Rep Tom Davis Uses Term "Tar Baby" In GOP Memo
By Logan Murphy Thursday May 15, 2008 8:20pm
In a 20-page memo on GOP electoral woes, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) repeatedly misspells Barack Obama’s name – it’s one R, congressman, not two -- and then manages to use the racially charged term “tar baby” in a paragraph about Obama and immigration.
“Remember,” Davis writes, “Hispanic voters are a swing group in this election and future elections. John McCain, being from a border state, may be out of sync with many Republicans but he has standing among Hispanics. Barrack Obama has not made the sale to Hispanic voters. Thus, this issue is a tar baby for anyone who touches it, with land mines everywhere.”
Wasn't Davis the one who recently said that if the Republican brand were dog food, it would be taken off the shelves? Ok, so this isn't the end of the world, but Rep Davis, statements like this aren't going to do much for your party in the fall.
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Foot In Mouth Disease seems rampant in the Repugs this week....omg..
Well this certainly explains why the republican party is dead in the water. What a bunch of moes!
Tar Baby?!???!
Just when you think they can't get any dumber....
Uncle Remus must be rolling over in his grave.
3 gB Says: Tar Baby?!???!
____________________________________________
It's a new brand of cigarettes targeting infants.
Har, har yet another smear from one of these piece of shit gop racists. Damn them.
Tarbaby is not always a racist term
There is no scandal or story here. You have only succeeded in making yourself look foolish.
Isn't that what they call the child of a Tarheel?
Race card and gay marriage is all they got.
Off topic but I love this, from Kos:
"Obama Fires Back at McCain - Yet Again
by Scout Finch
Fri May 16, 2008 at 05:05:06 PM PDT
Speaking to the NRA today, John McCain called Obama's foreign relations plans "reckless." The McCain quote (courtesy of from Ben Smith at The Politico):
Earlier today, Sen. Obama made a few remarks I would like to respond to. I welcome a debate about protecting America. No issue is more important. Sen. Obama claimed all I had to offer was the ‘naive and irresponsible belief’ that tough talk would cause Iran to give up its nuclear program. He should know better. I have some news for Sen. Obama: Talking, not even with soaring rhetoric, in unconditional meetings with the man who calls Israel a ‘stinking corpse’ and arms terrorists who kill Americans will not convince Iran to give up its nuclear program. It is reckless to suggest that unconditional meetings will advance our interests.
It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don't have enemies. But that is not the world we live in, and until Sen. Obama understands that reality, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe.
Barack fired-up that rapid response team and wasted no time hitting back (via press release):
"What's reckless is continuing the Bush-McCain foreign policy that has cost us thousands of lives and a trillion dollars in Iraq, strengthened Iran, enabled Hamas to take Gaza, took our eye off al Qaeda, failed to capture Osama bin Laden, failed to finish the job in Afghanistan, and left us less safe and less respected in the world. No amount of utterly predictable fear-mongering and tough talk can change the fact that John McCain is running to continue the most disastrous foreign policy in recent American history," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
Holy shit --- that was a WWF style smack-down of McCain. Can you smell what Barack is cooking?"
Had Kerry done this he probably would have won the election. Obama will not be smeared or swiftboated by the Rethuglican incompetent lowlifes!
....#11..I know, Kerry did win the election but I mean by a margin large enough to keep it out of reach of the anti-democratic election trumping conservative activist justices on the Supreme Court.
WhalersFan @ 8:
agree, also can refer to a sticky situation. Which IIRC was the original intent.
Well, I think this is a mountain out of a molehill. The context here is clear.
These people say and do enough dastardly things without trying to stretch this one so thin.
Maybe he wants to sink the GOP faster. More power to him!
Man o Man, this from one of the only Republicans who is not a chicken-hawk, a guy who actually served and now he blows his own foot off with a well placed shot.
That's got to hurt.
It was racist, if anything we've learned about Republicans is their artful, dishonest, ways with language. Fuck them.
I swear they want to lose!
Actually Tar Baby means. . . A situation or problem from which it is virtually impossible to disentangle oneself.
But being a Con used the term we'll make an exception .
Don't underestimate the level of disrespect and outright depravity of these guys. It's like looking for the good side of the Ku Klux Klan. It sometimes just doesn't exist. These personalities are the same who'd wear white sheets in the 1950's Mississippi etc. Or bomb churches with little girls in the 1960's. Don't let the respectable suits and language fool you. They are sick mother fuckers and if you need a refresher on the subject watch the movie Mississippi Burning with Gene Hackman.
