The Stress of Eating Chicken, Watermelon + Bananas

Chicken, Watermelon, and Bananas (installation excerpt) from Question Bridge on Vimeo.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this here before. Because of the horrible stereotype, I didn't buy watermelon for a very long time. But then I realized that I was depriving myself of a very healthy fruit that I liked. So one day I got brave and went to the store planning to buy one. It felt like an emotional milestone. I didn't care who saw me buy one. Guess what happened?

I wish I could say nothing. A white woman came up to me and asked me questions about buying watermelon. Really. *sigh*

Anyway, I was hardly the expert, so I told her that I really couldn't answer her questions. I wonder if she thought I was lying.

Based on this For Harriet blog post and the video above, I'm not the only black person feeling stressed out by eating certain foods because of stereotypes about us. I've felt the same thing while eating bananas and fried chicken. Wondering who was watching and what were they thinking. It's really a shame....


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