# Use of "sambo" as an ethnic slur. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 2005, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332 "2005-03-26T08:04:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332/21 "2005-03-26T22:27:24Z")
> [@NattoGuy](#): > > Actually there _is_ a question, because as offensive as it’s supposed to be, I couldn’t find any account of anyone actually _using_ it. It’s as though suddenly everybody decided this word was bad because of the book, and assumed the name must have had some pejorative meaning. That’s why I am digging for cites. When I search google, the results are overwhelmingly contaminated with references to the book. That makes finding pre-Bannerman “sambo” references problematic. [This site](http://nfo.net/usa/melodya.html) mentions two pre-Bannerman minstrel songs with “Sambo” in the title: 1883 “Sambo’s Double Shuffle”, (music: P. Percy) 1896 “Sambo at the Cake Walk”, (music: Alfred Marks) [Sambo’s Right to Be Kilt](http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~ela/usct/sambo.HTML) , from 1862, uses Sambo as a generic term for blacks, though it’s not clear it is specifically pejorative. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332/22 "2005-03-26T22:27:27Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > The saga of [Sambo’s restaurant chain](http://www.cnn.com/US/9801/28/sambo.revival/) is instructive. I grew up going to Sambo’s restaurants. As I was a kid, I can’t really compare it to Denny’s or IHOP or Coco’s or whatever; but I remember like it Sambo’s at the time. I always pictured Sambo as Indian, because of the pictures in the restaurants. On the other hand, I have an 8mm reel of _Little Black Sambo_ put out by Castle Films that I think was originally filmed in the '20s or '30s. It does use the offensive ‘pickaninny’ images. > [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > Continuing with **CK** ’s comments, I remember it being used in the 70’s British sitcom _Love Thy Neighbour_. I get the impression that, although that show was no doubt trying to break down barriers, use of “sambo” on British broadcast television was certainly cutting edge then. There was an episode of _The Young Ones_ where a bobby lets fly a stream of epithets including ‘sambo-darkie’. In another episode (‘Bambi’) the posh Footlights College students mentioned a play they did called _What-ho, Darki?_. Obviously these were used to cast the police and upper-class as racist. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332/23 "2005-03-26T22:30:13Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > Enid Blyton was banned in libraries for a few years here cause she was all nasty and racist and sexist. I could of sworn “sambo” was one of the reasons Dunno about ‘sambo’ but when I was growing up, many years ago, I used to visit my Grandmother. She had a collection of Blyton books that my mother had read as a kid. One of them was the adventures of three Gollywogs named Golly, Woggy and Nigger. I kid you not. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332/24 "2005-03-26T22:41:11Z")
My memory certainly tells me that Sambo was an offensive term, but I can’t back that up immediately with written sites. These sites include it in longer lists of unacceptable terms, however, and those match my understanding from growing up. [cache of Answers.com](http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:FEABK3xvEOQJ:www.answers.com/topic/nigger+offensive+racial+slang+sambo&hl=en%20target=nw) > [@](#): > > Other alternatives that have been used are “chocolate drop,” “jiggaboo,” “pickaninny,” “spook,” “sambo,” “ted,” “wog”, spear chucker, porch monkey, yard ape, Goodwill Gorilla, “Buckwheat”, jungle bunny, watermelon, shoe-shine boy, welfare monkey, moon cricket, Uncle Tom or simply “black bastard.” Each of these words is generally considered to be utterly unacceptable today. [http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/caricature/](http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/caricature/) > [@](#): > > Nigger may be viewed as an umbrella term – a way of saying that blacks have the negative characteristics of the Coon, Buck, Tom, Mammy, Sambo, Picaninny, and other anti-black caricatures. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332/25 "2005-03-26T22:55:32Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > I always pictured Sambo as Indian, because of the pictures in the restaurants. That, and the fact that he lived where there were tigers. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332/26 "2005-03-26T23:02:10Z")
Certainly by 1910, when the song [_Shine_](http://www.thepeaches.com/music/dupes/Shine3.txt) (Dabney/Mck/Brown) appeared, Sambo was recognized as a well-known and standard pejorative: > [@](#): > > When I was born they christened me plain Samuel Johnson Brown. > But I hadn’t grown so very tall, 'fore some folks in this town > Had changed it 'round to “Sambo”; I was “Rastus” to a few. > Then “Chocolate Drop” was added by some others that I knew. > And then to cap the climax, I was strolling down the line > When someone shouted, “Fellas, hey! Come on and pipe the shine!” The song became popular in the 1920s without this intro. The full version is found on Ry Cooder’s album _Jazz._ ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332/27 "2005-03-27T00:50:50Z")
In the 1976 US TV series “The Jefferson’s”, there is an episode where George Jefferson (a black businessman) is having difficulty understanding the “British” English spoken by his UN translator neighbor Mr. Bentley. Bentley: (trying to guess Jefferson’s weight) Let’s see Mr. Jefferson, you must be 10 stone. Jefferson (to wife) : Did he say I was stoned? … later… Bentley (exiting): Well Jambo! Jefferson: Did you say “Sambo”? Bentley (horrified): No, no, I said Jambo, it’s Swahili for “hello”, I can never remember what the word is for good-bye. Jefferson’s reaction to the term sambo is one of outrage. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332/28 "2005-03-27T23:59:33Z")
Thank you everyone, this has been most instructive. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332/29 "2005-03-28T00:20:41Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > I think there’s no question that Sambo was a common ethnic slur in the U.S. for most of the twentieth century. > > The saga of [Sambo’s restaurant chain](http://www.cnn.com/US/9801/28/sambo.revival/) is instructive. Another thing about the name Sambo is that it’s probably perceived as a shortening of “Sam Boy”, which kicks the offensiveness up a notch. Though as I kid I did like the story, especially the part where the tigers ran around and around the tree and turned into butter. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332/30 "2005-03-28T00:34:01Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > The saga of [Sambo’s restaurant chain](http://www.cnn.com/US/9801/28/sambo.revival/) is instructive. I guess they didn’t make it. The link to [www.sambos.com](http://www.sambos.com) is dead. In my hitchhiking days, they got a lot of my dimes. Cheap coffee with free refills. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332/31 "2005-03-29T03:38:14Z")
The musical _Hair_ had a song [Colored Spade](http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/hair/coloredspade.htm) with lyrics that consisted largely of racial epithets. It used the term “Little Black Sambo”. _Hair_ premiered off-Broadway in 1967. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-sambo-as-an-ethnic-slur/296332.md?page=1)