Curb Your Enthusiasm on Watermelon

Great segment on Curb Your Enthusiasm this week where Leon admits he refuses to eat watermelon in public due to the cliché.

It rang home for me. I've turned out to be surprisingly generous (it's not something I consciously aimed for), because if I so much as round up in my favor, I'll feel like a conniving greedy Jew. So I go the other way, and treat more often than I'm treated, never take advantage of anyone, tip 25-30%, and, if I spot a dollar bill on the sidewalk, I'll encourage someone else to totally snatch it up (I'd rather grab a live rattlesnake).

But the best part of the bit was Leon's inner conflict because he, frankly, loves watermelon. As well he should! It's delicious! The cliché really amounts to "Black people enjoy enjoyable things!" Racists might just as well snarl about how Black people are super into a good night's sleep, or immaculately cut toenails. So odd.

I'd swap clichés in a second. No biggie for me to avoid public watermelon consumption, plus I'd be able to put away more cash.

...and isn't that EXACTLY SOMETHING A JEW WOULD SAY?


Click here to read about one of my most surreal experiences, when I was welcomed to Japan as part of an almost all-black big band via a formal presentation of...watermelon.