"tar baby" in the news

[Neal Whitman]

Wow, "tar baby" really is a word for "black person". It's even in the OED,
and I found hits from the 1910s in the Google News Archive referring to a
black boxer from Boston named Sam Langford as "the Boston tar baby".

That's too bad. I always liked the Uncle Remus story about the tar baby, and
hate that the offensive meaning is ushering out the colorful, funny and
useful one.

Neal

----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2011 4:37 PM
Subject: "tar baby" in the news


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      "tar baby" in the news
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> U.S. representative apologizes for 'tar baby' comment
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/08/02/us.rep.tar.baby/index.html
>
> LH
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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