Wikipedia page - [CW: racism]
Origin
The African dodger, also known as Hit the Coon, was a popular American carnival game from the late 19th century up to the mid-1940s. It involved an African-American man sticking his head out through a hole in a curtain and trying to dodge balls thrown at him. Hits were rewarded with prizes. People were seriously injured or reportedly even killed after being struck. In response to attempts to ban it, a less dangerous game was invented called the African dip, in which a person was dropped into a tank of water if a target was hit by a ball. Popular Mechanics noted in 1910 that African dodger had become “too old and commonplace” and was being replaced with dunk tanks, in which an African American would fall into a tank of water when a target was hit with a ball. The illustration accompanying the article shows a game labelled “Drop the Chocolate Drop” and is captioned “Amusing to All but the Victim”.
Generally, the African Dip is recognized as overtly racist. One variant, at Chicago’s Riverview amusement park, was named “Dunk the removed” until the early 1950s when it was renamed “African Dip”. It was successfully shut down by the NAACP in the mid-1950s.
At this point anything that originates from the U.S. or Europe, up to and including every single word in the dictionary, has a 99% chance of having incredibly racist origins in some way.
Pretty much. The number of seemingly harmless folk songs with racist origins is mind-boggling.
And when you find that 1% that originated with communists or abolitionists or something, it’s even more shocking
:yea:
One of the best parts of being American is doing research for a book, and going “maybe I’ll put a dunk tank in this scene,” and then discovering that even dunk tanks are racist.
https://subium.com/profile/kashana.bsky.social/post/3l7r5r3koj42x
Dredge tanks aren’t though so now we should put the dunk tank in the dredge tank where it belongs
What if we do meta-commentary where we also post pics of posts from the dunk tank in the dredge tank.
Honestly, we might want to consider closing the dunk tank and fully transitioning to the dredge tank
It involved an African-American man sticking his head out through a hole in a curtain and trying to dodge balls thrown at him. Hits were rewarded with prizes.
It’s worse if you follow the link for “African dodger”. In that article it specifies it was “an African American child” who usually did the dodging.
make a game about throwing balls at a target, and it just happens to be deeply racist
God Damn America lmao
AmeriKKKa*
Definitely need the good ol’ MSE in this case
Oh yeah, African Dodger. So common it was referenced in a few Popeye cartoons.
A lot of things originating in the US have racist origins. This of course doesn’t mean that dunk tanks should be banned. Nobody doing them at a local fair is even aware of its origins. It’s a shame that these things aren’t discussed more so people know just how normalized overt racism was.
Gonna be me every time I go on this community now:
Cucking stool, sometimes known as a “ducking stool” is a medieval form of punishment involving submerging the victim in water.
I petition to rename this community
I don’t know what this emoji is supposed to be abou but it seems appropriate
The ducking stool is misogynist tho, not really helping
Ban this comm when???
named “Dunk the removed” until the early 1950s when it was renamed “African Dip”.
Smh had to change the name because of woke
We should change the comm name to the_cuck_stool
Why not cuck_stool? I never liked the “the_”.
Good point, it matches dredge tank too
That’s fucking rough.
Death to amerikkka
need more ks
They’ve got us on this one
![Dunk tanks are racist. [Wikipedia link in body]](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/51f3f91b-b916-4b8f-89b0-7e11f888c27a.jpeg){kind=link}