California Mayor's 'Watermelon White House' email

[Peikko 1,575]

Nessa is a very nice girl, you make a very compatible couple I am sure. What that has to do with anything I have no idea, but that's fine.

[Ban Hammer 13,360]

Nessa is a very nice girl, you make a very compatible couple I am sure. What that has to do with anything I have no idea, but that's fine.

you don't remember the having more than one spouse discussion, where you were delighted to find out you could have two husbands?

[Peikko 1,575]

I do, but I don't remember actually acting on the information.

[Ban Hammer 13,360]

I do, but I don't remember actually acting on the information.

yeah i know, dream crusher!

[peejay 327]

The mayor himself is just a dufus and will be judged or not by his electorate but here, on this message board we have people openly defending this junk. Bah, I'll never understand some people.

Pick out a post where people are defending him. The point I'm trying to make is that...what laws have been broken? What is supposed to come about for some clown that appears to have mass forwarded a stupid joke? I really have no beef with the joke itself (even though I don't find it remotely amusing), but I'm really kind of wondering what fool that holds even a minor public office anywhere would be dumb enough to mass forward this to all recipients in his address book of his e-mail account. I mean, there aren't a lot of details in this story, but it looks like that is what this fool did. As far as I can ascertain from the story, this guy didn't create this stupid e-mail, he just forwarded it.

I never mass forward anything to contacts in my e-mail accounts. I do get mass forwarded e-mails from people I worked with over the years, etc. Lots of stupid jokes, religious materials, political propoganda, etc. I never even open 99% of it. Some of the stuff I get from ex co-workers have 50+ recipients. Geez! Unless it is a personal message meant just for me or something that I determine to be pertinant, I delete that kind of junk mail even if it comes from someone I know. From what I can see, some people habitually get off on forwarding dumb e-mails to the world just to let everyone know they are still alive. I get the same dumb forwarded stuff from people I haven't worked with in years.

People are making a federal case out of something that don't make a pimple on an elephant's azz. A.L.C. is right...130+ posts over this stupidness. Come on. There are a lot more important things to debate than this nonsense.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Peejay if this thread irritates you so much why bother to participate in it? Just think - you could be starting yet another illegal immigration thread, or perhaps adding a few posts to the one suggesting the use of A10 machine guns to make human hamburger at the border.

Joy!

[Peikko 1,575]

The mayor himself is just a dufus and will be judged or not by his electorate but here, on this message board we have people openly defending this junk. Bah, I'll never understand some people.

Pick out a post where people are defending him. The point I'm trying to make is that...what laws have been broken? What is supposed to come about for some clown that appears to have mass forwarded a stupid joke? I really have no beef with the joke itself (even though I don't find it remotely amusing), but I'm really kind of wondering what fool that holds even a minor public office anywhere would be dumb enough to mass forward this to all recipients in his address book of his e-mail account. I mean, there aren't a lot of details in this story, but it looks like that is what this fool did. As far as I can ascertain from the story, this guy didn't create this stupid e-mail, he just forwarded it.

I never mass forward anything to contacts in my e-mail accounts. I do get mass forwarded e-mails from people I worked with over the years, etc. Lots of stupid jokes, religious materials, political propoganda, etc. I never even open 99% of it. Some of the stuff I get from ex co-workers have 50+ recipients. Geez! Unless it is a personal message meant just for me or something that I determine to be pertinant, I delete that kind of junk mail even if it comes from someone I know. From what I can see, some people habitually get off on forwarding dumb e-mails to the world just to let everyone know they are still alive. I get the same dumb forwarded stuff from people I haven't worked with in years.

People are making a federal case out of something that don't make a pimple on an elephant's azz. A.L.C. is right...130+ posts over this stupidness. Come on. There are a lot more important things to debate than this nonsense.

I didn't say 'defending him' I said 'defending this junk' referring to the actual bloody picture. I don't know where this discussion derailed into two different and completely separate topics or even if it did.

I quite clearly posted that I found that an offensive and indefensible cartoon (if that is what one can call it) and others found it hilarious. It is those who found it hilarious my attention has been focusing on. I asked a simple question, why is this funny to those who found it funny? There was some very odd responses to that and not one that explains how someone can find it funny without reference to the obvious association with watermelons and uppity niggers. That is not something I personally choose to ignore or blandly suggest it's a bagatelle and that is why there have been this 130 posts of 'stupidness' as you call it

Oh and I don't believe for one minute that this mayor ignorantly forwarded an unopened email or that he didn't understand the inherent offensiveness of the material.

