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Location: Currently I physically reside on the 3rd planet from the sun
2,220 posts, read 1,877,655 times
Reputation: 886
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayland Woman
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?
Yes, it is racist to take another's culture and twist it in derogatory ways, this is part of why I stated African Culture has been abused. Another problem with embracing African Culture is that it is not homogenous - just like Asian Culture it represents a wide variety of diverse peoples, customs, ideas and of course - cultures.
To blanket label any cultural reference however is to admit defeat to those who originally twisted it - they have succeeded in burying it in their re-interpretation.
You know the game of pool is racist don't you? It really is. Think about it. You have a white ball hitting all the colored balls into the pockets and all that is left is the white ball and you win. Racist for sure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by janelle144
LOL, that was a scene in a movie. It was about a black guy who was super sensitive---I see you don't get it---oh well. LOL
It was Boomerang. (Love that movie BTW). The character was played by Martin Lawrence who told this craziness and he was not taken seriously. This was a parody of some black people who find racist overtones in everything, which is why it is so funny because it is ludicrous. It is hard to find something racists about billiard playing but it is not hard to find about an historical derogatory name or phrase like tar baby, which is why it is not funny.
I am really not all that sensitive about racial issues and like Eddie Murphy's character in the movie Boomerang, I usually consider remarks trying to name everything racist or white supremacy as crazy. But the term the congressman used was derogatory no matter how many people have never heard of it. That just goes to show IMO the ignorance that our country has about its history really and those who don't know should be upset that they were not taught about all aspects regarding this country as tar baby was a very popular derogatory term for many many years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayland Woman
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?
Wanted to agree with this. Also to add that Africans did not call this character "tar baby" so in reality the phrase is not African. If they had used the same name as the native language (Yoruba) for the character, then it would be African.
I do know that the Uncle Remus stories were based on the African storytelling tradition which blacks continually kept up in America for many many generations. These stories were told to Joel Chandler Harris and he subsequently used them for his own gain. Many people consider him to have stolen part of the culture of blacks in publishing the Uncle Remus stories, since they were not from his imagination but were taken from the stories he overheard black people tell while he lived on a plantation.
I am 68 years old and grew up in the south. I have NEVER heard the term "tar baby" used as a racial slur. It was always Uncle Remus/sticky situation connotation. Of course I was raised by literate people who didn't go around making racial slurs.
I was raised in the South, knew many racist people, never heard it used as a slur. I knew people in the KKK and never heard it used by them either.
I learned something a long time ago. If you look for something bad in a person, you are sure to find it.
This is the crux of the issue for me - you can debate the connotation in which Lamborn used the term all you want, but to flatly deny there is any racial/racist connotation just makes them seem disingenious.
~ButterBrownBiscuit~
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChocLot
So because you've never heard it used a slur, it never happened?
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