing me!

very funny!

[rinsd]

16. Actually it seems to be an experiment in hypocrisy

And whether we judge racist content based on whther we agree with someone politically.

[LittleClarkie]

17. Okay, fine. John Conyers was holding a watermelon

Rosa Parks was holding a watermelon.

Pick a black person. Any black person. The point isn't who we pick. The point is wrong is wrong, regardless of whether you like the object of the racism.

[Vinnie From Indy]

19. Amen!

Couldn't agree more!

[cali]

20. This has absolutely nothing

to do with attacking Cynthia McKinney. It has to do with racist stereotypes, and how they're equally bad whether they're applied to someone you love or someone you loathe. I have never attacked McKinney in any way shape or form.

I was disappointed in remarks on two threads about this stupid test question, and I thought it was important enough that it deserved its own thread.

[Catherine Vincent]

21. I agree.

And I said they should have said Dan Burton instead.

[rinsd]

23. chuckle

Dan Burton is standing 30 feet from a watermelon on a 5 foot pedastal. He fires a bullet from a hand gun at 600 feet per second. How long will it take the American people to determine this guy is comepletely fucking nuts?

[Sequoia]

25. Don't you mean Cheney?

[rinsd]

29. No, I mean Dan Burton

Excellent I get to share one of my fav moments in right wing whackiness that occured during the Clinton years. Dan Burton, a GOP Congressman, was so sure that Hillary Clinton shot Vince Foster that he staged an elaborate re-creation in his backyard using a watermelon.

Here's a google link with more good stuff.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-31,GGLD:en&q=dan+burton+watermelon

[DBoon]

24. Condoleezza holds a bunker-buster tactical nuke ....

Just over the edge of the highest building in Tehran....


Is that better?

[juajen]

26. Watermelons and their "ethnicity" are a load of bunk!

I grew up in Alabama. My father, grandfather and uncles all grew watermelons, and believe me, they were/are as popular with southern white Americans as they are/were with African Americans, and all colors in between.

Before air conditioning was common in the South, watermelon cuttings were one of the most popular social events of late summer. The hottest hot of the year could be relieved by icy cold watermelons. When I was a child, the melons were kept cool by submerging them in a cold spring or river. When we moved into the city, where ice was more available,big chunks of ice kept them cold, as well as early refrigerators. No, I'm not that old. We did have regular fridges, and even our own ice cubes, but our fridge was not big enough to cool a large melon, and the larger the better.

I'm really tired of the stereotyping of watermelons. It's really time for us to just enjoy what we all enjoy, without attributing it to one culture or another.

BTW, we also loved fried and boiled okra, collard greens, black eyed peas, cornbread with chit-lings (not me with the chit lings, but other members of my family loved this) and all the fried chicken I could stuff in my mouth.

Southern is soul food, whether black or white.

[cali]

28. Southern or not,

you really don't get it. There's never been a negative racial stereotype with whites and watermelons as there has been with blacks.

[The empressof all]

30. Locking

Please don't post flamebait