Where do these 2 stereotypes come from?

1. That black people can't swim
2. That black people love watermelon

Asking out of genuine curiosity.

Also, I've never understood why some gay men call others by female pronouns regardless of the persons gender.

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

Frostcloud · F

girl is gender neutral these days, like dude or bro. idk the origin

pretty sure white people didn't often allow enslaved poc learn to swim bc then they would have more means to escape. being brought to america, black people chose to drown in the ocean than suffer in slavery. i would guess as they were freed, and poor, and segregated, they didn't have much access to public swimming pools or time to go

then for watermelon, as black people were freed, they grew watermelon to sell and become self sustaining. but white people didn't like that and made a lot of negative propoganda about it

LordBarbossa · 36-40, T

@Frostcloud thank you for answering. I really appreciate it.

LordShadowfire · 46-50, M

@Frostcloud @LordBarbossa I would add that the other reason for the stereotype about watermelon is that they wanted to make black people seem selfish. Eating an entire watermelon by yourself without sharing it with anyone is a very selfish act.

The fried chicken thing is based in actual reality. But the fact is, there are very few people in America who don't love fried chicken, so that's an easy one.

LordBarbossa · 36-40, T

@LordShadowfire thanks for elaborating ☺

bijouxbroussard · F

@LordShadowfire And both watermelon and fried chicken tend to be Southern foods. The majority of African-Americans tend to have southern roots, but white southerners certainly ate the same foods.