R&B singer Omarion is being heavily criticized across social media, for going on stage and eating watermelon in front of fans, Media Take Out has learned.
During the very unflattering Verzuz performance, Omarion and his brother Oryan took the stage and began eating the red fruit, as the ladies in the crowd looked on. Many of the onlookers seemed stunned by the imagery.
Watch:
As you can imagine, Black Twitter is in an uproar, and are asking for Omarion to be cancelled. Look:
The watermelon stereotype is a racist and vile one, started by White supremacists in the United States. According to the stereotype, African Americans have an unusually great appetite for watermelons. This stereotype has remained prevalent into the 21st century.
The first published caricature of Black people reveling in watermelon is believed to have appeared in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper in 1869. Defenders of slavery used it to portray African Americans as a simple-minded people who were happy when provided with watermelon and a little rest.
The slaves’ enjoyment of watermelon was also seen by the Southern people as a sign of their own supposed benevolence. The stereotype was perpetuated in minstrel shows often depicting African Americans as ignorant and lazy, given to song and dance and inordinately fond of watermelon.
For several decades in the late nineteenth century through to the mid-twentieth century, the stereotype was promoted through caricatures in print, film, sculpture and music, and was a common decorative theme on household goods.
During the 2008 Obama presidential campaign and the presidency of Barack Obama, watermelon imagery was used by his detractors
