A story about Tar baby..

[nmbluesky]

Although the term's provenance arose in African folklore (e.g., the gum doll Anansi created to trap Mmoatia, the dwarf), some Americans now consider "tar baby" to have negative connotations revolving around negative images of African-Americans.


Lamborn spoke to KHOW-AM Friday. He was responding to comments about whom voters would hold responsible for actions on the nation’s debt ceiling when he said he thought voters would blame the president. Lamborn said: “Now I don’t want to even have to be associated with him. It is like touching a tar baby and you get it — you’re stuck, and you’re part of the problem now.”

Some people consider the term “tar baby” to be a racial epithet.

Lamborn’s spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen said in a written statement Monday that Lamborn simply meant to refer to a sticky situation. She says Lamborn sent an apology letter to President Obama.
http://madmikesamerica.com/2011/08/rep-doug-lamborn-calls-obama-tar-baby/
The Oxford English Dictionary (but not the print version of its American counterpart) lists "tar baby" as a derogatory term for a black or a Maori.


The people consider the term “tar baby” to be a racial epithet.

Lamborn’s spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen said in a written statement Monday that Lamborn simply meant to refer to a sticky situation. She says Lamborn sent an apology letter to President Obama.

[valerief]

1. We know it was code proclaiming he's racist, no matter what his excuse or the term's history.

We know its connotation in our culture. It's racist.

[Throd]

3. I use that term to refer to situations.

[Lance_Boyle]

5. Your culture must be different from mine.

In my culture, we use this thing called *context* to aid in interpreting the meanings of words. When a situation, or in this case a bill, is called a "tar baby," we understand from the context that the speaker is referencing a popular American story by Uncle Remus to indicate that the situation (or bill) is not something from which one can easily extract one's self once one becomes involved with it.

[Karenina]

8. A white person referring to a black PERSON as a TAR BABY

IS A RACIST REFERENCE. It IS and HAS BEEN for the 6 decades I've been alive.

This is yet another PERFECT EXAMPLE of what Empowerer was asking on this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x724495


I loved it when my Aunt Carole read Uncle Remus to us because she could do so many voices and dialects. I understood the metaphor as did my siblings and cousins.

I personally experienced the reference morph into a racial slur.

Have YOU ever been the lone dark-skinned in the class, surrounded by bullying kids on the playground calling you a black, stinky tar baby? I doubt even your parents were alive when I did. Have you ever considered how you might perceive such an experience and react to the reference in future?

Presuming to offer us all the „proper context“ in which to judge our own experiences, I daresay it is your white privilege offers you that conceit.


As an ESL language trainer abroad, I can assure everyone of one thing linguistically.

USAGE. ALWAYS. TRUMPS.

ALWAYS.

In YOUR culture, indeed. :eyes:

[fishwax]

9. he didn't call the bill a tar baby, he called Obama one

[Lance_Boyle]

10. No, he didn't.

"Working with {Obama} is like touching a tar baby" was the quote. You would have a point if he had said "Working with that tar baby sucks" or something equivalent. But he didn't.

[fishwax]

11. (a) that's not the quote and (b) how do you interpret that as him calling the bill a tar baby?

"I don't even want to be associated with him; it's like touching a tar baby ..."

[TBMASE]

2. I don't think the guy meant it racially

but he should have come up with a better analogy

[Kingofalldems]

4. I love that story

[supernova]

6. That guy has a grimace

more than a smile. No lips and teeth baring usually translates to aggression in primates.

[BlueDemKev]

7. Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah....

...Zip-A-Dee-A!