Well, nothing really to comment on in here and I have an opportunity to go on a boat ride up the Mekong. I'll check back this afternoon.
Oh, forgot to ask ... is it me, or do most of the republicans have a real pasty look to them?
And what happened to that good news of yesterday about the possible jailing of Karl Rove?
L.A. Confidential @ 19:
IOTIYAR (It's Only True If You're A Republican)?
Dude, don't 'become the thing you hate'.
Gretchen @ 4:
. . . Huckabee makes a "joke" about someone shooting at Obama.
WhalersFan @ 8:
If a repug used the term you know it was meant to be derogatory. You are the foolish looking one to me.
1Watt @ 13:
I think you are about 99 watts short of a reading lamp.
FOX is State Sponsored TV @ 10:
Well, they can't run on their record of turning Clinton's legacy of peace and record prosperity into record deficits and endless wars. They need to distract their bedwetter base with scary black preachers and homersexuls.
Get a grip, folks. The "tar baby" has nothing to do with race. It comes from an African-American, and ultimately African, folk tale, but it is not in any way pejorative toward people of African descent. I'm not going to bother to explain it, look it up yourselves.
But please, don't go off on a rant about something you don't understand.
Jimmi the Grey @ 22:
Haven't worn a suit since I promised I never would a long time ago. Don't need to worry about that.
He tried working in the phrases 'cotton picking' and 'spear chucking' but it sounded forced.
Tarbaby is not always a racist term- excepting when it comes out of a racist mouth. If they meant 'sticky situation', that is what they'd have said.
Bottom line is still what Obama inherits on January 20th is a giant barrel of shit, and the expectation to turn it into a barrel of roses.
By June 09 people will likely respond w a collective wtf and wonder what just happened.
Sounds like just more dog food to me. That shelf is getting more and more empty. Just like the Republican's "ideas".
Ruthless People @ 26:
Homersexuals? You mean Marge?
WhalersFan @ 8:
When is it not a racial smear? When did it become acceptable to use such references, especially against a United States Senator and probably our next President? It is a racial smear and there is no way for you to 'sugarcoat' it.
The use of the term "tar-baby" by a republican is not shocking. It's like the story of the frog and the scorpion, they simply cannot help being republicans.
MacDaKnife @ 33:
OMG! Sugarcoating a "Tar Baby." Now isn't that as sticky a racial smear as ever hasstuck to a racist Republican?
The term "tarbaby" isn't necessarily racist, but much like the word "niggardly" you are an idiot if you use it.
L.A. Confidential @ 28:
That's a really good promise to keep, and strong foundation. ;)
Just soundin off because I've been seeing some frantic sounds coming from C&L's comments lately and wanna remind us all that we on the left hold to higher standards in these kinda things. I (being politically to the left of the Democratic Party) see this as one of those little 'crap...really wish I'd have phrased that better' moments. Kinda like Mr. Obama would probably rather have phrased the 'god, gunz and bitter' quote differently.
Just keep you're cool everyone, and the WH will be yours*
*Guarantee not subject to unforseen Terrorist Attacks, Un-Varifiable Elections or Declarations of Martial Law. Good in all 50 States and Associated Territories.
Dr. Quasius @ 36:
Almost exactly. While Tar Baby may possibly be used without reference to race i have never heard it used in any other fashion. Niggardly means stingy but is so close to N*gger that it should not be used when stingy or miserly are perfectly good words and are not concievably construed as racist.
WhalersFan @ 8:
you sir/madame are a gop non-reality moron. racists always deny.
How long do you think it will take before the republican leadership sends a broadcast e-mail to their talk radio minions to spread the meme that progressives should cut their membership a little slack for using the term "Tar Baby". They'll point out that it has been a "coon's age" since they last slipped up and used such a blatently racist remark in a public forum. Come monday, Limbaugh and Hannity will be whineing that people who complain about something so trite are nothing but a bunch of nlers who are prancing about like a bunch of sambos to make something out of nothing.
/snark.
L.A. Confidential @ 19:
you are right about the definition, but in the south and i am from the south, it is used
more often as a loose racial slur.
Dr. Quasius @ 36:
I agree. Of all the terms in the English language he could have used, why this one? It isn't one that pops into my head and I don't think it has been commonly used in decades. Davis isn't THAT old.
