I was just reviewing with CNN on in the background when I heard a story that made me jump from the computer to stare at the television screen in disbelief and outrage. A newsletter for the Chaffey Committee of Republican Women, an organization in California, included in their past issue a cartoon found on the internet of Barack Obama's picture on a ten dollar food stamp, surrounded by pictures of fried chicken, watermelon, ribs and Kool-Aid.

When reporters asked the family members of the editor of the newsletter why they did not consider this racist and in need of immediate apology, they acted incredulous, as if there was nothing racist about this. I eat chicken and watermelon, the editor's daughter stated. I am still literally shaking with anger from this.

My graduate work in African American Studies (I am white) centered on the racial stereotyping of blacks in our country, especially from 1880-1920, in the images of popular culture. By this I mean newspaper cartoons, humor magazines, post cards, magazine advertisements, children's books, children's banks and toys, salt and pepper shakers,
you name it! Two of the most oft-repeated images were those of African Americans as chicken and watermelon eaters.

Let me explain each. First, watermelon. This allowed caricaturists to say several things. One, it accentuated the size of black people's mouths, by showing them having to open wide to bite into a huge slice. This reinforced the stereotype that black people are lower on the evolutionary chain than whites and have features more like animals, including huge mouths and big lips. Second, it reinforced the idea of blacks as having insatiable appetites, also a link to animalistic behavior. They were never portrayed as eating a respectable portion of melon - they were devouring the entire thing in huge slices. Melon is also a finger food, not eaten with utensils on plates the way "civilized" people eat.

The way of acquiring the melon was also never from the produce market. African Americans were always portrayed as having stolen the melon from the white farmer's field. The white farmer was a responsible citizen, and the thief came in the night, a coward, and sneaked off with his ill-gotten gains. This allowed white culture to make the charge that blacks were thieves but also reassure themselves that blacks were not going to take over and kill them all, because it was petty and cowardly theft. And often, the pictures showed the farmer getting the better of them and shooting them full of buck shot as they fled in comic disarray.

Chickens are no better. Again, chicken is a finger food, and was always depicted as devoured in a mess, with no regard for the niceties of manners. Again, chickens were eaten with animalistic gusto. Again, they were stolen, not purchased. The theft of a chicken also allowed blacks to be shown as cowardly, petty thieves who were inept in their thievery. Either the farmer chased them or the chickens themselves confronted them and either scared them to death or outwitted them.

I collected at one time thousands of stereotypical images, and these two stereotypes accounted for a huge chunk of them. They depict African Americans as outside the pale of society, manners, law yet buffoons at it. White Americans had the opportunity to be reminded of their supposed grotesque shortcomings without being scared too much by
them. These images, most awfully, were used to pass these beliefs onto children. I cannot tell you how many toys and children's books feature these images and how many postcards I collected that were sent to children and signed Grandpa or Auntie Helen.

Today, most people who carry on these horrid, horrid beliefs do a better job of keeping them hidden. Seldom are they this out in the open. I can't stop shaking. I had no intention of writing an essay today. I was going to post an A-Z poem about a beautiful animal. But I am going to spend my member dollars instead on promoting this essay.

If you were not aware of these stereotypes, as the editor of this newsletter's family claim they are unaware, please be assured that your African American neighbors and co-workers and friends are painfully aware of them. And if you are African American, please know that not all white people condone these ugly, cowardly, awful images. I am embarrassed for my race. I am outraged. This is 2008, not 1880. We have an African American who may well become our President. It is time to say STOP!! I say STOP!!