I was recently involved in a discussion where someone white called a public figure an “Oreo.” No one in the room was African-American, but one participant (an Asian) objected.
Is “Oreo” a racist term to be slapped down, at least when used by whites? I honestly don’t know. Up until now I hadn’t thought so, but I’m open to learning that I’m wrong. (Personally, I’ll err on the side of caution - I can get by without using the term, so I will.)
Most definitely. I don’t think of it as being much in current use, but it’s a Black person who “acts” like they are really White. Black on the outside, white on the inside, get it?
Just to be clear, I knew that - an African-American friend told me the term sometime in the 1990s. I don’t think I’ve heard it much, but he told me very matter-of-factly, so since he didn’t ascribe anything negative to the term at the time, neither did I.
However, it has been a while since the 1990s. I’m sure I well-meaningly said/believed things then that I would now recognize as unacceptable.
Edit: There’s another one for white on the outside AND inside, that I can’t remember the name for. It’s the vanilla cream sandwich cookie you get in those generic cookie packs with fake Oreos.
Uncle Tom is a black person who kowtows or at least pretends to kowtow to white people. I’ve never read the book, but got a new perspective on it from the late 70’s/early 80’s show Benson. When someone calls Benson an “Uncle Tom”, the Governor get’s upset, but Benson explains it’s a badge of honor because Uncle Tom was actually a strong and noble man as explained here:
“Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” to promote the abolitionist cause, basing some of her novel on the testimony of an escaped slave. Her central character was a man of dignity, a good Christian, who suffered the abuses of slavery nobly and died protecting others. So how did Uncle Tom become the byword for a race traitor — a “shuffling, kowtowing, sniveling coward”?”
Not having read the book, just people’s descriptions of it, ISTM that quite apart from any warping by white mainstream culture to make him look more simple/uneducated/mockable, a character like Uncle Tom is a hard sell to the twenty-first century for the same reason we can’t be doing with Patient Griselda or Fanny Price in Mansfield Park any more - these characters all exemplify the Christian virtues of long-suffering, and we don’t think that this is a virtue any more. We expect our heroes to fight hard against injustice, including when that injustice is directed against them.
My second-hand impression of the Uncle Tom character is that he would endure injustice for the sake of others, but wouldn’t fight against the oppressor. That’s probably very sensible strategy for a nineteenth century American black man, but different from the sorts of characters we are generally looking for to be role models today