Ruthless People @ 12:
Surely you mean Al Gore?
As the child of a bi-racial marriage, growing up in the Deep South, I can safely say that "tar-baby" is precisely a racially-charged term, used for effect (division, ultimately). I would hazard a wager that the Rovian tactics squad is turned on the loose over the next few months...
xoites (One White Vote for Obama) defends Constitution @ 38:
Niggardly stems from a Norwegian word. Niggle. Niggling. Sprung up around 1570s. They don't use it anymore. I don't feel a need to stop myself from using it. If there is someone within earshot stupid enough to think it is somehow related to a racial slur, fuck 'em. They need to get an education. That's not my problem.
What a dumb honkey.
Niggardly = double-plus-ungood(?)
This is just as misguided as the uproar over "niggardly" a few years back. "Tar baby" is a popular cultural reference with the over 50 crowd (of any race) that has disappeared because Disney suddenly and permanently stopped showing Song of the South (as to why they did that--well, I'm not going near that tar baby). It has never been any sort of derogatory word against blacks--it has nothing to do with color. The tar baby was simply a doll made of tar used as a trick against a rabbit. It has no other meaning!
Taking a guess about the word and being uncomfortable is perhaps a natural thing to do. But getting angry over something you don't understand is just foolish. This site (which I normally love) owes this Tom Davis guy an apology.
miss_kitty @ 45:
I agree in principle, however why get something stirred up when it so avoidable? If you use "niggardly" in front of black folks you are almost deliberately trying to create a situation. People may be ignorant about the genesis of the word, but that won't keep you from getting your teeth kicked in.
If you call a black person a "tar baby" you're insulting them, though I've never heard it used that way. In this situation it's clear that the intent was to mean that immigration was a sticky mess that would stick to any of the two candidates who touches it which is probably true: no matter how you approach that problem someone is going to be mad at you. This manufactured outrage is about on a par with the "furor" over Kerry's botched joke and countless other GOP faux scandals. Do we have to prove that we can jerks just like the GOPers?
miss_kitty @ 45:
Well sometimes it is better to avoid the situation you might encounter if someone mis-understands what you are saying, sort of like not messing around with government forms. I had a very bad experience when a State of Georgia Sheriff mis-understood my drunken associate's job of selling "bucket trucks". My efforts to explain to the Sheriff what my associate said resulted in me being thrown in jail. No charges were ever filed and I was glad to get back to Florida the next day.
Rudster @ 48:
There was even a movement recently to change the name of Rhode Island because of delicate sensibilities. The state's official name is State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. So much for context or meaning. Plus, the state is neither a road, an island, nor a plantation. Discuss.
miss_kitty @ 45:
A DC official was forced out of office ten years ago for using it.
MacDaKnife @ 33:
He didn't say that Obama is a tar baby -- he said a particular issue is. Meaning that the more you attack it, the more you get stuck by it.
Obama's foreign policy guru Zbigniew Brzezinski says that he'd create the Muhajadin all over again - to bring about the defeat of the Soviet Union and hasten its collapse.
by extension of the Muhajadin into Al Qaeda, he is also saying he'd accept the losses on 9-11 as collateral damage in oder to bring down the Soviet Union.
source: http://www.the-american-interest.com/ai2/article.cfm?Id=424&MId=19
So let me get this straight- we have people here defending the use of the this term? Anyone who knows history or has been watching history knows that language and inuendo is very much a part of racial slurring- that is not up for debate....Nobody should be giving the Repugs a pass on their bigotted behavior or language- I actually think we are seeing what they are really made of- and it ain't pretty.....We saw during Katrina how it's Dangerous to have Racist Leadership at the helm, or in power....It's time we deal with this problem as a nation, no more ostrich syndrome..
xoites (One White Vote for Obama) defends Constitution @ 53:
So? That makes ignorance OK then?
cervantes @ 27:
When its used that way by the repubs it means exactly what it sound like. Get your shit together, Hispanic (you probably love that term, don't you! I define myself and reserve the right to define those idiots that allow themselves to be defined!)
Saying that the use of the term "tar-baby" is not racially offensive is like saying that the President was not referring to Senator Obama when he spoke of appeasement.
There.
