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THE HUTCHINSON REPORT: The (Over?) Reaction to the Term "Tar Baby"

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

(August 3, 2006)

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"Uncle Remus," said the little boy one evening, when he had found the old man with little or nothing to do, "did the fox kill and eat the rabbit when he caught him with the Tar-Baby?" "Law, honey, ain't I tell you 'bout dat?" replied the old darkey..... -- From "Uncle Remus-- The Wonderful Tar Baby Story" Uncle Remus and the Legends of the Old Plantation - Joel Chandler Harris

Newly installed White House Press Secretary Tony Snow took heat last May when refusing to answer a reporter's question he said it was a "Tar Baby" that would get him in difficulty.

Now Massacusetts Governor Mitt Romney was dumped on the hot seat for referring to the controversial Big Dig Tunnel Project as a "Tar Baby." Local NAACP officials, black Republicans, and writers screamed racist foul, and the wannabe 2008 Republican Presidential contender did a quick mea culpa and vowed to watch his mouth in the future.

But should he? That is at least when it comes to tossing out terms when there is plainly no racist intent and that's clouded in as much semantic, metaphorical and contextual ambiguity as it is in racist history. Ever since the Atlanta Constitution ran Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus Tale of the Tar Baby in 1879, the term has drawn loud protest and revulsion every time a public figure slips or intentionally uses it. Yet legions of writers and academics over the years have used the term to mean a bad, complicated or murky situation (That was Romney and Snow's intent) with barely a public squeak.

The question than is when noted public officials use the term to mean a complicated mess should they be called on the carpet? And if and when they are, does that really further the public's education in Racism 101, or does it reduce the fight against racism to petty, inane, and trivial side issues?

Is the Protest over the Use of the Term "Tar Baby" Overreaction?

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Coming in September:

The Emerging Black GOP Majority

by Earl Ofari Hutchinson

The book is a hard hitting take no political prisoners comprehensive dissect of President Bush and the Republican Party’s past, present and future efforts to break the Democratic Party’s iron grip on the African-American vote. It presents an in-depth look at the party’s successes and failures, and examines the pitfalls and possibilities that confront the GOP in attempting to court black voters.

It tells why Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Lynn Swann and the black evangelicals are not aberrations. It tells why the GOP wants and needs black voters to win and keep winning.

The book presents a fresh view of a crucial arena of American politics and race.

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