"Mary, mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells and".........What? Black Lawn Jockeys?
Oh Noooooo.
"Black Garden Watermelon Gnome (lawn jockey)
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No thanks. I will pass on the lawn jockey. (I already have one on my sidebar) Although $40 does sound like a bargain. :)
Thanks for the e-mail Dena.
$50 says the seller doesnt realize whats wrong with this thing.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a good day for gnomes in the news.
ReplyDeleteSee the following
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/17/nazi-gnome-sparks-controv_n_237356.html
cheers but I'm not interested in either of these little guys.
Makaii
Not used or an antique, it's NEW.
ReplyDeleteapparently "black americana" is allowed at ebay...searched lawn jockeys and the gnome isn't half as offensive as this one :
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/l7zqzv
It's NEW too!
ReplyDeleteIs it a rejuvenated market, now.
Field, Jocko is for sale. You saved yourself $125.
ReplyDeleteShtzskia: I don't know what's more offensive. The watermelon boy garden gnome you found, or the fact that they have the Discount Tire-type sale going on. Buy 3, Get 1 Free.
ReplyDeleteomg omg omg
ReplyDelete"This watermelon boy is a replica of the classic design that was made in the 1950's . It's happy face and bright colours will be loved by all."
Are you f**king kidding me?
It looks like a dwarf Pat Buchanan in blackface.
ReplyDeleteThey've resurfaced. What I would like to see is a black man as a jockey for the Kentucky Derby or a similiar prominent race.
ReplyDeleteGnomes don't bother me their mythical.
The two legged primates that run the world are more frighteningand influential than a statute. .
Brohamas,if you win the bed you can bid on my little friend.
ReplyDeleteLOL@Bob and the Pat Buchanan reference.
Yes Hathor,it's new. AT least it looks new.Maybe they just gave it some fresh paint.....
Negro, check out real talk from Attorneymom.
ReplyDeletehttp://charactercorner.blogspot.com/2009/07/real-talk-from-attorneymom.html
I had been wondering when the subject of lawn kockeys would come up.
ReplyDeleteI live in far northwest New Jersey, aka bear country. I have a neighbor who bought his house about 5 years ago from the estate of a widow, and very traditional lawn jockey included for free .
The jockey didn't exactly meet his requirements. So, he modified it, turned the black face and hands white. And so it stands to this day, I smile each time I see it.
That is one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen in addition to also being one of the most offensive. I could see having black garden gnomes -- a gnome in and of itself doesn't have any negative connotations that I know of -- but the watermelon does push it over the edge.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost like these haters are going out of their way to be over the top offensive..... kinda like a 9 year old that says outrageous things, just to get your attention.....
ReplyDeleteSeriously, who the hell is stupid enough to put that in their yard? There isn't a place in America where people live that there wouldn't be protests at the very least and a bit of property destruction more likely. I got my rock ready-;).
There is most certainly a place in America where folks are proud to put these little negros right in their front yards some have been beheaded with their little heads in perfect condition right at their feet...rye Texas folks home sweet home
Deleteshtzkia: WTF! That is just freaky offensive. Hey, I wonder if they make lawn cigar store indians holding a jug of hooch?
ReplyDeleteshtzskia and soyinkafan,
ReplyDeleteI saw that too - "Will be loved by everyone".
Do they actually think that? It almost sounds sarcastic, but we all know they're probably going to say they were oblivious to the entire offense (rolling eyes).
It amazes me in this day and age that some people could be so arrogant to forget they're not the only set of people living in this world, or they aren't the only ones with human feelings and history to be considered.
Oh yes, the good old lawn jockey. I still see a few of them down South while visiting the in laws. And, to be fair, I have seen white ones (well, actually, black ones painted white) in front of a couple of black homes here in Philly.It's true. I hope someone else can back me up on this.:)
ReplyDeleteI guess the home owner is saying that if they do it then so can we. *scratching head*
I don't know why they call this stuff "Black Americana". It's White people who make and collect this sort of thing. It really should be called "White Americana" since it reflects White American culture.
