I was referring to a project I didn’t want to get involved in; one that looked simple on the surface, but I felt had a likely probability of expanding to consume all of my time. I referenced that it would be like "touching the tar-baby, meaning that once I touched it, it would stick to me forever.
I’d heard the term used before to describe that type of a project, and didn’t think about its derogotory connotation, but after speaking, I noticed my African-American collegue in the meeting seemed quite tense. Then I felt stupid.
So I’m wondering if the phrase has a racist origin, or is it legitimate with an unfortunate dual usage. In other words, how bad did I fuck up?
I’ve used the term before, too, and don’t consider it racist. It has its origins in the old American folk story where Br’er Rabbit (Bear?) makes a baby out of tar to catch Br’er Fox. When Br’er Fox tries to grab the tar baby, all of a sudden he can’t get rid of it…it sticks to him even more as his struggles mount.
I dunno that you have to apologize…but you might want to explain the reference to make sure s/he understands it.
I’m not sure what this has to do with the OP, but Mrs. ricepad insists that the mascot of Compton High School (Los Angeles County) used to be the Tar Babes. I’m skeptical…
Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear make the Tar Baby to catch Br’er Rabbit. The American Folktale (Uncle Remus story) comes straight from Africa. It’s really an American re-telling of an African Folktale.
It’s also a rather insulting, derogotory reference.
You didn’t mean anything bad by your reference, Maera, but your statement was taken amiss. You don’t have to apologize, but it might help the office “mood”. (Like ricepad said.)
The expression itself shouldn’t cause offense if the context is understood. Unfortunately, the Uncle Remus stories and Song of the South carry a strong stigma of racism. SOTS is the only Disney feature that will probably never be released again. I haven’t heard of it being shown anywhere for at least 20 years.
I remember seeing this when I was about 10 or 11 years old at a theatre (on Thanksgiving). Probably 1987 or 1988. I didn’t find much offensive about it, but I was young and not culturally sensitive™ yet. I wonder if it’s ever been released on video, it’d be interesting to see it now with a different perspective.
I use the phrase all the time in reference to litigation. As in, “This lawsuit could turn into a real tar baby. Maybe we’d better explore a compromise.”
I can’t think of a more apt phrase to describe a situation in which foolish contentiousness only serves to increase your woes and drain your resources.
Thanks for all of your responses. I apologized to my collegue today, and he told me that he hadn’t considered it offensive to himself at all. All’s well that ends well I suppose, but in the future, I’ll be more sensitive, and make certain the context is clear to all.
On what basis do you reach this conclusion? Are we talking about the same thing as “niggardly,” or is there something other than misunderstanding to explain someone taking offense?
I’m really tired of having to be so sensitive to the infinite manifestations of political correctness. Didn’t someone fairly famous almost get fired for using niggardly?
I saw “Song of the South” in the theater. This would probably have been sometime in the early-to-mid 1980s. Interesting now that such a thing would have still been “allowable” so recently; it seems like this movie draws a lot of ire these days. Sorry for the hijack, but just thought I’d mention it.
I seem to remember back in the early days of “Saturday Night Live” that there was a skit with Richard Pryor. I believe that he was talking to a psychologist and doing word association. Each word the psychologist said was racist, and got more and more inflammatory, and “tar baby” was one of the words used. I never knew it had another meaning . . . until today. Thanks, everyone.
(For the old fogies, this skit was on a “Saturday Night Live” LP that was put out a year or two after the show started.)
