The question was not if but when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be the target of yet another race based offense. This time the offense comes from Bellevue Community College in Washington State. Where a professor at the school asked students a math question, where he just so happened to connect Condoleezza with a watermelon. The selected person and the associated object are too ironic to be coincidental.
The question asked was:
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. The height of the watermelon above the ground t seconds later is given by formula h= -16t2 + 20t + 300
a. How many seconds will it pass her (she’s standing at a height of 300 feet) on the way down?
b. When will the watermelon hit ground?
Michelle Malkin has this and other details.
Just terrible that a professor would try and pull such a stunt. In this case I feel a reprimand would be appropriate, but not a firing. Some people feel that everyone who dares utter a racist statement should be living under a bridge. I personally feel they should just have to keep their racist views out of places like the classroom. And punishment should vary depending on the severity of the offence. (I know plenty of Black people who make racist statements too. And I don’t wish for them to lose their jobs any more than Whites that do the same.)
Now some of you might be wondering, how the heck did Black people start getting associated with watermelons? Well to be perfectly honest, while Blacks (and everyone) should reject mean spirited racial stereotypes, anyone that enjoys calling themselves “African American” should know the origin of the watermelon. (I am no fan of that term.) The watermelon is a fruit that is indigenous to Africa. However, the connection in American caricatures during the height of segregation was used to connect pictures of Blacks looking like loons to promotion of the fruit. Perhaps if not for such characterizations of Blacks in connection with the fruit, modern day connections of this sort would not be met with scorn. But given the very well known historical aspects and this blatant connection by a college professor, it is fairly obvious that the professor made the connection with ill intent.
So the professor was wrong and deserves to be reprimanded. He should fully apologize and his claims that the reference was “unintentional” fall in deaf ears.
update 4/13/2006 12:28PM: Michelle Malkin has updates of what has happened since this received more public attention.
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April 12th, 2006 at 5:02 am
I had no idea that watermelons were racist — and one could also interpret the question as “anti-racist” if one says that Condi liberated herself by throwing the melon from a great height to it’s certain demise. For extra points, she could maybe aim for the head of a KKK member?
I like mine with a slice of lemon, or lightly curried, but always well chilled.
April 12th, 2006 at 8:31 am
The professor made no mentions of the question being a symbol of a Black woman liberating herself from a stereotype. Of course if he wanted to show how she’s freed herself from stereotypes he could have asked a question that involved the time it took her to travel to the many colleges she’s graduated from.
It was simply the use of a racial stereotype with negative intent.
April 13th, 2006 at 6:23 am
I really don’t have a problem with the watermelon issue. We eat them. White folks eat them. This would be like teasing Jews about matzo balls.
I am more concerned about how she is the subject of daily attacks on a local Black talk radio show on WAOK. There seemingly is not a day that goes by when a callers states their strong dislike for Dr. Rice as a “sell out”.
At some point I am going to call in and ask them when they will stop consuming the fruits of Dr. Rice’s labor as she keeps the oil from the Middle East flowing into their car’s gas tank?
April 13th, 2006 at 11:58 am
Ron, haven’t you figured it out yet? It’s OK for THEM to take from others. This is why they enjoy candidates that promote wealth redistribution. But when they see folks who do not endorse their candidates doing anything then they must complain. Iraqis are the ones talking about how they will split the profits from their oil sales. But that is not the point if you hate Bush.
April 19th, 2006 at 10:50 am
UPDATE: Condoleezza Rice Watermelon Math Problem. See The Actual Test.
As I mentioned in my round-up of unhinged teachers last week, and Michelle Malkin had full coverage of here and here, a professor at Bellevue Community College included (wrote) the following, racially charged math question on a test: Condoleezza holds…