Going back to the exploration of food items used in relation to race in the states, the watermelon has a significant role in its depiction relating to the African-American community. After emancipation, African-American communities found a viable means of earning income through the growing and selling of watermelons. It was also a symbol of their self-determination and freedom until white southerners started to depict African-Americans with the watermelon in a negative portrayal. In a sense tainting their freedom, which is symbolized by the one fly on the watermelon. The shadow in the back is also a depiction of the fact that things might have changed as it relates to basic liberties but African-Americans still live in the shadow of the past as it relates to lynching (modern version to me is police brutality). Hence, the contradiction of the American dream.