Rebel Patriot @ 55:
Afghanistan was the Soviet Union's Tar Baby. Proper usage of the term, still an idiot to be using it.
chicano2nd @ 58:
"sounds" Just a fat finger. Sorry! But not to you cervantes.
No 57:::Ignorance is indeed part of Bigotry, and so is arrogance....the arrogance of people thinking that this kind of language is not offensive or a problem.....this is not 1958 it 's 2008...and the era of Ooops by Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms is long gone.....Or so I thought...
miss_kitty @ 57:
No. It makes it a sensitive word. Offense can be taken in honest ignorance. Considering the offenses laid upon the black population it makes sense to me to retire the word.
Tar baby... that's still better than being a Repug's baby.
Science @ 54:
Perhaps if he had said the situation was a sticky wicket it would be better received and more in line with the land minds one might find (on the cricket field). In cricket on a sticky wicket, batting is awkward and sometimes hazardous, as the ball will spin, seam and bounce sharply and unpredictably.
No 65....well, the rethugs certainly know about spin....
I'm calling foul, too. In context, he wasn't calling anyone a "tar baby." Hand him his ass in a sling if he does. God knows the GOoPs make a meal of their feet on a regular basis. (Unfortunately, the Dems do, too.) Hit 'em when they do, but let this, and its equivalents, pass.
WhalersFan @ 8:
I agree. "Tar baby" means easy to get stuck, hard to get free, as Br'er Rabbit found out. There's plenty the Republicans do and say that's worthy of criticism - let's focus on the real wrongdoings, and not be following their bad example by making false smears.
John Q. @ 68:
Let's see, what's the term? Oh yeah, naivete!
IMHO, they misspell this type stuff on purpose...I give you the "Democrat" party, as an example. Childish little asswipes is what they are.
It's outrageous, but even more outrageous are racists on this thread making excuses for this punk racist's language.
I must confess: I've used the term, "Tar Baby" before. I didn't know the origins of the term until just now, and had no idea it had racial connotations. I assumed that its meaning, "A situation or problem from which it is virtually impossible to disentangle oneself," was derived from the stickiness of tar, and that's all.
And of course, Sade had a song by that name - one whose lyrics were so opaque that I still don't know what they mean.
So as much as I hate to, I'm afraid I'm going to have to give ol' Tom a pass on this one.
No67 :
No we should not "let it pass", we have a Candidate running for president that is indeed a Man of Color, and if we turn a blind eye to Bigotry , even in the smallest racial slur we are basically tolerating an ignorant arrogant bunch of bigots to continue their dominance over our government and our language...Just like Huckabee's "JOKE" at the NRA....it creates Ripples and grows to something much uglier and more dangerous....I said earlier it is 2008, not 1958, time for real Americans to speak up .....we have a problem...when the repugs leave DC doesn't anyone wonder how many pillowcases we might find ?
They're just getting started.
Dr. Quasius @ 60:
Yes, and those who make up the definition in their own head and get angry about it are the smart ones.
Because Brawndo's got electrolytes.
xoites (One White Vote for Obama) defends Constitution @ 63:
Well we disagree. :)
Thanks for the racism Tom!
This ass-hole is just another water carrier for the fascist son of a bitch that now illegally occupies the White House. How can anyone put any credence into anything this dimwit says?
Will someone please post a link to an image of the tarbaby from Disney's Song of the South?
Don't forget it's a mixed metaphor too.
Is our children learning?
Tar Baby may not be a racist term by origin, but he snuck it in there deliberately as an indirect slur; just as O'Reilly and Limbaugh snuck in the lynching term. N*gger isn't always a racial term, either, but it's overuse as a slur has "tarred" it as offensive. These bastards know what they're doing, no one should be apologists for them. If you're in politics for any length of time, you know how damning language like that is and you avoid it unless you mean not to.
naschkatze Hussein @ 23:
inspired by Hillarys sniper rifle mailer perhaps ?
cervantes @ 27:
If it comes out of the mouth of a CCC white Republican, then its suspect.
raker @ 52:
from the Dutch "Roodt Eylandt" meaning "red island"
Rudster @ 48:
and the word that applies to you is "stoopid!"
L.A. Confidential @ 19:
[deleted. Flame baiting. Site Monitor]
A Porch Monkey is just a monkey that hangs around your porch, collectin your mail and sweepin up and whatnot. Who cares if everyone with half a braincell knows that it's used as yet another slur in America's long history of denigrating and exploiting blacks. The racists can just use it as racist code when they're talking to other racists and then act all innocent and say "it actually means blah blah blah" when someone calls them on it.