ReplyDeleteAnd uneducated black history, the ideas didn't come out of thin air, just small minds
DeleteMonie, yea, I know a woman who collected "pickaninny" dolls for years, and was really (no irony) shocked to hear some people thought they were a little offensive. I still scratch my head over that one: she ain't dumb, and she's not consciously racist.
ReplyDeleteField, I think he's saying, it's not the worst lawn sculpture in the world (the lantern's still there, etc.) So, he keeps it in good shape, keeps the paint looking good. But, why shouldn't HIS lawn jockey be white.
My little corner of NJ is interesting, as it steadily changes complexion. It's rural, and will stay that way. But, the population dynamic, this close to NYC, is a constant flow of middle class people who have decided to get out of the city but stay connected to the city's economy.
It's still very much good old boy country, but many of the newer good old boys, like this neighbor of mine, are black and/or hispanic. Occasionally yuppies (black, brown, white) move into the area, typically don't like it, and aren't especially well-liked. But, generally, the more down to earth types are readily accepted. This neighbor I've been discussing is a Newark fire fighter, which gives him a mildly exalted status in this neck of the woods.
Field,
ReplyDeleteWhat still amazes me is that there are sooo many black folks I meet who don't know what a lawn jockey is!! *LOL*
People like strange things in their gardens. In the south I've seen black people with black lawn jockeys. I don't remember those having exaggerated features with painted red lips.
ReplyDeleteIn searching for images of some older lawn jockeys I found this article about their origins and the underground railroad.
Off Topic:
ReplyDeleteHathor:
I just wanted to say to you that you are a very classy lady. I've always loved your smooth style of communicating. You show a dignity and tactfulness that packs a punch of intelligence and refinement. I have great respect for you.
For some reason, I've always felt a sisterly bond with you. That is why I say to you Sistah Hathor because you are my sister at heart and I sincerely mean that from the depths of my heart.
Hathor, thanks for that link.
ReplyDeleteGranny,
ReplyDeleteThanks!
I hardly ever thought I'd been tactful; not according to my co-workers:)
This is off topic
ReplyDeleteFN,
I live in the gentrified section of East Fals and these white folks chillen are screaming and hollering at midnight.
I co-sign on the link, Hator.
ReplyDeleteOh Lawd Hathor, call 911 on their assses. Do you mean East Falls here in Philly? I know some people in the District over there. Shoot me an e-mail if you are serious with the name of your streeet and i will say something to my peeps over there.
ReplyDeleteFN,
ReplyDeleteYes it is? I moved here about 12 years ago, before the land rush.
These were small children and I have called the police when some teenagers were going around throwing rocks at people houses.
When I first moved here from Germantown, my son was freaked out by a swastika painted on a garage. Since removed, but this is a weird ass neighborhood.
Just curious how you came to find a "Black Garden Gnome" spontaneously on E-bay???? I know when I'm looking for Black Garden Gnomes or Confederate Flags, I have to type something at least close to that into the search thingie.... Admit it Field....YOURE LOOKING FOR A BLACK GARDEN KNOME!!!!!
ReplyDelete"loved by all"?
ReplyDeleteI think the word "racists" is missing. WTF? A watermelon? Really?
"What still amazes me is that there are sooo many black folks I meet who don't know what a lawn jockey is!! *LOL"
ReplyDeleteWe do.
A black conservative.
Frank, if you'll read field's entire post, I think you'll see where a reader named Dena tipped field off to this.
ReplyDeleteI was driving through Wisconsin once and spotted a man selling things like this by the side of the road. He said that people came from other states to buy his statues and that "Watermelon Boys" were so popular he couldn't keep them stocked (he had a whole store of this stuff.)
ReplyDeleteI guess the home owner is saying that if they do it then so can we. *scratching head*
ReplyDeleteSee! It is fun for everyone!
What disturbs me the most about that gnome is that it looks like he's pulling that watermelon out of his pants.
