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You've read this entire thread and you still don't know why the term is racist? I presume you've completed a Google search on the term........and you still don't understand?
No, I don't see how it is racist, and no, i did not read the entire thread.
I guess I'm just not a big enough bigot to know the secret underworld of racist analogies.
I read the story as a child, so I know what analogy the man was referring to. I did one quick search for the Uncle Remus story on the tar baby, just to get the quote. I do not know any racial message here, cuz I don't wallow in bigotry or racism, so sue me already.
Maybe you live in a world where you are exposed to racism, and have used racist terms and analogies like this, and expect everyone else to know them, but don't expect me to live in that same world too.
I'm sure he has no idea how that term is interpreted in 2011 despite McCain and Romney both being screwed by using the term in recent years.
True feeling always seem to slip out in soundbites.
Honestly..this sillyness is getting old. When rappers stop using the "N" word in their "music" maybe I'll care more if a congressman uses a phrase like that.
No, I don't see how it is racist, and no, i did not read the entire thread.
I guess I'm just not a big enough bigot to know the secret underworld of racist analogies.
I read the story as a child, so I know what analogy the man was referring to. I did one quick search for the Uncle Remus story on the tar baby, just to get the quote. I do not know any racial message here, cuz I don't wallow in bigotry or racism, so sue me already.
Maybe you live in a world where you are exposed to racism, and have either used racist terms and analogies like this, and expect everyone else to know them, but don't expect me to live in that same world too.
You don't have to wallow in bigotry or racism to know racist terms. Your ignorance of the racist connotations of a word does not preclude them from existing.
And none of those carry the same connotation as tar baby.
If anything the term is an acknowledgement of African Culture,
"the term's provenance arose in African folklore (e.g., the gum doll Anansi created to trap Mmoatia, the dwarf)"
Black culture has just been so abused in this country that we praise misogynist rhyming as brilliant yet contributions originating from African culture is termed racist.
The idea that contribrutions from true African culture is racist is the true racism.
The term 'tar baby' evolved from African folklore, true, but it was picked up and used by advertising media and political cartoonists back in the late 1800s/early 1900s and was used in a derogatory way to the black community. Thus for a long time it was used (and still is in many circles) as a racist slur. Word meanings change over time. So spin all you want but the term 'tar baby' NOW is not an acknowledgement of African Culture and I doubt that 90% of people in America even knew about the folklore of Anansi the gum doll trapping the dwarf and the fact that the Uncle Remus tar baby story was based on it. So how could it be "an acknowledgement of African Culture" as you claim if no one really knows about the legend?
Zippity-doo-dah, zippity yay, my oh my what a wonderful day. I guess Song of the South is deemed politically incorrect these days. But that tar-baby, he don't say nothin' he just sits there.
The term 'tar baby' evolved from African folklore, true, but it was picked up and used by advertising media and political cartoonists back in the late 1800s/early 1900s and was used in a derogatory way to the black community. Thus for a long time it was used (and still is in many circles) as a racist slur. Word meanings change over time. So spin all you want but the term 'tar baby' NOW is not an acknowledgement of African Culture and I doubt that 90% of people in America even knew about the folklore of Anansi the gum doll trapping the dwarf and the fact that the Uncle Remus tar baby story was based on it. So how could it be "an acknowledgement of African Culture" as you claim if no one really knows about the legend?
this.
granted i only saw the word used once in my life, it was by a white nationalist on stormfront, which is why i know its a derogatory term.
You don't have to wallow in bigotry or racism to know racist terms. Your ignorance of the racist connotations of a word does not preclude them from existing.
The point is that people like you are assuming everyone must know the same racial slurs as you, which is not realistic. But here we are, with people crucifying this man for exactly that.
How many people like me read the OP and were not aware how this was racist? How many people had to Google or read thru this thread to find out how this phrase is racist, before they were sufficiently outraged enough to condemn this man?
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Your ignorance of the racist connotations of a word does not preclude them from existing.