Posted on 07/31/2006 6:33:52 AM PDT by JRochelle
Prominent black Bay Staters are outraged by Gov. Mitt Romney’s use of the words “tar baby” to describe the Big Dig as he stumped for presidential points in Iowa. “Tar baby is a totally inappropriate phrase in the 21st century. If Calvin Coolidge didn’t use it, why the hell should Mitt Romney?” railed Larry Jones, a black Republican and civil rights activist. Tar baby can refer to a sticky mess, but it also has been recognized as an epithet to humiliate black people. President Bush’s spokesman Tony Snow learned that in May when his expression, “I don’t want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program,” raised the hackles of political correctness. “He thinks he’s presidential timber,” Jones said yesterday of Romney, “but all he’s shown us is arrogance.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bostonherald.com ...
My mother-in-law got it for me on DVD, from Canada.
We had taken her to Joel Chandler Harris' house, the author of the Uncle Remus stories. And we spoke to the museum staff. The ladies who ran the site were African American, and they said they loved the series and were so pleased that Harris had shared this with the rest of the world.
Harris had learned these tales from African-Americans that he knew, they were fire-side stories told for generations. And he preserved them by writing the children's book.
It is through today's hour glass that they are seen as being racist. But when they were written, no one saw them that way. Harris had stuck closely to the oral tradition and did not change the tales.
Try to explain all of that to Disney, today.
Probably refuses to use aspirin cause you have to pick cotton to get at them.
Heheh.
Several months ago I went to the library with my daughter to get some books so I could read stories to her at night.
I picked up a copy of Uncle Remus's Tales. It was a book my Mom read to me when I was a child.
When I was checking out, the black librarian gave me the nastiest look. I didn't understand why she did this until later.
I guess that this is still offensive to some blacks, although I don't really know why.
Anyone who has read the book knows that the "Tar Baby" is literally a baby made of tar, and has nothing to do with race.
Only if Je$$e Jack$on or RevAl can make a buck off it.
Calvin Coolidge is a bad example. He hardly used any phrases at all.
I had to read your perfect name twice; LOL.
So everyone who doesn't spend time with people who use racist language, and therefore never hears "tar baby" used in a racist context, is an idiot?
Puh-leeze.
Hey, I was lucky my brain dredged up that much. I almost attributed them to A. B. Frost, the illustrator.
We have a copy of Uncle Remus' Tales that we picked up at a used book store somewhere. I think some are offended by the author's transcription of Southern dialect.
"Though many descendants will be intelligent enough to avoid the folly of their ignorant ancestors, they are then cast out for abandoning "traditions". Vicious cycle."
In the context of this thread, could that be a "viscous" cycle?
I shudder every time I hear the term "paddy wagon" or the phrase "has their Irish up".. Also the references to Irish and drinking.... Where are my reparations????
It is abundantly clear that Mitts invocation of the phrase was for its first listed meaning.. and that term is pretty darn appropriate for what the Big Dig is, those that are outraged by it are idiots.
Why should black folks be offended by literature characters like "Tar Baby" or "Sambo"? Or a description of their ancestors military/hunting technique like "Spear Chucker"? Or the French word for Black...Negro ("The United Negro College Fund")?
Don't forget what the initials NAACP stand for!
I suspect the famous (and side-splitting) "job interview/word association" SNL skit with Richard Pyor and Chevy Chase would never be made today.
A "tar baby" down here in Southern Ohio would be the newborn kid of the Michelin Man.
Viscous cycle would also be a great name for a band.
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