It's always been a racially loaded epithet.
I guess the fact that I grew up in a 98% white environment buffered me from that sort of stuff. The tar baby was only ever that thing that was going to wind you up in the briar patch, B'rer Rabbit.
Out. For. A. Walk. ... Bitch.
Spike ,'Selfless'
Natter Five-O: Book 'Em, Danno.
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Connie Neil - Mar 28, 2007 8:41:16 am PDT #9316 of 10001
brillig
JZ - Mar 28, 2007 8:41:50 am PDT #9317 of 10001
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
I don't know about always -- according to Wikipedia, the first time it was used in the US was in a Harper's Weekly story (Joel Chandler Harris was actually second with it) loosely derived from a Ghanian Anansi story, with exactly the meaning connie describes. The meaning has morphed since then, but it does seem to have been originally just one plot-central but racially neutral element of a longer trickster tale.
Volans - Mar 28, 2007 8:45:49 am PDT #9318 of 10001
move out and draw fire
Kat and Lori, all the best to you and Noah and Grace.
Pix - Mar 28, 2007 8:46:01 am PDT #9319 of 10001
We're all getting played with, babe. -Weird Barbie
Here's a nice, clear source as well: [link]
(And I just noticed that that entry was the "word of the day" on my birthday. Not sure how I feel about that.)
Pix - Mar 28, 2007 8:48:42 am PDT #9320 of 10001
We're all getting played with, babe. -Weird Barbie
Coffee:
The trickster tale is an ancient African tradition, and similar "tar baby" tales have been told for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. The problem is that certain ignorant racists decided to co-opt it and have used it to refer to anyone with dark skin, so it became another means to objectify and degrade.
Theodosia - Mar 28, 2007 8:50:30 am PDT #9321 of 10001
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"
Swastikas didn't used to be associated with Nazis, either. I have a lovely Navajo silver and turquoise bracelet that I inherited from my Mom that was bought pre-WWII and decorated with cute little ones.
Connie Neil - Mar 28, 2007 8:56:55 am PDT #9322 of 10001
brillig
Stupid racists. I remember being so very confused as a kid when someone called a black girl I knew a tar baby and me going, "But she's a perfectly nice girl, how is she something that's going ensare you and get you in trouble?" Because I knew it wasn't meant in a way that suggested future romantic entanglements.
I grew up on the fringes of Appalachia, on the Mason-Dixon line, and I guess we were close enough to rural Southerners to inherit the trickster stories.
DavidS - Mar 28, 2007 8:59:28 am PDT #9323 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I don't know about always
Yeah, but it's been around for a long while. It's even in the musical Hair in their list song of racist terms.
Sparky1 - Mar 28, 2007 9:00:32 am PDT #9324 of 10001
Librarian Warlord
The OED lists tar-baby as a derogatory term for someone of mixed race, as in, it wasn't a good thing to have African-American blood, before it lists it as a derogatory term for an African American or Maori.
DavidS - Mar 28, 2007 9:02:46 am PDT #9325 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
The OED lists tar-baby as a derogatory term for someone of mixed race, as in, it wasn't a good thing to have African-American blood,
Kind of goes with the whole "one drop" racist line of thinking. Somebody was "tarred" with their blackness.