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McCain Regrets Use of Term 'Tar Baby'
AP via SFGate ^ | 3/16/7 | LIZ SIDOTI

Posted on 03/16/2007 1:32:24 PM PDT by SmithL

Cedar Falls, Iowa (AP) -- Republican presidential contender John McCain on Friday used the term "tar baby," considered by some a racial epithet, and later said he regretted it.

Answering questions at a town hall meeting, the Arizona senator was discussing federal involvement in custody cases when he said, "For me to stand here and ... say I'm going to declare divorces invalid because of someone who feels they weren't treated fairly in court, we are getting into a tar baby of enormous proportions and I don't know how you get out of that."

After the event, McCain told reporters: "I don't think I should have used that word and I was wrong to do so."

The senator said he hoped it wouldn't be viewed as a racial remark. He argued that he was trying to say that it wouldn't make sense for him to have a role in something left to the courts.

Last summer, a top McCain rival, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, apologized for referring to the troubled Big Dig construction project in Boston as a "tar baby" during a fundraiser in Ames, Iowa.

The term dates to the 19th century Uncle Remus stories, referring to a doll made of tar that traps Br'er Rabbit. It has become known as a way of describing a sticky mess and has been used as a derogatory term for a black person.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: mccain; tarbaby
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To: John Will

Go Randall!

I too grew up largely in the South with my Mother's family southern. We all knew and enjoyed the Uncle Remus stories and I have never heard a tar baby equated with a black person. Many other words mind you, but not that one. We reads that story in school blacks and whites.

But you would not hear those words from my family though; my grandmother would slap you if you disrespected other people, regardless of color that were good people. Although they both used the term nigra even in front of blacks who had no problem. Go figure.


61 posted on 03/16/2007 4:48:47 PM PDT by doodad
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To: doodad

Sorry read. Too much editing.


62 posted on 03/16/2007 4:50:07 PM PDT by doodad
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To: SmithL
When are we going to stop apologizing for imagined offenses?
63 posted on 03/16/2007 4:50:31 PM PDT by G Larry (Only strict constructionists on the Supreme Court!)
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To: SmithL
If Tar baby is of limits what can we use instead?

Sticky Infant?
64 posted on 03/16/2007 4:52:24 PM PDT by msnimje (True Conservatives will not support a pro-abortion candidate.)
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To: SmithL

So the MSM gave him a pass on saying "gook" but persecutes him for "tar baby." I guess John McFake has learned what a fickle friend the MSM can be. He served his purpose at the time, and now they can toss him out into the trash.


65 posted on 03/16/2007 4:57:43 PM PDT by Homer1
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To: Homer1

I wouldn't have guessed that McCain is this big a wimp. He lost big with his apology. Didn't he learn anything from what happened to Allen when he started apologizing?


66 posted on 03/16/2007 5:36:44 PM PDT by Dante3
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To: SmithL

When are these guys going to grow a spine. They have to stop allowing themselves to be bullied by the newspapers and the Left. Say what you think and to hell with them! NO apologies!


67 posted on 03/16/2007 6:07:39 PM PDT by pray4liberty (a saint is a sinner who never gave up.)
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To: unkus

Excuse me????


68 posted on 03/16/2007 6:18:19 PM PDT by RoseD (Oklahoma, I challenge everyone, get the word out now! Take people to your communties and help!)
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To: SmithL

pussy. oops, I regret using that term


69 posted on 03/16/2007 9:52:40 PM PDT by antiunion person (Shoot all the politicians and let's start over again.)
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To: Dante3

is this McCains Macaca! LOL


70 posted on 03/17/2007 11:07:46 AM PDT by RatsDawg
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To: RatsDawg

The list of bad words grows:

niggardly
evacuee
tar baby
tar and feather
macaca

Some people can't help themselves. They open their mouths and advertise their ignorance.

BTW, people did get tarred and feathered in the past. But it wasn't in the south. It was in New England in the 17th century and the victims were white.


71 posted on 03/17/2007 11:15:03 AM PDT by ladyjane
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To: ladyjane
*Monkey - at least one person got into trouble for using that word.

Also words that Ann Coulter used - but those don't really count because she refused to apologize.

72 posted on 03/17/2007 12:00:49 PM PDT by Dante3
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To: SmithL

tar baby, tar baby, tar baby -- come and get me. I'm going to add that to the list of words I MUST use every day.


73 posted on 03/17/2007 12:30:30 PM PDT by bboop (Stealth Tutor)
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To: silentreignofheroes

Bre'r Rabbit is FAMOUS. We studied it in English Lit. I also saved Little Black Sambo. I am sorry, I REFUSE to knuckle under to these knuckle heads.


74 posted on 03/17/2007 12:31:57 PM PDT by bboop (Stealth Tutor)
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To: Dante3

You're right.

Adding to the list:

niggardly
evacuee
tar baby
tar and feather
macaca
faggot
monkey


75 posted on 03/17/2007 12:55:47 PM PDT by ladyjane
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To: SmithL
This again?

"Tar baby" was never a racial epithet. It wasn't until Tony Snow used the phrase in one of his first press conferences that the uneducated White House Press Corps assumed it to be racially insensitive because tar is black.

"Tar baby" actually comes from the Uncle Remus stories of Brer Bear and Brer Rabbit. It was never a racial epithet, and it should not be allowed to be turned into one by illiterates.

-PJ

76 posted on 03/17/2007 1:02:45 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (It's still not safe to vote Democrat.)
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To: SmithL
Political Correctness sure is a tar baby these days.

Is it still OK to say "jelly spine?"

77 posted on 03/17/2007 1:38:33 PM PDT by TigersEye (For Democrats; victory in Iraq is not an option!)
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To: bboop

You and me both...!


78 posted on 03/17/2007 1:47:28 PM PDT by silentreignofheroes (When the Last Two Prophets are taken, there will be no Tommorrow!)
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To: ladyjane
What about "water buffalo"? A U. of Pennsylvania student from Israel was trying to study and called those making a lot of noise water buffaloes and the university reprimanded not those causing the disturbance but him for daring to use this term.
79 posted on 03/17/2007 1:51:39 PM PDT by Dante3
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To: Volunteer
My very PC boss once told me I should not use the phrase "tar baby" because it came from a time when African-American infants were tarred and feathered.


Horse feathers. That's right up there with the imaginary etymology of "picnic." The point of tarring and feathering was to so humiliate someone that he would have to leave town, and there's no real point in humiliating an infant.

The original tar baby was from the Uncle Remus stories, illustrated by Walt Disney at left -- it was a trap set for Bre'r Rabbit by Bre'er Fox, and the harder he fought, the more he was stuck. It was the 19th century version of the dreaded Q-word, a quagmire.

The term was later used to refer to racist stereotypes like the one at right, synonymous with Sambo or Wog.

80 posted on 03/17/2007 3:51:15 PM PDT by ReignOfError (`)
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