<p>@ucbalumnus @saintfan Nope, not ASU. I remember the name now - Carondelet High School. And the lunch menu was in an attempt to recognise black history month. Nothing else was involved - just the lunch, which was proposed as cornbread, fried chicken and watermelon. But for some reason everyone went batsh*t insane when they heard.</p>
<p>I don’t see the mockery or insulting stereotype in thinking that watermelons are a “black” food. It may be untrue now, but remember that these things usually have a basis, no matter how small, in fact. Even if it was a complete lie, how exactly is it insulting to be associated with cornbread, fried chicken and watermelon? I mean, that’s some awesome lunch right there - perfectly delicious and also healthy.</p>
<p>Here’s a parallel: pizza. Most people have this idea that pizza is the national food of Italy or something, going as far as waiters/chefs appropriating “Italian” accents at pizzerias. A kid at my school was half Italian, half Nigerian - imagine my shock when she told me that no, people don’t really eat pizza that much in Italy (any more than people eat lots of hamburgers in Hamburg). If you’re going for an Italian theme, you’re better off with pasta, which is really served like throughout the day. And the “traditional” Italian pizza is topped with tomato sauce and cheese and practically nothing else. Yet how many people scream in outrage at this stereotype?</p>
<p>And who on Earth is responsible for that watermelon study up there? Like what is that all about? How do you even investigate something like that? Do you go from door to door asking how much watermelon each family consumes in a month? Are watermelons equipped with some high tech transmitters that can report the races of the people who ate them? Like what actually? I’m actually scared now…</p>