White House Watermelon Email From California Mayor Dean Grose Inspires Outrage

The mayor of Los Alamitos is coming under fire for an e-mail he sent out that depicts the White House lawn planted with watermelons, under the title "No Easter egg hunt this year."

Local businesswoman and city volunteer Keyanus Price, who is black, said Tuesday she received the e-mail from Mayor Dean Grose's personal account on Sunday and wants a public apology.

"I have had plenty of my share of chicken and watermelon and all those kinds of jokes," Price told The Associated Press. "I honestly don't even understand where he was coming from, sending this to me. As a black person receiving something like this from the city-freakin'-mayor - come on."

The Orange County Register first reported the e-mail on its Web site Tuesday night.

Grose confirmed to the AP that he sent the e-mail to Price and said he didn't mean to offend her. He said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons.

He said he and Price are friends and serve together on a community youth board.

"Bottom line is, we laugh at things and I didn't see this in the same light that she did," Grose told the AP. "I'm sorry. It wasn't sent to offend her personally - or anyone - from the standpoint of the African-American race."

Grose, who became mayor in December, said he sent an apology e-mail to Price and her boss and also left her a voicemail apology.

Regardless, Price said it will be difficult for the two to work together.

"Now I am like - wow, is this really how he feels?" Price said.

Los Alamitos is a 2¼-square-mile Orange County city of around 12,000 people. The mayor is elected by fellow members of the five-seat City Council.

Comments

[Kikaida1]

Shucks, it was all innocent -- he had no knowledge whatsoever of a stereotype that every other American and probably everbody in the world has been exposed to from early childhood, at least in old movies and cartoons.

I *am* left with one small question, however -- if Grose, in the confines of his remarkably isolated bubble, has never heard of the "black people love watermelons" steroetype, the WHAT'S THE JOKE? I mean, what the heck was he laughing at? What "light" did he see it in? I REALLY WANT TO KNOW!

[VSamuels]

Exactly, then why not tomatoes or potatoes or peanuts in the picture. We have today a new crop of racists who are crying they do not know something was offensive as their excuse to enjoin in the racist action.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

Wow, you really nailed it. Ain't logic amazing?

[Dana D]

Well, isn't it an interesting phenomenon to see the racists crawling out from under their rocks. Perhaps that a good thing, as now, we know who they are and can get rid of them forthright.

This was clearly racist and there's no doubt about it.

[gretcheno]

IA I knew that they would be mad, maybe we should have a party for them who are upset that OBAMA is the POTUS and get it over with. And the elected officials could get to work on fixing this economy.

[isisdawnra]

leave it up to the Rep's

to portray the epitome of

VERY POOR TASTE

[DeeLight]

Government officials are supposed to serve all the people of their constituency.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary has the following as the first entry for the definition of racist: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race

If a government official is racist and therefore believes in some inherent superiority of a particular race, how could such an official serve all the people well when that official deems a part of the constituency to be inherently inferior?

Theoretically everyone enjoys the same protection and liberties under the Constitution as anyone else but the day to day reality is quite a different matter.

[audeo03]

IMPEACH!

[Meggie]

Call the city at 562-431-3538 - eventually you'll be transferred to the poor woman who is responsible for compiling a list of offended Americans ahead of the next city meeting.
Add your name to the list!

[FZliveson]

There seems to be a new disease whose vector is ink on paper.
It is called Cartoonitis. The illness may have started a century or so ago, but it reemerged in the past couple years emanating from a Danish cartoonist who supposedly depicted the prophet
of a major religion on paper. The outrage from this ink-related assault on innocent citizens
cost lives, property and liberty of a lot of people. Now we have smoking g u n s a dead chimpanzee and now melons growing on the lawn of a mansion, causing more strife. What I want to know is when are "they" going to outlaw ink or at least require that all pens be registered, or a substance be put in every
pen which clearly identifies the exact pen from whence something is written?
Clearly it is INK that is causing all these problems. If it were not
for INK on paper, nobody would complain about cartoons and the world would once
again be the garden of eden.

[Caymus77]

Ink?? So the artist who depicted watermelons on the Whitehouse lawn in an obviously racist cartoon has no responsibility?? Since when are Mayors political cartoonists? Since when is it appropriate for Mayors to send out garbage like this? Isn't it interesting that this e-mail originated from a Republican bastion?

Everybody should send their protests to:

Dean Grose ci.los-alamitos.ca.uss.ca.us

City Council E-mail addresses(the bozos who elected the mayor):

Marilynn Poe ci.los-alamitos.ca.usca.us

Troy Edgar ci.los-alamitos.ca.uss.ca.us

Gerri Graham-Mejia ci.los-alamitos.ca.usamitos.ca.us

Ken Stephens ci.los-alamitos.ca.usitos.ca.us

[FZliveson]

Caymus77...Bless your activist soul.
Go for it. But don't forget to beget goodness on people too.
We can get so obsessed with attacking wrong that we
often omit doing the good things that make more difference.
Go kick a big butt and take names

[karinova]

Are you... kidding?
Maybe you've just recently arrived on this planet (welcome!). So maybe you haven't noticed that "humor" is where a lot of people try to hide their -isms. It's kind of classic.
When they inevitably tick someone off, they then fall back on the old "it was just a joke/don't be so sensitive!" rap. (Or, lately, the even more ridiculous "goodness me! I had no IDEA that might be off ens ive to 'some people!'") In other words, quickly blame the victim: "if 'some people' weren't so dang sensitive, we'd all be havin' a laugh! Party pooper!"