[Look, I've asked you repeatedly not to post in all Caps, Yet you continue to keep on doing it. Say Bye Bye Dick.]
I'm really tired of ignorant people.
I'm disgusted by the utter lack of education and cultural knowledge displayed in the comments here. Davis didn't call Obama a "tar baby"; he made a reference to Joel Chandler Harris' story, Brer Rabbit and the Tar-Baby, a uniquely American parable with no literary equivalent.
The vast majority of comments here -- with the notable exception of Rudsters' -- display the most vile PC gnashing of teeth and the same modus operandi which the Republican Propaganda Machine is so famous for: finding something meaningless to complain about and doing so loudly.
Also, the word "niggardly" while related to "niggle" and "niggling" came to the language from the Old Norse "hnøggr"; in modern Icelandic it's the similar (if you know about language shifts) "nískur". It has nothing to do with the corruption of the Spanish/French word for "black" which entered common usage in the English language more than a century and a half later.
The lot of you are clearly as proud of your ignorance as any Bush or McCain supporter earning less than $1M/year. Learn your damned language and culture, morons. And before you complain about the story written in dialect, note that Chandler and Twain have been praised by linguists and literary scholars alike for publishing and preserving a particular vernacular which would've otherwise been lost.
Tempest in a teapot, as a few others above have said.
Actually playing up stuff like this does make liberals look like PC fiends.s
Chicano 2nd, the word for you is "pendejo."
Discuss.
Which party is historically associated with Slavery and Jim Crow?
Which party's Senators voted against the 1964 Civil Right Act?
Which party has a bone fide ex-Ku Klux Klan Kleagle serving in the Senate, and regularly honors Bob Byrd, who also served as Minority Leader?
Which party makes a hero out of the racist eugenicist, Margaret Sanger, and has close ties with Sanger's organization, Planned Parenthood, the #1 abortionist of black babies?
Which party did everything it could to damage the black family via predictably destructive welfare policies which, e.g., penalized families in which the father remained?
It is, of course, the Racist Party, aka the Democrat Party.
But don't worry about it; after all Tom Davis said "tar baby."
I am Latin (Puerto Rican) and I am definitely voting for Obama. Based on the people I know, most young voters lean towards Obama, then Hillary.
Aw c'mon, cut Casper some slack. I'm sure he he just got some fresh asphalt on his white sheet...
No question that he used the word as a connect the dots yourself type of subtle racial slur. I've heard that term used as a racist slur by people that never read Br'er Rabbit or any other books. They don't even know the origins of the term. But they know what it means to them. Expect to see more of this stealth race baiting using Rovian and Luntz style language techniques. And, let's call them on it every time they do it. Let them squawk about PC all they want. We've seen how well ignoring their insults work. NOT.
Brian @ 92:
No wait , I got a better one...a more relevant one...
Which party is noninating Barack Obama?
This thread is exactly the sort of partisan discussion that drives me to despair.
Lots of childish name-calling and fact-free certitude. I think this relates to what Obama means by black anger and white resentment.
Being subjected to racism must certainly be upsetting; but it must also upsetting to be accused of racism when that is not what is in one's heart. As Richard Thompson Ford explains in his book (The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse) we should try to avoid ambiguities that could be perceived as racist, but when the case is not clear-cut, we should cut people some slack.
It is important to remember that by descending into vitriol, we hug the tar baby of hate, ironically emulating the racists whom we so decry.
StevePam,
Your reply is pretty effective, and also exhibits what my original post lacked: Pith.
I maintain that the Democratic Party is the historically racist party; however, that racism may very well have been (mostly) washed out by now, as evidenced by the candidacy of Barack Obama.
My point is: If its OK for those on the left to indict the Republican Party as fundamentally racist many decades after Nixon's "southern strategy" to peel of formerly Democratic white bigots, then it's also legit for me to open up the much more extensive Democratic Party racist record.
But if the past does not determine the present for Democrats, then can't you all at least allow for the possibility that present-day Republicans are not the racists of common liberal caricature?
Ok, "tar baby" comes from an (African-American) Uncle Remus Br'er Rabbit story, in turn derived from an African folktale. That does not make it racist for a white person to use it. Not even if that white person is also a Republican.
