As you may or may not know, a congressman from my home state of Colorado, Doug Lamborn, used it in regards to being associated with President Obama.
Specifically, he said about President Obama:
When I first heard this, I was flabbergasted. To me, a 40-odd year old white male raised in the western US, this is nothing but a racial epithet. I was not familiar with the Uncle Remus story where it originated, but I had hear the term many times before (mostly as a child). Since my youngest childhood memories, this term has always been a racial slur. I quizzed my wife, a 40 odd year old from the heart of the Midwest and she concurred.
That quote above? Massive racist slur. Entirely possible that it wasn’t a CONSCIOUS slur, but it shows where his mind is at.
On the other hand, someone doing a Gullah storytime in Charleston and telling the tale of Brer Rabbit getting outfoxed for once with the Tar Baby, that’s different.
To me, you gotta have the context.
Now, I’m also white and southern, and a librarian who spent time studying Gullah culture and the culture of folktales, so that totally influences how triggering I think that particular reference is.
Totally has to do with context. I think you could say something like, “This situation is like the tar baby from folklore. The more we fight it, the stickier it gets.” But no one should ever refer to a person as a tar baby.
A bit of both. At best really, really insensitive to context in circumstance given in the OP. Also, I like cheese, dammit, and therefore this poll should have allowed multiple selections! (male, 43)
Wasn’t the Vietnam War at the time described in terms of the “tar baby” story? Of course that was 40+ years ago, but it nonetheless seems to be racially neutral the context of discussing the war.
It’s only racial if that’s your intent. A situation being described as a tar baby just means that if you get involved with it, you’re going to have a hell of a time getting disengaged from it. Describing a person that way, particularly a person of color, would certainly appear to be racist in nature.
I chose option #2, but I have to qualify that by saying that if someone with my upbringing and origins (female, middle-aged, north central US) referred to the president as a tar baby, there would be no question that it was meant as a racial slur. If I heard it from someone raised in the deep south I would at least briefly entertain the possibility it was just a poorly thought out description and/or drunken folly.
More like the Civil War (actually, it was written down a few years after).
The term comes from Joel Chandler Harris’s “Uncle Remus” tales, which were direct retelling of African and American Black folklore stories he heard while growing up. Harris wrote them approximating the actual accents of the slaves he had heard from from. So in the original context, they are neutral.
However, the term “tar baby” became a derogatory word for Blacks (much like Sambo and Shine*). It certainly has a negative connotation.
Objectively, it’s context, but subjectively, it’s a phrase to avoid since people are sensitive to the negative meaning. Outside of discussing Joel Chandler Harris, it’s best to not use it (even though the concept is a useful one).
*A very common term in the 1940s, referring to shoeshine stands. It’s lost that connotation, so you can use the term as the name of a movie and no one noticed.
If memory serves, “Tar Baby” was one of the insults hurled between Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor in their famous SNL skit. Definately an insult there, it even help define the egregiousness of the term as it placed it in an ever escalating litany of racial slurs.
I don’t think it’s always meant as an ethnic slur, but I don’t think it can ever be free of racial connotations and any protest to the contrary is a bit disingenuous. It’d be like putting a swastika on your t-shirt and then acting indignant that you have to keep explaining that at one time it was considered a good luck symbol.
Agreed. It’s certainly more “useful” and “meaningful” that way than as a racial epithet.
Thanks to Disney, I knew the story long before I knew about any racist implications, so the actual tar baby from the Br’er Rabbit story is the first thing that springs to my mind when I see/hear the phrase. But of course I am aware of its use as an ethnic slur.
I never hear it in normal parlance, I only ever hear this term from the mouth of a politician. Every time, they are describing a sticky situation that they want to avoid. Every time a zillion people complain about it being racist.
I remember a flap about Ross Perot using the term in a 1992 debate, and it didn’t even have to do with a particular individual, it was about bank deregulation. Maybe he was trying to insult African American Banks.
It’s one of those phrases, even if you use it in a manner that has absolutely nothing to do with a person’s race, people will cry racist.
