"tar baby" in the news

[Wilson Gray]

On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 4:37 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â "tar baby" in the news
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>
> U.S. representative apologizes for 'tar baby' comment
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/08/02/us.rep.tar.baby/index.html
>
> LH
>
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"It can refer to a sticky problem or situation but _[it] also is
understood as a derogatory term for African-Americans_."

Really? I did not know that.

FWIW, back in the day - who knows what PC hath wrought since the '70's
- The Compton, California - the Hub City - High School used "Tartars"
as the nickname of its athletic teams. Those teams were routinely
referred to in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan-area press as the

_Tar-Babies_

At the time, it struck me as trivially odd that the Compton High
student body was apparently cool with the school's teams being named
after a "graven image," so to speak, of a baby made out of tar. OTOH,
in those days, it was certainly true that schools that had to play
against the Tar-Babies usually found themselves in a sticky situation.

That "tar-baby" was ever a reference to black people, individually or
severally, living or dead, real or imagined, even now, strikes me as
unreal, and I ain't going for it.

Maybe I need to _read_ me some Joel Chandler Harris. My only knowledge
of this masterpiece is based on the Disney cartoon strip, based upon
the "Uncle Remus" tales, that once appeared in the Sunday funny
papers. If the tar-baby in the relevant tale was intended to represent
a stereotypical, infant pickaninny, well, as is the case WRT the
author of _Hole in the Mattress_, I Mr. Cumpleetleigh.

I think that this was yet another example of the Republican strategy
of bending over backward WRT trivia - especially when the situation
can be tarred with some refernce to race - but standing like a stone
wall WRT important matters, such as being willing to bankrupt the
country, if necessary, to ensure the success of their stated intention
to destroy the Democrats in general and Obama in particular.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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