One way to look at this is that racist stereotypes promote viewing members of the target race as an undifferentiated mass with little or no individuality. This lowers the status of that group since individuality is important for status. The watermelon joke invokes such a stereotype of blacks.
BTW, I’m afraid that having espoused the idea that offense can be explained in terms of status, and having probably increased my own status in this community as a result, I’m likely quite biased on this issue now. I bet it’s much easier now for me to find arguments for this idea than counterarguments. So, reader beware. :)
One way to look at this is that racist stereotypes promote viewing members of the target race as an undifferentiated mass with little or no individuality. This lowers the status of that group since individuality is important for status. The watermelon joke invokes such a stereotype of blacks.
BTW, I’m afraid that having espoused the idea that offense can be explained in terms of status, and having probably increased my own status in this community as a result, I’m likely quite biased on this issue now. I bet it’s much easier now for me to find arguments for this idea than counterarguments. So, reader beware. :)