ReplyDeleteDear Field Negro,
ReplyDeleteThank you for continuing to expose the comeback of the watermelon negro.
I have some updates about that white German performer who got a hefty subsidy-raise from the German government for raping watermelons in his performance art, and making fun of immigrant kids studying Stravinsky's Le Sacre. The German government is taking extraordinary steps to recuperate his tarnished image after I exposed him online. I have never seen such government backed mobilization for the sole purpose of defending a racist of admitted Nazi pedigree from online charges of racism. It is truly amazing how committed the German government is to recuperating Jochen Roller's public image:
1) The Goethe Institute (a globalist cultural ambassador type of organization for the promotion of German culture and arts with satellite offices all over the globe) first tried to sent him to the Ivory Coast for a festival... but he was shipped back! Apparently the people of Abidjan want nothing to do with this watermelon raping artist! They had the decency to do what no European festival or theatre-director has had the guts to do so far: send the racist bastard home! He was quietly removed from the bill of participating artists, but I of course noticed the removal and blogged about it, to his great embarrassment.
2) So, since he couldn't get to Africa, Goethe figured out it would be more efficient to bring a piece of Africa to him. He is now working on a duet together with the black French play-actor Franck Edmund Yao, which will be premiered in Hamburg this November.
The duet is not a true collaboration amongst artistic equals. Neither will Roller or Yao be credited. It is of course overseen by two other *white* German artists! The main purpose of the duet is to promote the careers of the two white supervisors, Monika Gintersdorfer and Knut Klassen, who have already made a name for themselves staging black/white duets in Germany (with the so-called Logobi series). It is through their involvement that the German government hopes to recuperate Jochen Roller's public image by having him appear onstage with a Real Life Black Actor, but only under the supervision of Ginterdorfer and Klassen, whose watchful eye is supposed to reassure us that this time, Roller will not be allowed to lapse into racist expressions of German white supremacy and anti-immigration politics.
I can only hope they won't be screwing watermelons together, which would be the performative equivalent of a white artist and a black artist blurting out the n-word onstage together, the presence of the black artist merely function as a stamp of approval for the white artist's supposedly "transgressive" use of the racist slur.
Tex.
Come on guys, WTF?
ReplyDeleteWhere can I get me a black lawn jockey with a chip on its shoulder?
It's time to grow up people. So whitey called you a name did he? Well call him one back and move on.
I'm sick to fucking death of hearing "White people this" or "White people that" when the moment someone says "Black" you all chuck a hissy fit.
I'm not a racist.
I'm a misanthrope.
The distinction being that I may hate you, but it has nothing to do with your nationality, colour or creed. Black people are fucked. White people are fucked. People of every shade in between are fucked. See a pattern?
You lot are just a pack of whingers who would find something to complain about regardless. So you've come to the conclusion that not everybody likes you. So fucking what? I bet you don't like me, but do I give a fuck? You should try it out some time, it's very liberating.
There’s a word you should learn. DILLIGAF. It’s an acronym for “Do I Look Like I Give A Fuck?” and it’s a mantra that makes a lot of life’s little problems go away.
The thing you have to understand about equality is that it is a mathematical operator, not an ethical standard. 1AUD is EQUAL to 1AUD. However, 1AUD is EQUIVALENT to 0.8432USD. See the distinction? My personal belief is that blacks and whites are equal, and if everyone is equal, then nobody gets special protections.
If blacks and whites are equal then the argument ought to be about the ethics of placing a statue of a jockey in the garden, not what colour said statue may be. If it is offensive to depict a black person eating watermelon, and black people and white people are equal then it must also be offensive to depict a white person eating this offensive food. If however blacks and whites are equivalent but not equal, we may be able to justify laws that protect your feelings without impinging upon your rights to place white jockeys on your lawn. And I can’t believe I actually had to type that sentence. You see the level the argument has got to? It’s fucking pathetic.