Are you suddenly trying to purge white culture of the polluting influence of African or African-American culture? That seems racist to me...
Isn't the real racism here the racism on the left? They take a phrase like "tar baby" and try to turn it into some twisted racist meaning because they themselves have negative views of blacks. Anything bad that somehow is Africa or black in some way they turn into racist. Its their own inability to admit what they think about race that is the root of their silliness. Its obvious for everyone to see.
The term that sticks here is "tar baby". Any discussion of race turns into a tar baby for the left as they reveal their own inner feelings which they twist and try to avoid admitting. If they said what they thought instead of condemning it in others they wouldn't get into these tar baby situations.
Are you a professional idiot or just a gifted amateur? I only ask because I'm trying to figure out why you so proudly display your ignorance in general and specifically both your incompetence with the English language and your tendency to project.
Let me make it clear that I'm hardly a fan or supporter of Davis, despite his support of better DC representation and his refusal to sign on to the "Contract with America Tax Relief Act"; his push for no-bid contracts, involvement with the Schiavo case, and most of all his ~90% party line voting have poisoned him in my opinion.
I won't accept the Republican Propaganda Machine's abuses. What the hell makes you think that I would accept your hypocrisy in doing the same thing? Let it be known that I will not. The Obama campaign isn't too fond of it, either.
Let me help you with this:
Davis said: Hispanic voters are a swing group in this election..." So far, so good. This is what we call the "subject of the paragraph". Davis refers back to this subject in his later sentence with "this issue". He claims McCain has a "standing among Hispanics" which -- he claims -- Obama does not. He then goes on to point out that it's a difficult situation for any candidate who dares approach it: "Thus, [Hispanic voting] is [a quicksand trap] for anyone who [gets close to the edge]".
Except that "quicksand" doesn't convey the image that the tar baby does: touching it gets you stuck, fighting to free yourself gets you stuck further, and unlike quicksand, there is no escape. In the tale I linked to, Brer Fox readies himself to kill Brer Rabbit, who gets away from him in the second part of the tale which might be a bit more familiar to you: "You can cook me or hang me or skin me, but please don't throw me in the briar patch."
You illiterate, ignorant gobshite. That some other ignorant person you know might use "tar baby" as a rather lame epithet in no way changes the fact that Davis was born in 1949 and learned the Uncle Remus stories both in school and through Disney's since-pulled classic, Song of the South. I was born almost two decades later and it was a part of my own childhood.
When you use the same unethical tactics as your opponents, you are no better than them.
si this asshole can join tony snow. perfect company.
I wouldn't piss on a repug's face if their hair were on fire.
It looks like Murphy's misrepresentation is his own "stick situation".
Maybe he can resolve his irresponsibility with something meaningful next time.
Brian @ 92:
Wiki
The original House version:[6]
* Democratic Party: 152-96 (61%-39%)
* Republican Party: 138-34 (80%-20%)
The Senate version:[6]
* Democratic Party: 46-21 (69%-31%)
* Republican Party: 27-6 (82%-18%)
The Senate version, voted on by the House:[6]
* Democratic Party: 153-91 (63%-37%)
* Republican Party: 136-35 (80%-20%)
I find it pretty funny that they finally realized that a lot of voters are hispanic and now they're going to keep quiet about immigration.
Just when I was starting to like Davis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_baby
This is a non issue. The context does not imply any sort of racism. Would it make any sense to say "It's a difficult situation, like a black child surrounded in land mines"
He's clearly referring to the Song of the South, and the trap that was set using a TAR made to look like a BABY in order to get your victim stuck.
It's a good thing he didn't say rope or noose because the earth would have split and swallowed him whole. Ut oh I said swallow. God what a bunch of crybabies.
Let's see if we can outlaw words and maybe outlaw speech all together.
"Thus, this issue is a tar baby for anyone who touches it, with land mines everywhere."
I'm more offended by the mixed metaphor.
One thing that really perplexes me about this site is the almost complete lack of understanding of common language and the hsitorical contexts of common terminologies. It never fails that the writers here feign shock and offense where there's none to be taken. The term "tar baby" is in no manner a racial epithet. But, as always, when a writer here encounters common language, the origins of which he or she doesn't understand, why, it's time to throw the racism card and liken someone to the Klan.
Uncle Remus was a fictitous character in American Folklore who was, himself, a black man. He told folk stories to young children in his local Southern dialect. The tale of Brer Rabbit is just one of these stories and from whence came the metaphor of the "Tar Baby."
