{"id":54794,"date":"2013-04-24T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T17:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=54794"},"modified":"2013-04-17T01:04:06","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T06:04:06","slug":"that-racist-ice-cream-truck-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2013\/04\/24\/that-racist-ice-cream-truck-song\/","title":{"rendered":"That Racist Ice Cream Truck Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a random creepy fact: one of the tunes that float out of ice cream trucks all summer is a racist song called “Nigger Love a Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!,” first recorded 1916 or before. \u00a0Have a listen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

During slavery, the African population’s supposed taste for watermelon was used to suggest that they were stupid. \u00a0As I wrote in an earlier post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

…defenders of slavery used the watermelon as a symbol of simplicity. \u00a0African Americans, the argument went, were happy as slaves. \u00a0They didn\u2019t need the complicated responsibilities of freedom; they just needed some shade and a cool, delicious treat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Googling around, I learned almost nothing about the song. \u00a0It seems clear that it’s not an inside joke between Black people, making fun of the stereotype. \u00a0Instead, it’s an earnest, intended-to-be-humorous song meant to make fun of Black people. \u00a0But I could find little contextualizing information. \u00a0I also don’t know if the tune was also set to other lyrics that were or weren’t racist.<\/p>\n

Still, the fact that the tune is an ice cream truck classic reveals how our racist history is still part and parcel of our everyday lives.<\/p>\n

Hat tip to\u00a0Theodore Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a random creepy fact: one of the tunes that float out of ice cream trucks all summer is a racist song called “Nigger Love a Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!,” first recorded 1916 or before. \u00a0Have a listen. During slavery, the African population’s supposed taste for watermelon was used to suggest that they were stupid. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[253,283,285,1760,20063,1757],"class_list":["post-54794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-history","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-blacksafricans","tag-raceethnicity-prejudicediscrimination","tag-raceethnicity-whiteseuropeans"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54794"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54832,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54794\/revisions\/54832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}