# I just saw a living stereotype

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-a-living-stereotype/495367>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 5, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-a-living-stereotype/495367 "2009-05-05T00:40:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-a-living-stereotype/495367/61 "2009-05-06T16:06:34Z")

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> [@robardin](#):
>
> Eventually I told a friend of mine about the “awesome deal” we had stumbled across for watermelons, and he thought it was hilariously ghetto. I totally didn’t get what he meant at the time.

I still don’t get what he meant. I’d gladly buy them, in 2009.

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**Author:** ![gang\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f07891/32.png) [@gang\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gang_green)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-a-living-stereotype/495367/62 "2009-05-06T16:57:08Z")

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I was apartment hunting, and was at the point where looking in the Greensheet was a pretty good idea. The complex was south of the railroad tracks, which in and of itself didn’t really matter to me. I opened the door to the complex office and walked into another world.

The room was absolutely choking with cigarette smoke, and sitting at the desk was a middle-aged, overweight, grey haired woman in a flowered muumuu-like dress. Hanging from her lips was a cigarette filter with about 2 inches of ash. There was a large overflowing ashtray next to her gnarled, hairy, red-clawed hand. She was also sporting a rather full mustache.

As she was on the phone, she gestured to me to take a seat while she finished. I sat gingerly in the fold-out metal chair she pointed to, and found myself looking across the room at someone with a powerful resemblance to a less dapper Junior Samples. He was sitting in a chair messing with a Havahart rat trap. Not wanting to be seen as stuck-up, I hesitantly entered into a short conversation with this gentleman.

gg: “Uh, you looking to catch some rats?”  
JS: “Nope. Skonk.”  
gg: “Isn’t that trap a bit small for a skunk?”  
JS: “Naw, he’ll squeeze on in thar.”

At this point, my ashy, moustached hostess got off the phone and went with me to look at the apartment. I kept the tour brief and got away from there as fast as I could.

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**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-a-living-stereotype/495367/63 "2009-05-06T18:01:34Z")

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> [@Cisco](#):
>
> I still don’t get what he meant. I’d gladly buy them, in 2009.

The idea that (white) guys from the South would maximize profits by bringing a large truckload of watermelons to (a) New York City, and (b) park it UNDER A BRIDGE near the intersection of several major housing projects in Brooklyn (nearly completely occupied by blacks).

Sounds like it’s playing on two stereotypes at once: (a) inner city blacks buying stuff out of the back of a truck, and (b) eating watermelons. My friend’s wisecrack was to comment how the sellers must have been selling a lot to the other guys parked right next to him, selling “stolen” radios and speakers out of the backs of THEIR trucks.

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