Colusa County has come to the defense of the youths who created the controversial "Waldo Watermelon Seed" caricature for the county's State Fair exhibit. The character was removed Wednesday after a local African American couple said the image evoked negative stereotypes of African Americans.
The exhibit was created by wards at Fout Springs Boys Correctional Facility – "roughly 40 percent Latino and 40 percent African American" – said Senior Deputy County Counsel Margaret Kemp-Williams.
The youths "faced the challenge of creating a display to celebrate the strengths of Colusa County's agriculture industry while paying homage to the State Fair's theme, 'The State Fair Goes Hollywood,' " Kemp-Williams said in a statement.
Colusa County's seed-producing crops generate $30 million a year, so the young men, under the guidance of teacher Ralph Minto, "decided to create a display honoring the world-traveling seed stars of the county: watermelon, cucumber, pumpkin and tomato," Kemp-Williams said.
"The boys were assigned the task of drawing caricatures of the seeds – characteristic of their ages and this era, they drew sharp images worthy of video game or Cartoon Network debut," Kemp-Williams explained. Their images were enlarged, drawn on Styrofoam and colored. "Each seed is depicted true to its color in real life," Kemp-Williams said. "Once completed, the Colusa County traveling stars were aptly named 'Diamond Crested Cucumber Seed,' a rapper; 'Patrick Pumpkin Seed,' a rough, tough guy; 'Rocky Tomato Seed,' a boxer; and 'Waldo Watermelon Seed,' a happy guy – why? Because who can be unhappy when eating watermelon? "We are saddened that the fine work of these young men is now cast under a cloud of unintended racism," she said. "We ask that you applaud their hard work and know that they were working to honor Colusa County with their artistic depiction of a genre of 'ag' products produced in stellar quantities by the county: seeds."
Veronica Hannon Thrasher, who objected to the caricature along with her husband, said, "I applaud these students' efforts. But they probably never had the benefit of a black history class" that showed images depicting African Americans "as a happy black slave eating watermelon. If the students were presented with that history, they might have drawn 'Waldo Watermelon Seed' a little differently."
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