All groups tell stories, but some groups have the power to impose their stories on others, to label others, stigmatise others, paint others as undesirables – and to have these stories presented as scientific fact, God’s will, or wholesome entertainment. Watermelons, Nooses, and Straight Razors examines the origins and significance of several longstanding anti-black stories and the caricatures and stereotypes that undergird them. Here readers will find representations of the lazy, childlike Sambo, the watermelon-obsessed pickaninny, the buffoonish minstrel, the subhuman savage, the loyal and contented mammy and Tom, and the menacing, razor-toting coon and brute.