You've revealed your utter ignorance of the South and American culture, and, in doing so, discredited yourself and this forum.
Isn't it sad how many others immediately bought your criticism as valid and piled on?
Seems ignorance abounds and it's not only on the Right.
ghost of Benny @ 29:
I think that he was itching to use "Obama" and "tar baby" in the same paragraph. George Allan would have said ""macaca."
The 'tar baby' story goes back to West African 'spider stories' featuring Anansi the trickster. In the storybook I read as a child, Anansi tricked the sky god Nyame into releasing her stories by trapping her with a gum-baby. Other stories apparently feature Anansi being stuck to the tar/gum-baby. These are great stories that have unfortunately been suppressed so that the term's negative racist connotation can be consolidated, turning its honest use into ammunition against Republicans. Celebrating African heritage will never take precedence over the imperative for rich, ignorant, white liberals to attack rich, ignorant, white Republicans.
Perhaps all the professionally indignant hypersenitives should apologize for something, nothingn and everythings that might offend somebody, nobody, everybody. Tarbaby is a perfectly applicable term to what Chimpy McFlightsuit has got us into in Iraq. Just like Brer Rabbit he put his fists into something he shouldn't and kept on punching (like that Rethug Appeasement idiot the other night on the Tweety show). Please control your jerking knees and stop being Thought Police like the Rethugs.
That's Why I call their party the RepubliKLAN party.
90 ReallyEvilCanine
You're late to this game. All this was hashed out when Tony Snow used the comment. I doubt any of these rethugs are that familiar with Uncle Remus (Joel Chandler Harris), but rather the Disney version Song of the South. I grew up on Uncle Remus and Aesop's Fables, often wondering if they were written by the same guy. But when you consider the context of the comments with Obama as the presumed front-runner as the Democratic candidate that's where Tom Davis screwed up, particularly after the Tony Snow enbroglio.
These animals as fairy tale moralizers is an ancient one. One of the oddest I've read is Sir Richard Burton's translation of Vikram and the Vampire and other tales of Hindu Devilry, where the moralizing story teller was the baital (vampire.)
As one poster mentioned Anansi the spider that was primarily in Western Africa. The trickster hare was more universal in Africa, although there were trickster turtles as well.
The plains Indians had such tricksters as Coyote and Raven.
Even European culture had them. They inherited the Aesop Fables, but also had more god-like figures like the Norse Loki, and the Welsh Evinissyan, however due to their first publications being by Christian Monks and scholars like Saxon Grammaticus and Snorri Snurlesson for the former figure and for the latter such books as the Llyfr Coch Hergest, and the Lyfr Gwyn Rhydderch. Later Robin Hood will fill much of this function, so I guess it's appropriate that Disney Studio's eventually did a version of his adventure with Robin as a fox.
As for the etymyological version of the word niggardly, that's hardly relevent, it's shock value parading itself as pedantry. It's just a linguistic coincidence like the first name of the actor Indian actor Kunt Tulgar, or like the joke Eddie Izzard told about being greeted by a waiter in a restaurant saying his name was Randy, when in England randy meant the same as horny.
The Disney movie Song of the South was controversial almost at the get go, but it wasn't the first to draw hackles. I understand that blacks loudly protested David Wark Griffith's Birth of a Nation at its release and the action serial from 1935 entitled The Lost City, when it was released to Eastern Seaboard tv stations in the 1950's. A mad scientist too black natives and stretched them to giant sized warriors. But they only seemed to screech, scream and groan when they attacked the white heroes. Even Republic Studios The Vampire's Ghost (1945) with John Abbott rankled some with it's white vampire feeding on natives. But since then it's been reevaluated somewhat because it was the first movie to show cross-racial attacks, a guilt ridden vampire, who could walk about in daylight, but had to wear sunglasses.
Oops, I forgot to mention, even as a kid I wondered what connection, if any, there was between Brer Rabbit and Bugs Bunny.
Oops: embroglio.
I much prefer this Tom Davis (he's the one on the right.)
http://images.publicradio.org/content/2008/02/25/20080225_alfranken_3.jpg
Brian @ 93:
And where did they all go after the act that was pushed by Democrat LBJ?
They flooded into the Republican party and brought to an end yellow dog democrats. They were the ones responsible for raising the GOP's visibility and power, not William F. Buckley, not ray gunn.
