Snow, Tar

by **professorpan** » Wed May 17, 2006 1:55 am

I remember when Ross Perot used the term "tar baby" in one of the 1992 presidential debates. At the time, it seemed like a clear example of a racist epithet. I learned that the term has a complicated history, and isn't necessarily as racist as it sounds. <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19990212">www.randomhouse.com/wotd/...e=19990212</a> But you'd think Tony Snow would know better than to use a term that has racist associations for many people: <a href="http://rawprint.com/news/2006/Snow_hugs_the_tar_baby_0516.htm">rawprint.com/news/2006/Sn...y_0516.htm</a> Snow 'hugs the tar baby' at first press briefing RAW STORY Published: Tuesday May 16, 2006 Print This | Email This At his very first briefing as new White House press secretary, Fox News personality Tony Snow has raised eyebrows by using the phrase "hug the tar baby" to describe the prospect of commenting on the NSA wiretap and phone traffic database programs. The phrase is considered by many to be racist in origin. "I don't want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program," Snow remarked, interrupted by laughter. "The existence of the alleged program--the existence of which I can neither confirm or deny." "We could trace that back to American lore," he explained of the description. The story of the tar baby first came into popular American culture through Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories. In the popular version, the character of Brer Rabbit encounters a baby made of tar on the street. When the black, sticky dummy doesn't respond to him, he strikes it repeatedly, becoming stuck to it. In his preface, to the book, Harris wrote: "I trust I have been successful in presenting what must be, at least to a large portion of American readers, a new and by no means unattractive phase of negro character--a phase which may be considered a curiously sympathetic supplement to Mrs. Stowe's wonderful defense of slavery as it existed in the South." Most of Snow's first briefing went well by press accounts. One reporter, before asking for clarification on the tar baby remark, described it as "nice and zippy."

by **chiggerbit** » Wed May 17, 2006 10:43 am

I have one of Harris's old books, and the tar baby story is my favorite. See link for the rest of the story. <a href="http://www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/amlitprivate/texts/remus.htm">www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/a.../remus.htm</a> THE WONDERFUL TAR BABY STORY "....Brer Rabbit come prancin' 'long twel he spy de Tar-Baby, en den he fotch up on his behime legs like he wuz 'stonished. De Tar Baby, she sot dar, she did, en Brer Fox, he lay low. "`Mawnin'!' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee - `nice wedder dis mawnin',' sezee. "Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox he lay low. "`How duz yo' sym'tums seem ter segashuate?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. "Brer Fox, he wink his eye slow, en lay low, en de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'. "'How you come on, den? Is you deaf?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. 'Kaze if you is, I kin holler louder,' sezee. "Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low. "'You er stuck up, dat's w'at you is,' says Brer Rabbit, sezee, 'en I;m gwine ter kyore you, dat's w'at I'm a gwine ter do,' sezee. "Brer Fox, he sorter chuckle in his stummick, he did, but Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nothin'. "'I'm gwine ter larn you how ter talk ter 'spectubble folks ef hit's de las' ack,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. 'Ef you don't take off dat hat en tell me howdy, I'm gwine ter bus' you wide open,' sezee. "Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low. "Brer Rabbit keep on axin' 'im, en de Tar-Baby, she keep on sayin' nothin', twel present'y Brer Rabbit draw back wid his fis', he did, en blip he tuck 'er side er de head. Right dar's whar he broke his merlasses jug. His fis' stuck, en he can't pull loose. De tar hilt 'im. But Tar-Baby, she stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low. "`Ef you don't lemme loose, I'll knock you agin,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, en wid dat he fotch 'er a wipe wid de udder han', en dat stuck. Tar-Baby, she ain'y sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox, he lay low. "`Tu'n me loose, fo' I kick de natal stuffin' outen you,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, but de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'. She des hilt on, en de Brer Rabbit lose de use er his feet in de same way. Brer Fox, he lay low. Den Brer Rabbit squall out dat ef de Tar-Baby don't tu'n 'im loose he butt 'er cranksided. En den he butted, en his head got stuck. Den Brer Fox, he sa'ntered fort', lookin' dez ez innercent ez wunner yo' mammy's mockin'-birds. "`Howdy, Brer Rabbit,' sez Brer Fox, sezee. `You look sorter stuck up dis mawnin',' sezee, en den he rolled on de groun', en laft en laft twel he couldn't laff no mo'. `I speck you'll take dinner wid me dis time, Brer Rabbit. I done laid in some calamus root, en I ain't gwineter take no skuse,' sez Brer Fox, sezee." Here Uncle Remus paused, and drew a two-pound yam out of the ashes. "Did the fox eat the rabbit?" asked the little boy to whom the story had been told. "Dat's all de fur de tale goes," replied the old man. "He mout, an den agin he moutent. Some say Judge B'ar come 'long en loosed 'im - some say he didn't. I hear Miss Sally callin'. You better run 'long.".... Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 5/17/06 2:32 pm

by **mother** » Wed May 17, 2006 11:01 am

We have my family's old,old copy. My children LOVE the vernacular as much as I did as a little one. Illiteracy is growing worser and worser...

by **NavnDansk** » Wed May 17, 2006 1:54 pm

I loved Uncle Remus as a child and never thought of it as racist. There was a head of a government dept. that was forced to resign a few years ago for using the word "nigardly". I feel terribly sorry for Tony Snow, esp. with his battle against cancer. Why on earth did he leave Fox News for this terrible job? The journalists have to aggressively pursue answers to the horrors going on, he seems too nice for the job of press secretary.

by **professorpan** » Wed May 17, 2006 5:16 pm

I have no sympathy for Tony Snow, other than the sympathy I extend to any other human being who has been sick. He climbed into bed with the vipers -- that makes him a viper in my book. And his teary-eyed, self-professed "Muskie moment" seemed very scripted to me. I can't prove that, of course, but I watched it several times and it seemed planned (like Scalito's wife's teary episode).

by **dugoboy** » Wed May 17, 2006 5:21 pm

lol, yep, tony snow agreed to become the official mouthpiece of BushCo. i could care less. but i think this merits attention: the bush administration has hired a former commentator for FOX news as their new official mouthpice. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/roll.gif ALT=":rollin"> ___________________________________________ "BUSHCO aren't incompetent...they are COMPLICIT."

Snow, Tar

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