TAR BABY!
Now, that's a terrible thing to say. Why on Earth would I say that? What kind of person in this day and age would use a term like that in public? I should fully expect the NAACP to be protesting in front of my living room door when I get back home.
With that in mind I now fully apologize for my use of the phrase "tar baby," it was wrong and terribly insensitive. I guess I just found myself whipped up in the frenzy after hearing the new White House Press Secretary use the term in his very first briefing.
Yep, you read that correctly, Tony Snow used the UNBELIEVABLY offense term casually in a yesterday's briefing to the White House Press Corps. I have no idea what could possibly have made him think that was a good idea... but maybe we can now start hoping for yet another new press secretary in the coming days.
Of course, we should remember that this kind of thing is just par for the course when we think about our conservative buddies and their spotless records on race relations. Why, there was President Bush's comments on Social Security Privatization, "Social Security trust; a personal savings account which will compound over time and grow over time; a personal savings account which can't be used to bet on the lottery, or a dice game, or the track." And let us not forget the ultimate solution put forth by Reagan Secretary of Education, Bill Bennet in his appearance on Fox News Sunday in which he speculated that one could lower the crime rate if one was willing to "abort every black baby in the country."
This all just makes me think of freedom... big, warm, juicy freedom. And when I think of freedom, I think of only one thing.
Now, that's a terrible thing to say. Why on Earth would I say that? What kind of person in this day and age would use a term like that in public? I should fully expect the NAACP to be protesting in front of my living room door when I get back home.
With that in mind I now fully apologize for my use of the phrase "tar baby," it was wrong and terribly insensitive. I guess I just found myself whipped up in the frenzy after hearing the new White House Press Secretary use the term in his very first briefing.
Yep, you read that correctly, Tony Snow used the UNBELIEVABLY offense term casually in a yesterday's briefing to the White House Press Corps. I have no idea what could possibly have made him think that was a good idea... but maybe we can now start hoping for yet another new press secretary in the coming days.
Of course, we should remember that this kind of thing is just par for the course when we think about our conservative buddies and their spotless records on race relations. Why, there was President Bush's comments on Social Security Privatization, "Social Security trust; a personal savings account which will compound over time and grow over time; a personal savings account which can't be used to bet on the lottery, or a dice game, or the track." And let us not forget the ultimate solution put forth by Reagan Secretary of Education, Bill Bennet in his appearance on Fox News Sunday in which he speculated that one could lower the crime rate if one was willing to "abort every black baby in the country."
This all just makes me think of freedom... big, warm, juicy freedom. And when I think of freedom, I think of only one thing.
posted by Cory | 5:12 AM
7 Comments:
I have to tell you, my knowledge of the term was that Snow had the meaning correct. It was ignorance that pushed that term into a derogatory sense later on in American history. The use of the term tar baby as racial epithet comes not only fron the visualization, but from the fact that the concept originated in the Uncle Remus story "The Wonderful Tar Baby" which is natrally filled with all sorts of Uncle Remus dialect. Add to that the common illustrations of the story throughout history, and you get a very solid racial image. Still, given the original context, I think we should forgive Snow this trespass.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/remus/tar-baby.html
I disagree strongly. The majority of the American public, especially the African-American community, views that as an abhorrent racial slur. Now you could come up with a thousand different reasons to use a thousand different slurs based on historical reference. That's akin to saying that "wetback" shouldn't offend the Latino community because it's origin is based on swimming the Rio Grande.
As the Press Secretary it's his job to convey the White House's message to the public, he speaks for the administration. Now, he knew very well of the racial connotation of that phrase, everyone does. It's primarily an old-timey slur and doesn't get much use in this day and age, but you and I and everyone else knows what it means. Language like that is wholly unacceptable from the spokesman for the leader of the free world. It's cut and dry, simple as that.
How could he even think that using that term was even remotely okay? A lot of the hurricane victoms are offended by news stations refering them as refuges. So to think that people aren't going to get upset by "tar baby" would take a first class idiot. Oh wait, we are talking about politicians. MY BAD! And as for aborting every black baby, wtf? Okay, if that's the case then abort every white baby and there will be less child molesters. That's just insane!
Wow! I didn't even know that the term "tar baby" was a racial slur. I guess I am just living in my own little bubble. I always thought that it was just a term for a situation or problem that you can't get out of. Is Catch 22 a dirty word now?
Come on! not everyone can associate with puerile people that make up their own definitions and pervert meanings. Obviously, the press sec. just isn't hanging out with the right crowd.
I'm sorry, but just because you didn't know something was a racial slur doesn't mean that it isn't. For the record, I'm willing to bet that you're suburban white folk.
LOL Cory.
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