Now we have Silly Poilievre applying the tar baby story to Ignatieff – without realizing the point that Br’er Rabbit loved to get his Rabbit *ss into the Briar Patch to escape the Fox.

Maybe we’ll be seeing later today a presser from Mr. Tenycke explaining – on behalf of Mr. Poilievre – that the reference to Tar Baby was of course linked to the Tar Sands..but that will only dig him in deeper – because all the pro-Big Oil types have been using Oil Sands to “sweeten” the image!

As to the racial epithet assumption – it really depends upon your interpretation of what Harris’ intent was – with these stories.

Uncle Remus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Uncle Remus in Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings: The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation, 1881Uncle Remus is a fictional character, the title character and fictional narrator of a collection of African American folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, published in book form in 1881. A journalist in post-Reconstruction Atlanta, Georgia, Harris produced seven Uncle Remus books.

Uncle Remus is a collection of animal stories, songs, and oral folklore, collected from Southern United States blacks. Many of the stories are didactic, much like those of Aesop’s fables and the stories of Jean de La Fontaine. Uncle Remus is a kindly old slave who serves as a storytelling device, passing on the folktales to children gathered around him.

The stories are told in Harris’ version of a Deep South slave dialect. The genre of stories is the trickster tale. The term “uncle” was a patronizing, familiar and often racist title reserved by whites for elderly black men in the South, which is considered by some to be pejorative and offensive. At the time of Harris’ publication, his work was praised for its ability to capture plantation negro dialect.[citation needed]

Br’er Rabbit (“Brother Rabbit”) is the main character of the stories, a likable character, prone to tricks and trouble-making who is often opposed by Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear. In one tale, Br’er Fox constructs a lump of tar and puts clothing on it. When Br’er Rabbit comes along he addresses the “tar baby” amiably, but receives no response. Br’er Rabbit becomes offended by what he perceives as Tar Baby’s lack of manners, punches it, and becomes stuck. Now that Br’er Rabbit is stuck, Fox ponders how to dispose of him. The helpless, but cunning, Br’er Rabbit pleads, “Please don’t throw me in the briar patch,” prompting Fox to do exactly that. As rabbits are at home in thickets, the resourceful Br’er Rabbit escapes. Using the phrases “please don’t throw me in the briar patch” and “tar baby” to refer to the idea of “a problem that gets worse the more one struggles against it” became part of the wider culture of the United States in the mid-20th century.

The animal stories were conveyed in a manner in which they were not deemed as ostensibly racist by many among the audiences of the time; by the mid-20th century, however, the dialect and the “old Uncle” stereotype of the narrator, long considered demeaning by many blacks, as well as Harris’ racist and patronizing attitudes toward blacks and his defense of slavery in his foreword, rendered the book indefensible to many. Without much controversy the stories became less popular.[citation needed]

Harris himself said, in the introduction to Uncle Remus, that he hoped his book would be considered:

…a sympathetic supplement to Mrs. Stowe’s [author of Uncle Tom's Cabin] wonderful defense of slavery as it existed in the South. Mrs. Stowe, let me hasten to say, attacked the possibilities of slavery with all the eloquence of genius; but the same genius painted the portrait of the Southern slave-owner, and defended him.

Mark Twain read the Uncle Remus stories to his children, who were awed to meet Harris himself. In his Autobiography Twain describes him thus:

He was the bashfulest grown person I have ever met. When there were people about he stayed silent, and seemed to suffer until they were gone. But he was lovely, nevertheless; for the sweetness and benignity of the immortal Remus looked out from his eyes, and the graces and sincerities of his character shone in his face.

Twain wrote that “It may be that Jim Wolf was as bashful as Harris. It hardly seems possible….” Jim Wolf being a person from the first humorous story Twain ever told—the story recorded in “Jim Wolf and the Cats”.

In any case, an apology could have ended this but it seems they want to leave open the door for continuing to use the unwanted baby analogy.

As a very young child, I knew no better, intended no harm, and had no idea about racism, but as an adult, I would never, never, repeat those words as I perceive them as very derogatory, despite the actual definition.

That said, I agree with Ms O’Malley. Listening to PP on a talk radio program with the other candidates in Nepean last year, he didn’t know the difference between “popular” and “populist”, and we all know he doesn’t understand what “partook” infers, so it doesn’t surprise me he uses words haphazardly.

I’m not sure he meant to be offensive, so I can’t understand why he wouldn’t just say so and apologize instead of being belligerent and defensive about it.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_zolf/archive/zolf000411.html

Sheesh

That’s the problem with this PMO, isn’t it? Ignorance, petulance, and pettiness.

But, that’s okay.

Their days of “tarring” civility in this country is about to come to an abrupt end.

http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/07/dallas-county-meeting-turns-ra.html

Naa.

He did handle it incorrectly, he should have simply said he didn’t know there was a negative definition of that, apologize and shut up. After all, Gooddale did, essentially, give him an easy out – he should have taken it.

That much we definitely can agree on.

It’s fine with me if we still refer to you as douche.

Pipsqueak Pierre used a deliberately provocative term in order to grab attention. He knew exactly what he was saying and how it would be interpreted. If he had used ‘tar baby’ in a different context, it might have been in the Brer Rabbit sense. But he used it in a context where he is speaking about paternity. He is exactly what Denis Leary was singing about.

On the other hand, I’ve always liked the phrase “to go off the reservation”, meaning when someone goes off message, but nowadays I am told that too is off-limits. Pity, really.

Black Hole, astronomical term, sharing physical properties with the sticky tar baby;
Dark Side of the Force, popular culture (Star Wars);
Black Gold, petroleum;
Chinese Food, culinary;
French Fries, culinary;
English Muffins, culinary.

And why oh why do people everywhere get away with “White Trash” — I find that a very offensive term, suggesting insanely that “non-white” is presumed to be trash already.

In Africa, it’s a trap made of sticky glue/tar. In B’rer Rabbit, it is a decoy that is a trap made of sticky glue/tar that engulfs you even more when you try to free yourself.

And now… it’s a racial slur? I am still missing something in between. Anyone?

(Although obviously not as prohibited as some words, since so many are using it: nobody’s calling it the T–B– word)

Is it that a white women might deliver a baby whose pigment far surpassed that of the presumed father, leading to some unpleasant aftermath? Is it something else? Can that something else be discussed in polite company? Just what is the deal here?