All my life I've understood what a tar-baby is and remain astonished that a few think it's a racist term. After Googling about and checking the
OED too, I realize that there are morons who use it as a racist epithet. But I've never met someone who does and also have never heard or read of "tar-baby" used in such a context.
I've wondered if part of what's going on here is regional. Maybe Tres and others are unfamiliar with the "Uncle Remus" stories and their author, who was no racist, LOL. But Haley Barbour surely
would be familiar with the term and would, in my opinion, surely be using the ordinarily-understood meaning.
I am very sorry that a few see racism in everything and am just as sorry that some don't recognize a well-known literary reference, a term employed by Mark Twain too.
But this makes me want to begin using a beloved word I gave up long ago because I wanted to be exquisitely sensitive. I remember exactly where I was the last time I said "niggardly" and saw the shocked faces of my audience.
I'm tired of the exquisitely sensitive crap. I stopped using the term "gypped" the second I learned its origin and how dreadfully insulting it is. I sincerely and frequently use the term "other-abled" rather than "disabled."
But yikes, people are having fits over "tar-baby"? You know,
enough. "Niggardly" is a fabulous word, so Silas Marner and Scrooge. "Tar-baby" describes perfectly a sticky situation from which you cannot extricate yourself because the more you struggle, the more trapped you become.
Maybe instead of continuing to dumb down the language and therefore the way we conceptualize, we should smarten up.
Here's what the Chair of the Black Caucus says:
Black Caucus chairman defends Barbour
