The other day I read a CNN article on a local tv station's Web site titled U.S. Rep. Apologizes For 'Tar Baby' Comment
Seems Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado, trying to distance himself from the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, allegedly said "...I don't want to even have to be associated with him (Obama). It's like touching a tar baby and you get, you get it, you know ... you are stuck and you are part of the problem now and you can't get away."
Now I often refer to Joel Chandler Harris' Song of the South and Uncle Remus' tar baby; my children grew up with me complaining that someone who failed to return my greeting was a "tar baby" and they knew the story.
As a young person in Indiana I saw Song of the South.
I guess I missed the racist part.
I thought Uncle Remus was a grand old man who told some tall tales. Sort of like a grandfather.
Later I learned that Uncle Remus was supposed to have been a house slave and the white children listening to his tales were kin to the slave owner.
That didn't make the tales any shorter - a tall tale is a tall tale, no matter who tells it or the color of the story teller's skin or his manner of speech.
I can understand, and appreciate, the Republican's desire to distance himself from the president du jour and I can understand how he might have done something to link him to that person; it's the old "birds of a feather" thing - or could that expression be considered anti-avian?
It's hard for me to understand how anyone could consider Lamborn's remark as racist, but I suppose some ignorant folk looking for a cause might manage to assume the worst..
Lamborn compounded the problem by apologizing to Obama for using a term some might find "insensitive."
It is true that Lamborn is, according to Wikipedia, a WASP and the president is not. Maybe to boost the latter's image - lately in dire need of boosting - someone, perhaps a CNN producer, managed to hear, or hear of, the remark and ran with it.
It's fairly obvious by the context of Lamborn's remark that the representative knows the Br'er Rabbit vs. the Tar Baby story. It's also fairly obvious that the CNN producer does not know the story and does not have time to do any research - or perhaps her prejudices just got in the way. If it was for want of research, all she had to do was visit the Internet. The battle of wits between Br'er Fox, Br'er Bear, and Br'er Rabbit can be found, among other URLs, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHNDKxySTvU&feature=related. The story is a two-parter; Part 2 is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4D470YSl2Y&feature=related.
I'm of a generation that remembers a "well rounded" Aunt Jemima (http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=34&s=264&ai=42091&ssd=11/9/2002&arch=y). Nancy Green always will be the face I conjure up when I hear the name Aunt Jemima or even think about pancakes. Does that make me and other lovers of griddle cakes racist?
Uncle Remus. accent and all, was no Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, a/k/a the groveling Steppin' Fetchit. As a south Floridian, I must note that Perry was a Key West native. Uncle Remus had the respect of the "master" who put his children into Uncle's hands for an education in humanity - which is what each of the Uncle Remus stories is all about.
What if Aesop was black - would all the Aesop fables be banned? Anyone know how a Greek accent sounds?
I understand that different folks react differently to the same things.
When someone wanted to moor a replica of the La Amistad in Tampa Bay, the local black population objected. The ship "went north" where it found a home at the Mystic Seaport in Mystic CN in 2010.
Given that, it is possible to see how a person ignorant of Song of the South could associate "tar baby" - tar being black - as a reference to a black president. That was not the case, but for a person with an agenda, it's "obvious."
After thought. I wanted to include a photo of James Baskett, the actor who played Uncle Remus, but Disney apparently owns the copyright to all the pictures I found on the Web and Disney has a reputation of restricting use of its property. Still, a search for "James Baskett" will turn up several sites with photos and biographies of the actor; it's worth the effort.