In the grand scale of things, this is not a big deal, but in what it tells us about people here, the 'everyone is so PC we can't do anything' crowd, it tells me a lot.

Edited February 26, 2009 by Madame Cleo

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Best of both:

[Danno 1,228]

The mayor himself is just a dufus and will be judged or not by his electorate but here, on this message board we have people openly defending this junk. Bah, I'll never understand some people.

Pick out a post where people are defending him. The point I'm trying to make is that...what laws have been broken? What is supposed to come about for some clown that appears to have mass forwarded a stupid joke? I really have no beef with the joke itself (even though I don't find it remotely amusing), but I'm really kind of wondering what fool that holds even a minor public office anywhere would be dumb enough to mass forward this to all recipients in his address book of his e-mail account. I mean, there aren't a lot of details in this story, but it looks like that is what this fool did. As far as I can ascertain from the story, this guy didn't create this stupid e-mail, he just forwarded it.

I never mass forward anything to contacts in my e-mail accounts. I do get mass forwarded e-mails from people I worked with over the years, etc. Lots of stupid jokes, religious materials, political propoganda, etc. I never even open 99% of it. Some of the stuff I get from ex co-workers have 50+ recipients. Geez! Unless it is a personal message meant just for me or something that I determine to be pertinant, I delete that kind of junk mail even if it comes from someone I know. From what I can see, some people habitually get off on forwarding dumb e-mails to the world just to let everyone know they are still alive. I get the same dumb forwarded stuff from people I haven't worked with in years.

People are making a federal case out of something that don't make a pimple on an elephant's azz. A.L.C. is right...130+ posts over this stupidness. Come on. There are a lot more important things to debate than this nonsense.

I didn't say 'defending him' I said 'defending this junk' referring to the actual bloody picture. I don't know where this discussion derailed into two different and completely separate topics or even if it did.

I quite clearly posted that I found that an offensive and indefensible cartoon (if that is what one can call it) and others found it hilarious. It is those who found it hilarious my attention has been focusing on. I asked a simple question, why is this funny to those who found it funny? There was some very odd responses to that and not one that explains how someone can find it funny without reference to the obvious association with watermelons and uppity niggers. That is not something I personally choose to ignore or blandly suggest it's a bagatelle and that is why there have been this 130 posts of 'stupidness' as you call it

Oh and I don't believe for one minute that this mayor ignorantly forwarded an unopened email or that he didn't understand the inherent offensiveness of the material.

In the grand scale of things, this is not a big deal, but in what it tells us about people here, the 'everyone is so PC we can't do anything' crowd, it tells me a lot.

MC I think your "uppity niggers" concept, in relation to this joke is of your own making.

When I saw the pic, I of course saw it has a simple play off of a stereotype.

The stereotype born from Blacks enjoyment of Watermelon.

You know the watermelon thing was not something some white cracker just dreamed up, it was an image associated with Blacks once upon a time.

Really has nothing to do with "uppity" at all.

But that point aside, why not be a little constructive and tell us where the line should stop at humor and jokes.

I have seen a number of cartoons that I took offense to or were certain some other segment must be offended at, yet it flys without even a question raised so please tell me what the guidelines should be?

[Peikko 1,575]

The mayor himself is just a dufus and will be judged or not by his electorate but here, on this message board we have people openly defending this junk. Bah, I'll never understand some people.

Pick out a post where people are defending him. The point I'm trying to make is that...what laws have been broken? What is supposed to come about for some clown that appears to have mass forwarded a stupid joke? I really have no beef with the joke itself (even though I don't find it remotely amusing), but I'm really kind of wondering what fool that holds even a minor public office anywhere would be dumb enough to mass forward this to all recipients in his address book of his e-mail account. I mean, there aren't a lot of details in this story, but it looks like that is what this fool did. As far as I can ascertain from the story, this guy didn't create this stupid e-mail, he just forwarded it.

I never mass forward anything to contacts in my e-mail accounts. I do get mass forwarded e-mails from people I worked with over the years, etc. Lots of stupid jokes, religious materials, political propoganda, etc. I never even open 99% of it. Some of the stuff I get from ex co-workers have 50+ recipients. Geez! Unless it is a personal message meant just for me or something that I determine to be pertinant, I delete that kind of junk mail even if it comes from someone I know. From what I can see, some people habitually get off on forwarding dumb e-mails to the world just to let everyone know they are still alive. I get the same dumb forwarded stuff from people I haven't worked with in years.

