What the hell is up with Senator John McCain...?

Question

referring to helping a person with their divorce issues... as tarbaby politics? I know he knew full well the impact of the words and terminology he used and Yeah... it costed him his brief chance at being president. Why is it that non people of color think it is ok to constantly make reference to the most Horrible crime against humanity and make light of it? White America will always be glib about the subject of racism. I happen to take it very seriously. Too bad the culprits are to cowardly to face people of color on their terms..
Questions? Comments? The ignorant need not reply...

Answer 1

Conservatives are claiming -as he is - that that's not what he meant because tar baby has multiple meanings.
True.
But in American usage tar baby really only has one - and that one is extremely racist and deragatory. To claim otherwise is yet another lie.
To prove this point - where in American literature or in the media in the last 50 years is tar baby employed as a sticky mess? The only time it is used is as a racist term...

Answer 2

Perhaps you are being too sensitive? The "tar baby" is a reference to a children's story involving a sticky messy baby formed from tar. The more you struggle with the "tar baby" the more tar you spread and the messier you get. By the way, slavery is NOT a situation in the past, nor is it a strictly white on black issue. There are more than 25 million slaves TODAY, the majority of these people are Asian and Hispanic women and children; NOT African American. Perhaps your outrage could better serve the PRESENT slavery related atrocities. I personally can do nothing to change the past, but I can and DO speak and act against the horrors of modern day slavery.

Answer 3

Interesting.

I never thought Tar Baby was racial or had been added to the catalogue of racial slurs. So I looked it up.It is Middle English and predates Public knowledge of the Subcontinent. I was surprised to learn it is an actual term with a significant meaning. Not just a character in Brer Rabbit.

Here is a very interesting comment about the term I found along the way

http://txsongbird.blogspot.com/2005/10/brer-buhman-and-tar-baby.html

That said, McCain should have "stuck" to his guns and said yes divorce is a tar baby. Just like the War in Iraq. we are stuck to that also.

Go big Red Go

Answer 4

Yes, you are quite right--whites are far too glib about the fate of Brer Rabbit. Why, the tarbaby reference brought back the horrible image of Brer Ermine forcibly playing hide the salami with Brer Rabbit, while Brer Dove looked on and laughed. McCain should be flogged for deliberately using this racist term and pouring salt in our oppressed wounds. Shame, Senator McCain, Shame.

Answer 5

I agree. McCain is completely out of touch...not just with minorities in America, but pretty much with all intelligent human beings with more than an ounce of integrity. This is the guy who calls asians "gooks" and can't even figure out if we should be promoting contraception to help stop the spread of HIV. He's clueless and a political hack who sold his soul a long time ago to get a chance to become President.

Answer 6

I guess that if you had been a POW for several years you too would call Vietnamese "gooks".
Having served in Vietnam it was common to call them "gooks", right or wrong that's what we used.
Guess it's the same as calling the Japanese "nips" or Germans "hinnies" . As to Mr. McCain, Iwould not vote for him if he was the only one running for office. He allowed Bush/Rove to slander him and then backed Bush for President. To me that was a cowardly thing to do. He should have hung Bush out to dry but because of pure politics he allowed it to happen. He is leaning over backwards to have the far-right christian hypocrites vote for him and back him. I have no time for him!!!

Answer 7

Senator McCain was already in trouble for making rash remarks. I'm glad he is out. We didn't need him in the White House. However, the tar baby didn't mean a black person. It was a joke on white people who treated slaves badly. The white person, usually meaning the slave owner, was tricked into getting stuck on the tar baby. Still, it is probably not seen as appropriate by blacks for white people to use the expression and I wouldn't use the phrase myself for that reason. John McCain has no sense.

Answer 8

I loved those Uncle Remus stories. They should be brought back, even the tar baby one. Will someone be offended by Tar heels, too?

The reason I would never back McCain is that he's an open-borders kook. We do not want all these illegals in our hoods. They are taking all our jobs.

Answer 9

My Gosh....a 'tar baby' is a 'sticky situation'. The term dates to the 19th century Uncle Remus stories, referring to a doll made of tar that traps Br'er Rabbit.

It was turned INTO a racial slur..

And don't tell me that divorce is NOT a sticky situation.

You know what people say about 'assume'ing things...dontcha??

You all automatically assume he meant it as a racial slur. But you assumed wrong!

Answer 10

Not to defend the jerk (cause I don't like him either) But I think he was trying to refer to the "statical records" that people of colour are more apt to get a divorce - less likely to support their children (meaning the men), drop out of school, use drugs and commit crimes (violent or not), domestic violence in the home, and so on.

And not to sound as if I'm off the subject - but this answer does apply as well. I believe that people have the right to their religious beliefs/views - if they know what the h*ll they're talking about when they speak on or about it. All these religious fanatics belly-aching about the sanctity of marriage and protecting the marriage institution haven't completely read their bibles. For if they Really Did and in full from cover to cover on their own - beginning to end - "God" has given people Free Will to Choose for themselves what they think is best for them. 2 - "Do not go out into the streets or the into the synagogues of the hypocrites and listen to them or pray among them. Instead go into a place of your choosing within your own home and pray." And 3 - even "God" says in the bible that "if your wife wants a decree for divorce than grant it to her". But the religious fanatics - as usual - want to fix your life, my life, and ignore their own problems, as well as what their bible tells them to do. Still I do not have to believe what they want to brainwash me into thinking or believing.

And I think folks of his stature do have a colour and it isn't call white - it is called yellow-belly (as in chicken sh*ts)