So in conclusion, please note that while I think you people are a pack of whinging little kids who should get a life; (And yes I have seen “Me, Myself and Irene” so let me be perfectly clear that I use the term “you” to indicate that I am addressing a collective group, and the term “people” to indicate members of the genus Homo Sapien, and in no way refer to any racial sub grouping within said genus. It’s funny; as an Australian I didn’t even realise there was a racial connotation to that expression and I must admit, I still don’t understand why there is.) This has nothing to do with your racial background. It’s due to the fact that you are acting like a bunch of third graders.
http://www.mountainhomeplace.com/jocko.htm
ReplyDeleteThe story begins the icy night in December 1776 when General George Washington decided to cross the Delaware River to launch a surprise attack on the British forces at Trenton.
Jocko Graves, a twelve-year-old African-American, sought to fight the Redcoats, but Washington deemed him too young and ordered him to look after the horses, asking Jocko to keep a lantern blazing along the Delaware so the company would know where to return after battle. Many hours later, Washington and his men returned to their horses who were tied up to Graves, he had frozen to death with the lantern still clenched in his fist. Washington was so moved by the young boy's devotion to the revolutionary cause he commissioned a statue of the "Faithful Groomsman" to stand in Graves's honor at the general's estate in Mount Vernon.
so since your rant about lawn jockeys being racist has been disproven by the paragraph above and in fact is a TRIBUTE to a young black boy who helped washington in the rev war, how stupid do you feel? fucking whining racist mofo. YOU are the racist to believe your own story, not us whites, get over yourselves
ReplyDeleteA Guide to Freedom
ReplyDeleteJockey statues marked Underground Railroad
From the Lexington Herald-Leader, Sunday, February 22, 1998
Underground Railroad in Loudoun County, Virginia
Most people shudder at the sight of a black lawn jockey. Though sightings are pretty infrequent today, the yard ornaments that portray blacks in subservient roles have the power to gnaw insatiably at the spirit of blacks and to disgust others who are unaware of the furtive and notable role these "Jockos" played in the first half of the 19th century.
But escaping slaves understood then that the jockey statue would guide them to the Underground Railroad and to freedom. (In Following the Drinking Gourd, the lyrics surreptitiously suggested slaves follow the "drinking gourd," a nickname for the Big Dipper, which pointed to the North Star and the way to freedom. Among other things, it advised that travel was safest in the spring – "when the sun comes back.")
The jockey, in a similarly secret way, pointed to safe houses along the Underground Railroad.
"These statues were used as markers on the Underground Railroad throughout the South into Canada," said historian/author Charles Blockson, curator of the Afro-American Collection at Temple University in Philadelphia. "Green ribbons were tied to the arms of the statue to indicate safety; red ribbons meant to keep going."
"People who don’t know the history of the jockey have feelings of humiliation and anger when they see the statue," he added. "But this figure which was sometimes used in a clandestine nature, and sometimes without the knowledge of the person who owned the statue, was a positive and supportive image to American-Americans on the road to freedom."
Sometime, added Blockson, a flag was put into the hand of the statue to indicate safety.
‘Jocko’ honored slave, book says legend has it that George Washington created the first groomsman hitching post, or "Jocko," in honor of the frozen slave in the 1770s.
According to Florida Atlantic University history professor Kenneth W. Goings, in his book Mammy and Uncle Mose (Indiana University Press), Gen. Washington wanted to mount a surprise attack on a British encampment during the Revolutionary War. Several blacks – slaves and free men – joined the group.
A young black man named Tom Graves wanted to fight but Washington said he was too young and asked the boy to hold a lantern for the troops as they crossed the Delaware, Goings writes. (Some versions of this story say it was Graves’ son, "Jocko," a nickname or given name, who died holding the reins of the horses.)
Another version of the story:
ReplyDeleteWhen the troops rowed back after the battle, instead of finding their horses hitched to a post, the reins were in the hands of Graves, who had frozen to death. Washington was moved by the boy’s dedication, Goings writes, and ordered a statue made in his honor.