People are making a federal case out of something that don't make a pimple on an elephant's azz. A.L.C. is right...130+ posts over this stupidness. Come on. There are a lot more important things to debate than this nonsense.

I didn't say 'defending him' I said 'defending this junk' referring to the actual bloody picture. I don't know where this discussion derailed into two different and completely separate topics or even if it did.

I quite clearly posted that I found that an offensive and indefensible cartoon (if that is what one can call it) and others found it hilarious. It is those who found it hilarious my attention has been focusing on. I asked a simple question, why is this funny to those who found it funny? There was some very odd responses to that and not one that explains how someone can find it funny without reference to the obvious association with watermelons and uppity niggers. That is not something I personally choose to ignore or blandly suggest it's a bagatelle and that is why there have been this 130 posts of 'stupidness' as you call it

Oh and I don't believe for one minute that this mayor ignorantly forwarded an unopened email or that he didn't understand the inherent offensiveness of the material.

In the grand scale of things, this is not a big deal, but in what it tells us about people here, the 'everyone is so PC we can't do anything' crowd, it tells me a lot.

MC I think your "uppity niggers" concept, in relation to this joke is of your own making.

When I saw the pic, I of course saw it has a simple play off of a stereotype.

The stereotype born from Blacks enjoyment of Watermelon.

You know the watermelon thing was not something some white cracker just dreamed up, it was an image associated with Blacks once upon a time.

Really has nothing to do with "uppity" at all.

But that point aside, why not be a little constructive and tell us where the line should stop at humor and jokes.

I have seen a number of cartoons that I took offense to or were certain some other segment must be offended at, yet it flys without even a question raised so please tell me what the guidelines should be?

Born from Blacks enjoyment of Watermelon? ARE you FRICKING For REAL!!!!!

It is people like you that make it necessary for people like me have to go all ###### ape ###### pc because you don't GET IT!

Edited February 27, 2009 by Madame Cleo

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

MC, it may be time for you to take a break.

[peejay 327]

Peejay if this thread irritates you so much why bother to participate in it? Just think - you could be starting yet another illegal immigration thread, or perhaps adding a few posts to the one suggesting the use of A10 machine guns to make human hamburger at the border.

Joy!

Posts or not...that is really happening. Do you think I get off to it? Not really. And it ain't the Klan or the Minutemen doing it either. Whether your post is in reference to the fact that I believe a US military presence is appropriate at the border...yes I do!

Along with rules of engagement.

The mayor himself is just a dufus and will be judged or not by his electorate but here, on this message board we have people openly defending this junk. Bah, I'll never understand some people.

Pick out a post where people are defending him. The point I'm trying to make is that...what laws have been broken? What is supposed to come about for some clown that appears to have mass forwarded a stupid joke? I really have no beef with the joke itself (even though I don't find it remotely amusing), but I'm really kind of wondering what fool that holds even a minor public office anywhere would be dumb enough to mass forward this to all recipients in his address book of his e-mail account. I mean, there aren't a lot of details in this story, but it looks like that is what this fool did. As far as I can ascertain from the story, this guy didn't create this stupid e-mail, he just forwarded it.

I never mass forward anything to contacts in my e-mail accounts. I do get mass forwarded e-mails from people I worked with over the years, etc. Lots of stupid jokes, religious materials, political propoganda, etc. I never even open 99% of it. Some of the stuff I get from ex co-workers have 50+ recipients. Geez! Unless it is a personal message meant just for me or something that I determine to be pertinant, I delete that kind of junk mail even if it comes from someone I know. From what I can see, some people habitually get off on forwarding dumb e-mails to the world just to let everyone know they are still alive. I get the same dumb forwarded stuff from people I haven't worked with in years.

People are making a federal case out of something that don't make a pimple on an elephant's azz. A.L.C. is right...130+ posts over this stupidness. Come on. There are a lot more important things to debate than this nonsense.

I didn't say 'defending him' I said 'defending this junk' referring to the actual bloody picture. I don't know where this discussion derailed into two different and completely separate topics or even if it did.