Brian @ 99:
Are you trying to make a macaca out of me?
I can't stand those rightwing hatemongers.
Stupid.
If Republicanism was a dog food it would be tainted with melamine and causing your pets to die a grisly death of kidney failure. However, since they are not from China they would be allowed to quietly, and slowly, remove the product from the shelves so as not to harm their profits or the investors. To hell with the pets.
Speaking as a dedicated liberal leftie, I would like to say you're making us all look bad by pretending this usage of "tar baby" is somehow racist. Do you genuinely not know what the expression means, or are you just being pointlessly vindictive?
LOL! Awesome! Barack Grobama - tar baby. Man this stuff just gets better and better.
And the UN is sending some 'Freakin blue gum to look at racisms impact on this election and around the nation? Stay home bro and just read the intarwebs!
When yalls get a brain morans, vote for the only clear choice in this election. Ron friggin Paul.
I'm sorry, I'm about as "liberal" as they come and I recognize that all this claims of racism surrounding the use of the term "tar-baby" is far more reflective of ignorance on the part of the "offended" than any racism on the part of the speaker in almost every instance. Others have already well established how the term "tar-baby" originates from African folk tales and is about a doll made of tar from which once it sticks to you is nearly impossible to remove. I guess since I live near the La Brea "Tar Pits", if I mention how sticky the tar-pits are, I'm being racist as well?
Others have also raised the point about the term "niggardly" and how a DC political appointee nearly lost his job over his usage of the term. (He actually resigned, but a few days later the mayor rescinded the resignation.) At the time, Julian Bond (who I think we can all safely agree is not a racist) noted the following, criticizing the ignorance of those offended, not the usage of the term: ""You hate to think you have to censor your language to meet other people’s lack of understanding." Further, to the mayor's original failure to support his subordinate noted: ""Seems to me the mayor has been niggardly in his judgment on the issue. [...] We have a hair-trigger sensibility, and I think that is particularly true of racial minorities."
Damn, you know every time a lot of people try and make every little thing into a "racist" situation, you really distract from the real and valid instances of racism. Not unlike how a false claim of rape undermines the women who truly have suffered a rape. Get over it, it wasn't and isn't a racist term in most cases. I swear I think some people could look at a series of Rorschach ink-blots and see racism in every damned one of them. Speaks far more about your underlying prejudices and pre-conceived notions than about the word choices of the speaker in so many cases it isn't funny.
This is overblown. He said this issue is a tar baby, meaning that anybody who tries to deal with it during the campaign will suffer for it. McCain is from a border state and thus has more pull among Hispanic voters, but has to confront the issue to keep his conservative base appeased. This will cause him to lose Hispanic votes. Barack Obama needs to get Hispanics on his side but will have a difficult time doing so without appearing weak on immigration. If you read the quote, it's very clear that this was not a racial slur at all.
Here's a sticky issue for Barack Obama to shed. It includes the Chicago police department several dead gay men, and a lunatic from Minnesota that just might not be so insane.
Ask Obama or his staff to respond to the allegations
Larry Sinclair has been making.
Larry has claimed that Barack Obama's drug
practices are much more recent than he claims.
Larry has also subpoenaed Barack
Obama, David Axelrod, and the campaign for phone records in connection
with an execution-style murder of Donald Young.
§ Donald Young was the choirmaster of Obama's much maligned
Trinity church.
§ Donald Young had been in contact with Larry until his
death.
It turns out that Donald was also gay.
Parties unknown executed Donald and several other members of Chicago’s gay
community.
Why is Larry doing this?
http://larrysinclair0926.wordpress.com/
source: www.merriam-webster.com
tar baby
One entry found.
tar baby
Main Entry: tar baby
Function: noun
Etymology: from the tar baby that trapped Brer Rabbit in an Uncle Remus story by Joel Chandler Harris
Date: circa 1910
: something from which it is nearly impossible to extricate oneself
Tom Davis didn't mean Tar-Baby in the racist sense of the word. To show there's no hard feelings, Tom will be sending fried, chicken, water melon, and several 40oz bottle of malt liquor over to Obama's campaign headquarters.
Tar-Baby is a duplicitous term - if Tom Davis doesn't know it's racially charged he is as out of touch with reality as Rumsfeld was when he ignored Shinseki about troop numbers.
From Wikipedia:
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