Let's assume you're not black, and that this doesn't personally off end you. In fact, maybe you don't want to be bothered thinking about this kind of thing; you're tired of hearing about it. Fine. But why, exactly, should this stuff be ignored by EVERYONE? That is: what good would "letting it go" do, other than making YOU feel better?

[surfcitysteven]

He didn't know the thing about black people and watermelons? I can't remember how long I knew about that. I must have heard the first joke about that in gradeschool. How is it that he is the only adult in America that did not get the memo?

[karinova]

Oh, he got it.
Then he hit "forward."

[vimmryan]

Keep it up conservatives! Keep driving those nails into your own coffins.

[CamBrown99]

Racism = ignorance.

That the mayor said he didn't understand that this would be offensive proves the point.

[PoliticalEnnui]

There's a difference between being ignorant and pleading ignorance. The mayor is clearly doing the latter. If we presume he had no idea of the racial undertones of this image, then how do we explain his forwarding the image? Would he have forwarded this on if the lawn were full of bowling balls? Tomatoes? If watermelons were just another fruit to him, the picture should have seemed absurd and he probably would have deleted it. But he forwarded it because there was something he thought worth circulating, for whatever reason, and now he's pleading ignorance.

In fact, he hoping the rest of America is ignorant.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Racism = *Xenophobia.* It is a disease rooted in fear based upon ignorance that rots the human soul as well as the heart and mind. It leads to extreme madness in some cases, and a willingness to commit atrocity on the part of the most severely afflicted.

However, this *mayor* hasn't a leg to stand upon, pleading ignorance. His actions speak for themselves, speak loudly and clearly.

IMHO this matter is obvious to Ray Charles (ie., a dead blind man).

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[simplecitizen]

I think it is now imperitive to institute an intelligence test and a sensitivity test before any person is allowed to run for public office. This would help to eliminate so many of our officials before they can take office and bring our country down. I know we could all name some officials in office past or present including some who by some unexplained phenomina made it all the way to the White House. In fact maybe voters should take the same test before entering the voting booth. Could have made a significant difference in the last 8 years.

[overcat]

It's a positive thing, really. This guy just laid himself bare for all to see. Transparency. The next significant moment will come when he's up for reelection, his community can show everyone where they stand.

[ColoradoDan]

It is up to the Council of that city.

The hate he brings to his area will be vast ... and he is bolstering the Orange Curtain stereotype that has existed for 40 years there.

Best he resign before the day is over ... only honest solution.

Enough with the mindless bigotry everyone ... just enough.

[MyAudacity]

This is just stupid. I like fried chicken, and I like watermelons. In fact for our Black History Dinner at work, I deliberately took fried chicken and slices of watermelon.

My Boss who is Caucasian went to a recommended African American page and selected a recipe or Candied Yams with Rasins and Pineapples.......it was absolutely delicious, and we didn't know it was considered and African American dish, until he told us where he found the recipe.

All of this "fake" outrage is annoying, and disingenous. If she was so upset at the Mayor, why didn't she simply tell him she was offended, rather than making news out of it.

[Essentialboom]

You have to be joking

[NEnglish]

If you are unclear as to why this image is racist, please do some research. You can start hear at this University of Minnesota site: http://www.chgs.umn.edu/histories/otherness/otherness3-2.html

The wounds of racism in America are deep and we should all have some historical perspective on it before we make uninformed statements about fake outrage.

[festry548]

It truly is horrifying to see what used to pass for art. I've seen this stuff in antique stores and wondered, "who would buy this?"

[kps888]

She made news of it so the world could see this garbage laid bare. That's why. I am certain if you think about it, there are things that offend you this badly as well. If not, well then we should all aspire to be as self-actualized as you.

[SUIGENEROUSLA]

We're talking about the President of the US, planting the WH lawn in watermelons.........if you don't see the similarity to Jim Crow images then you don't know US history well at all.

sincerely,

a 45 yo white guy

[BlackWidowPilot]

Clearly you are either too young to be aware of the historic implications of this imagery, or simply uninformed, or being deliberately obtuse.

Care to clarify which state of affairs describes the basis for your excusing this mayor's actions?

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[Gericault]

I've said it before, "Orange County is the Appalacia of California".

[thisoldbroad]

Perhaps you're not aware of how ignorant the stereotype comments really are. If I thought you were comparing OC to the Appalacian region because of the economic struggles, I wouldn't be annoyed.

But I am annoyed. To leave such a derogatory stereotype comment about people from another region of this country in the comment section of an article about another derogatory stereotype comment made about a person.. well I'm stunned.

I don't find the email in question or your comment funny at all. Shame on you.

[dagnew]

Agreed.

[wookierage]

Say what? He didn't know that watermelons are used in a ra.cist way? Whuh? This, after all the "uppity" stuff just makes me crazy. They know what they're saying, they just want to smirk and say, "Golly why is everyone so upset!!!!?"