I quite clearly posted that I found that an offensive and indefensible cartoon (if that is what one can call it) and others found it hilarious. It is those who found it hilarious my attention has been focusing on. I asked a simple question, why is this funny to those who found it funny? There was some very odd responses to that and not one that explains how someone can find it funny without reference to the obvious association with watermelons and uppity niggers. That is not something I personally choose to ignore or blandly suggest it's a bagatelle and that is why there have been this 130 posts of 'stupidness' as you call it

Oh and I don't believe for one minute that this mayor ignorantly forwarded an unopened email or that he didn't understand the inherent offensiveness of the material.

In the grand scale of things, this is not a big deal, but in what it tells us about people here, the 'everyone is so PC we can't do anything' crowd, it tells me a lot.

So what if he did or didn't? So what if Obama really knew what the right honorable Rev. Wright was preachin' at the church on the days he claimed he wasn't there? Both clowns won the election and are representing the People. Scary...ain't it?

Which one is more scary...the watermelon e-mail or the Rev. Wright rants? Neither are against the law in the good ol' USofA.

Edited February 27, 2009 by peejay

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

This crisp sweet fruit is native to Africa and was cultivated in Egypt in prehistory. Although it spread quickly eastward to lands around the Mediterranean sea and to India, it was not known, apparently, by either the ancient Greeks or Romans. Ultimately watermelons were introduced to Europe by Moors during their invasion of Spain--but it never became a popular fruit.

By contrast, they reached China somewhere between the 10th and 12th century, where they were well regarded such that today China, with Turkey, is one of the leading world producers of watermelons.

Then, when watermelons made the tragic voyage to America on slave ships in the 17th century, they were welcomed with open arms--by South Americans, North American Indians, and white settlers alike. They are documented to have been cultivated in New England in 1629. Even so, I remember reading a book many years ago about Bowling Green, Kentucky, during the time of the Civil War, that talked about how a prideful farmer showed off at a community fair with watermelons he'd carefully cultivated in secret after acquiring seeds "east"--and how furious he was when his fellow farmers quickly scooped up the seeds they'd spit out to grow their own. That was over 200 years later...and they'd only just reached Kentucky?!

In any event, watermelon became associated with America's black slaves--and ultimately became a stereotype, most offensively as a wonderfully happy black boy in ragged clothes and straw hat eating a slice of watermelon. Witness Sandburg's Cornhusker poem cited on the left. It was this stereotype that Director Melvin Van Peebles exploited in his 1970 film "Watermelon Man," where a bigotted white man wakes up one morning to find himself black...and to discover all that that meant, to include running into jerks like himself. Van Peebles also composed the original music, including its signature song "Watermelon Man" that has become a standard in jazz arrangements. Besides the juiciness of watermelon's red flesh--which remains a non-polluted water source in developing nations--its tough rind is pickled as a delicacy. And its black seeds, beloved by the Chinese as a snack after scorching off the outer coat, form the basis of Egusi soup, a national dish in Nigeria. Thus in a 2/99 African News article, Yinka Ijabiya reports rather tongue-in-cheek that Clive Burton, busy Regional Director of the British Council for West Africa, has had "quite a box of excitement" in his year on the job, including the showing of silly films, a show or two (dwarfed by the French Cultural Center), and his own personal liking of egusi soup.

http://www.soupsong.com/fwaterme.html

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

A very long, but interesting essay:

"I must have been going through these stereotypes of black kids and watermelons at the moment my son asked me what I was doing. For, a few days later, he brought to my attention two white kids on the cover of the Summer 1998 issue of Health Diary, a United Healthcare magazine. Each kid has a slice of watermelon in his hands and is laughing with satisfaction. The hat on the head of one of the kids, their bare feet, and their self-abandonment in the presence of watermelons, all stereotype the stereotype of black people. By bringing the image to my attention, my son made that much of an association. But his act is also challenging me to stop being the custodian of these stereotypes, to distance myself from them, and to begin to enjoy the humor in them. Only then will I, like him, become an individual and modern."

http://www.blackculturalstudies.org/m_diawara/blackface.html

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I guess I'm not understanding why people are defending the joke by denying the underlying (and very well established) stereotype.

Very odd. Reminds me of that old Louis Theroux episode where he met with a family of Neo-Nazis (complete with framed pictures of Hitler on the walls) and the wife said that she like the Swastika because it was a "nice shape".

Edited February 27, 2009 by Paul Daniels