Seriously. Recently there was a fabricated story that ran across the blogsphere that Governor Palin had been overheard saying, to colleagues at lunch when they were discussing Obama’s primary win: “So Sambo beat the bitch, huh?” The report was pure fabrication, and even DailyKos has backed away from it, but it got me to wondering (after I had picked up my rolling eyes off the floor at what some extremist bloggers think is “credible”. Sure, it’s believable that Sarah Palin, in a public restaurant, before God and the public, called Obama “Sambo”. I believe that, really, I do. Say, didja hear about McCain? I heard John McCain say that after he was elected “We’ll make the niggers pick our cotton like God intended them to do”. Please. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:), why is the term Sambo considered racist?
Here is the text and pictures of the original Little Black Sambo. I remember reading this book as a child. It’s a charming tale of a boy ( a black boy, so? His blackness is not essential to the story in any way shape or form I can see ), outsmarting vain tigers, and coming home with a boon for his family (butter). How is that racist? Seriously, how is it racist? The black boy is the hero of the story. It seems to me to be a positive. The stupid tigers ran themselves into butter for pride, and Sambo profited from that. I don’t deny that some ignorant people have used “Sambo” as a racist term, but where did that come from, the story itself doesn’t seem racist at all, yet it has disappeared from the common societal experience. Why?
Nowadays it’s considered kind of racist to just refer to people by their color, as if it is what defines them above all else. But at the time the book was written I don’t think there was any malignant racism intended in it, I think it was just using the language of the time, but put forth no ill will.
Depends on how you use it. What does nigger mean, anyway? Anything inherently bad? I’m pretty sure not. But it’s offensive because people have meant it offensively when they said it, and people have taken it offensively when it was said to them.
The epithet, “Sambo” was a racist term for East Indians before the book was written. It’s not that the story is offensive, per se, it’s that it uses a racial epithet as the character’s name.
“Sambo” is a corruption of the word “Swami,” which was pronounced as “Sammy” then “Sambo” by Victorian soldiers during the British occupation of India.
ETA, according to wiki my etymology may be wrong. That’s the version I heard from an Eastern Religion prof who was supposedly an expert on India. He might have been repeating an urban legend.
As you hint, etymologically, it arose from terms meaning simply the color black, with no intrinsic racism. Which doesn’t take away from its racist nature in modern English one bit.
The actual original story was about an Indian boy, (no tigers in Africa and the author had lived in India). However, the story suffered from a couple of problems, one inherent and one added later.
The name Sambo is one that has been used in British humor and British erotic literature for a quite long time as the name of various characters who are portrayed as either/both stupid and seriously oversexed (both in the contexts of libido and penis size). I do not know how much that carried over to the U.S. in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but it was pretty well known by the middle of the 20th century.
Then, in the U.S., the book was reprinted with new illustrations that were horrible. (I do not recall whether additional text was inserted.) The features of Sambo, and particularly of his father and mother were the worst sort of the caricatures African blacks with excessively thick lips and rolling eyes showing an excess of the whites. I seem to recall that at the final meal scene, they were portrayed as drooling a lot, although that might be a false memory. (I’ve only seen that printing a couple of times.)
A lot of kids in the U.S. had to have grown up reading that version and a lot of black kids have to have seen it.
Between the association of the name with the lowest sexual humor and the racist portrayal of the human characters in the book, it was not hard to see why that particular name has made it onto the list of names that the U.S. black community does not consider acceptable.
Nowadays? It has always been racist to define people by their skin pigmentation only. Perhaps some people are only awakening to that fact now. But surely it has always been the case.
Chiming in to say that one of the big reasons for its deserved reputation is the illustrations. I didn’t know about the history of the word “Sambo,” but the illustrations I remember seeing showed extremely caricatured African people in an unflattering manner. Also, I just looked the story up online and his mom was called “Black Mumbo” and his dad was called “Black Jumbo”…mumbo jumbo…that sounds a little suspicious too. Especially given the racial climate of the time when the book came out.
Tangent: There was once a chain of restaurants called Sambo’s. Although the name was derived from a the name of its founders, illustrations of the story were featured in the restaurants. In a nod to racial sensitivity, Sambo was depicted with fair skin, but the chain folded in the early '80s amid controversy. I was surprised to learn tonight that one location (the original) is still operating.
It’s kind of a shame. I really loved that story as a kid – I was especially fascinated by the tigers running around in circles and turning into butter – and as a children’s tale, it really is quite innocuous, as far as I can tell.
Nor were the pictures in the version I had particularly caricatured, as far as I can remember.
How is that a “nod to reacial sensitivity”? Being too scared to depict a character in the correct ethnicity is being sensitive?
As long as I live I’ll never understand the American hang-up on race. Yes, I know there are lots of very good historical reasons why it is such a touchy subject, but in the 21st century people really should be worrying about more important things than melanin.
Why do you find this so implausible? Note I am not claiming it happened, but it seems no less ridiculous than McCain singing about bombing Iran, or Jesse Jackson talking about Hymietown, or many of the other crazy things politicians have said. People make offensive jokes and comments when they don’t tihnk other people are listening. Some of those offensive comments may even be racially based.
Growing up, the little Golden version was one of my favorites. (On the left here.) Not the pickaninny version at all. Still have it.
When my kids were young, we got a reissue of the original version.
I don’t think the book was originally intended as racist, but it was appropriated by racists such that it is considered politically incorrect. But I can imagine the very term “Sambo” had racist origins.
And here I had no idea it was set in India, or had anything to do with Indian culture. I wanna read that link, but is it safe enough to open at work? My office can be kinda prudish at times.
The only reason I’m familiar with the story is the restaurant, which I went to as a kid in the 70s. In the illustrations they used at that time, it’s clear that Sambo is East Indian, and I wasn’t ever sure why he was “Little Black Sambo” since he was obviously light brown (and at that time I’d never heard Indians called “black”).
I loved the story and the pictures and thought that Sambo was very smart. It wasn’t until much, much later that I learned about the racist connotations of the word.
FWIW, I would bet you that the restaurant in my town did not have to close due to the name. It had to close due to incredibly bad management.
