Colusa exhibit removed at State Fair

A cheerful tribute to Colusa County's farming bounty? Or a thoughtless insult to African-Americans visiting the California State Fair?

In Sacramento, fair staff have withdrawn a cartoonish watermelon-seed mascot from a display meant to celebrate Colusa County's melon and pumpkin crops.

Complaints from fairgoers about "Waldo Watermelon Seed's" alleged racial insensitivity — a character sporting black skin, bulging teeth and huge eyes — has led the fair to remove that part of the display, two weeks after its debut.

Creators of the exhibit — one of several at the 18-day fair showing off regional products throughout California — said the only intent was to promote Colusa County's seed—crop industries. But a fair visitor's complaint led to Waldo's removal late Wednesday, according to Norb Bartosik, the fair's general manager.

"Our staff notified Colusa County (representatives) of the complaint," he said Thursday. "They said, 'We don't want to offend anyone, so we'll come down and modify it."

Although media reports attributed Waldo to high school students from the county, the actual creators are wards of Fouts Springs Boys Ranch, a youth correctional center in the county's western foothills, according to Margaret Kemp-Williams, senior deputy of the County Counsel's Office. The Fouts Springs center has sponsored state fair exhibits for the last eight years.

Kemp-Williams declared herself baffled by the uproar over the seed symbol, which she said were meant to be lighthearted tributes to the seed industry's "star quality" — and which she added were created largely by black and Latino students at Fouts Springs.

"Someone took umbrage at Waldo Watermelon Seed and attached a meaning to the caricature that was never intended," she said in a statement. "We are saddened that the fine work of these young men is now cast under a cloud of unintended racism."

In an interview earlier Thursday, Kemp-Williams said animated cartoons, rap and other pop culture icons were the main inspirations for the Colusa display, whose seed-faced characters also included a rapper—styled "Diamond Crested Cucumber Seed" and a boxer-like "Rocky Tomato Seed."

"I don't want to minimize their feelings" about racial insensitivity," she said of the display's critics. "I grew up in a world with those negative images. But the reality is that those kids have no sense of that time."

African-Americans make up about 1 percent of Colusa County's population, according to the Census Bureau.

Contact Appeal—Democrat reporter Howard Yune at 458—2121 or hyune@appealdemocrat.com.