All night long Jocko Graves had stood there freezing from the ice and snow. he had crossed earlier with his father; Tom Graves. Tom was among the sixty Negro volunteer troops in Washington's immediate command. When the patriots were needed to take care and herd the horses on the Jersey side, Graves was among the volunteers. His son, Jocko, having the attributes of a normal boy, tagged along with his father. When the horses were gathered, someone asked, "who will hold the General's horses?" Jocko was quick to step forward, saying, "I will."
When George Washington realized the supreme sacrifice made by the little Negro boy, he was very much impressed. He told his officers about it and they in turn told their men whose hopes and valor were restored as if by magic. The Colonials charged the Red Coats and Hessians at Trenton, routing the garrison, killing and capturing over 1,000 royalists. Only four patriots died; two in battle and two frozen to death. Jocko is counted among the latter.
It was the turning point for Washington. Nicholas Cresswell who knew the father of our country personally; wrote the following:
ReplyDeleteSix weeks ago, I was lamenting the unhappy situation of the Americans and crying the wretched conditions of the much beloved General... But now the scale turned and Washington's name is extolled to the clouds.
After the War, and after serving as the first President of the United States, George Washington returned to his estate at Mount Vernon. There he ordered two sculptures to be erected commemorating America's great political and military crisis: A Dove of Peace in iron-work was added to the cupola as a weather vane and a statue of Jocko stepping bravely forward to hold the horses as if saying, "I will, " was set up on the lawn before the mansion.
Others think the black lawn jockeys were representative of blacks’ role in organized horse racing. But this connection has been strongly disputed.
It’s because of this role that jockeys – or their precursors, the groomsmen, which were dressed in slave clothing – have become sought-after collectibles.
"For those interested in collecting the jockey, it’s important that they know the role it played along the way of the Underground Railroad," said Glennette Tilley Turner, who lives in Wheaton, Ill., and has written about the Underground Railroad in DuPage County. In the Chicago area, statues once signaled safe houses from Glenview to Pullman.
ReplyDeleteHistory lessons can come in surprising forms and places. In the lobby of Temple University’s Sullivan Hall, a groomsman stands sentinel, sometimes taking visitors aback.
"People who come here to the school for the first time don’t know how to respond," said Blockson, the statue’s owner. He bought the statue, a 5-foot-tall likeness of a black boy dating from the mid-1800s, in a Greenwich Village market in 1984. But, added Blockson, "their look of confusion begins to change when they read the description at its base."
Another groomsman statue makes an unexpected appearance in one of Beverly Jenkins’ romance novels, Indigo. This one leads the main character to freedom and to love when he sees a lantern in its hands.
Jenkins was inspired to link her love story with the Underground Railroad and to include the groomsman statue after reading Blockson’s research. "I don’t collect the statues," the 46-year-old writer said, "but I believe using African-American history in the backdrop … is one way to educate people."
There is no consensus on the statue’s origin and several theories are passed around. But it is known that the jockey’s precursor, the groomsman, was born in the Old South. Dressed in slave clothes, the groomsman later evolved into its jockey image and became a national figure after World War II.
ReplyDelete"Residents of new housing developments, perhaps to give themselves more of a sense of being a member of the privileged master class, began placing ‘Jocko’ on their lawns in great numbers," writes Kenneth W. Goings in his book, Mammy and Uncle Mose.
Jenkins, who lives in rural south-eastern Michigan, said she only has to look across the road or take a drive through rural America for sightings.
"They may have been taken off lawns in urban America in the 1960s with the civil rights movement, but they weren’t put out of sight everywhere," she said.
Blockson said he also spots the jockey statues in parts of America. For him, these sightings are reminders of the path that was taken to escape slavery.
"There’s a spirituality about the path that was taken to bring African-Americans to freedom," Blockson said. "When you visit the stops along the way of the Underground Railroad, you still feel it. It’s there. It’s not the kind of thing you can show to somebody. It’s the kind of thing you either feel or you don’t."
Other web sites
JOCKO, the first american child hero »
The black "lawn jockey" »
Lawn jockey, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia