Tar baby

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For other uses, see Tar baby (disambiguation).
Br'er Rabbit and the Tar-Baby, drawing by E.W. Kemble from The Tar-Baby, by Joel Chandler Harris, 1904

The Tar-Baby is a doll made of tar and turpentine used to entrap Br'er Rabbit in the second of the Uncle Remus stories. The more that Br'er Rabbit fights the Tar-Baby, the more entangled he becomes. In modern usage according to Random House, "tar baby" refers to any "sticky situation" that is only aggravated by additional contact.

The expression tar baby is also used occasionally as a derogatory term for black people, or among blacks as as a term for a particularly dark-skinned person. As a result, some have suggested avoiding the use of the term in any context.[1]

Contents

Story

In one tale, Br'er Fox constructs a doll out of a lump of tar and dresses it with some clothes. 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 the Tar Baby's lack of manners, punches it, and in doing so becomes stuck. The more Br'er Rabbit punches and kicks the tar "baby" out of rage, the worse he gets stuck. Now that Br'er Rabbit is stuck, Br'er Fox ponders how to dispose of him. The helpless but cunning Br'er Rabbit pleads, "but do please, Brer Fox, don't fling me in dat brier-patch," prompting Fox to do exactly that. As rabbits are at home in thickets, the resourceful Br'er Rabbit escapes. Using the phrases "but do please, Brer Fox, don't fling me in dat brier-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.[citation needed] The story was originally published in Harper's Weekly by Robert Roosevelt; years later Joel Chandler Harris wrote of the tar baby in his Uncle Remus stories. A similar tale from African folklore in West Africa has the trickster Anansi in the role of Br'er Rabbit.

Popular culture

Walt Disney Studios released Song of the South, which contains the Tar-Baby story, in 1946. The film was never released on VHS in North America due to issues relating to race. The ride Splash Mountain, which is in three of the Walt Disney theme parks, is based on the stories by Uncle Remus. However, instead of the Tar-Baby, Br'er Rabbit is captured in a beehive. The changes may have been made to avoid similar racial controversies that prevented Song of the South from being released on home video.

The Tar Baby was featured as one of the guests in House of Mouse.

Tar Baby also appears in the Toontown countryside in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Related stories

Variations on the tar baby legend are spread among the folklores of more than one culture. In the Journal of American Folklore, Aurelio M. Espinosa examined 267 versions of the tar baby story.[2] The mythical West African hero Anansi is recorded as once being similarly trapped.[3] In a Spanish language version told in the mountainous parts of Colombia, an unnamed rabbit is trapped by the "Muñeco de Brea" (tar doll). A Buddhist myth tells of Prince Five-weapons (the Future Buddha) who encounters the ogre Sticky Hair in a forest.[4]

The Tar Baby theme is present in the lores in various tribes of Meso-America and of South America : it is to be found such stories[5] as the Nahuatl (of Mexico) "Lazy Boy and Little Rabbit" (González Casanova 1946, pp. 55–67), Pipil (of El Salvador) "Rabbit and Little Fox" (Schultes 1977, pp. 113–116), and Palenquero (of Colombia) "Rabbit, Toad, and Tiger" (Patiño Rosselli 1983, pp. 224–229). In North America, the tale appears in White Mountain Apache lore as "Coyote Fights a Lump of Pitch" (Erdoes and Ortiz, American Indian Myths and Legends, pp. 359-361). In this story, white men are said to have erected the pitch-man that ensnares Coyote.

According to James Mooney in "Myths of the Cherokee",[6] the tar baby story may have been influenced in America by the Cherokee "Tar Wolf" story, which is unlikely to have been derived from similar African stories: "Some of these animal stories are common to widely separated [Native American] tribes among whom there can be no suspicion of [African] influences. Thus the famous "tar baby" story has variants, not only among the Cherokee, but also in New Mexico, Washington [State], and southern Alaska—wherever, in fact, the pine supplies enough gum to be molded into a ball for [Native American] uses...". In the Tar Wolf story, the animals were thirsty during a dry spell, and agreed to dig a well. The lazy rabbit refused to help dig, and so had no right to drink from the well. But she was thirsty, and stole from the well at night. The other animals fashioned a wolf out of tar and placed it near the well to scare the thief. The rabbit was scared at first, but when the tar wolf did not respond to her questions, she struck it and was held fast. Then she struggled with it and became so ensnared that she couldn't move. The next morning, the animals discovered the rabbit and proposed various ways of killing her, such as cutting her head off, and the rabbit responded to each idea saying that it would not harm her. Then an animal suggested throwing the rabbit into the thicket to die. At this, the rabbit protested vigorously and pleaded for her life. The animals threw the rabbit into the thicket. The rabbit then gave a whoop and bounded away, calling out to the other animals "This is where I live!".

Racist interpretation

Although the term's provenance rests in African folklore (i.e., the gum doll Anansi created to trap Mmoatia, the dwarf), some Americans consider "tar baby" to be a pejorative term for African Americans.[7] The Oxford English Dictionary defines "tar baby" in its original sense — and as "a derogatory term for a black person (U.S.) or a Maori (N.Z.)".[8][9] Several United States politicians — including presidential candidates John McCain, John Kerry, and Mitt Romney — have been criticized by civil rights leaders, the media, and fellow politicians for using the "tar baby" metaphor.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] An article in The New Republic argued that people are "unaware that some consider it to have a second meaning as a slur" and it "is an obscure slur, not even known to be so by a substantial proportion of the population." It continued that, "those who feel that tar baby's status as a slur is patently obvious are judging from the fact that it sounds like a racial slur" (italics in original text).[21] In other countries, the phrase continues to refer to problems of an intractable nature[vague] worsened by intervention.[22]

References

  1. ^ Maven's Word of the Day: Tar Baby, 1999-02-12. Archived from the original on 2008-02-25. Retrieved 2011-09-02.
  2. ^ Espinosa, A. (1943). A new classification of the fundamental elements of the tar-baby story on the basis of two hundred and sixty-seven versions. Journal of American Folklore, 56, 31–37 as cited in Campbell, J. (1949). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York, New York: MJF Books, 87. ISBN 1-56731-120-2.
  3. ^ "21. Anansi and the Tar-baby". Sacred-texts.com. http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/jas/jas021.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-03. 
  4. ^ Campbell, J. (1949). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York, New York: MJF Books, 85–89.
  5. ^ Enrique Margery : "The Tar-Baby Motif", p. 9. In :- LATIN AMERICAN INDIAN LITERATURES JOURNAL, Vol. 6 (1990), pp. 1–13
  6. ^ James Mooney, "Myths of the Cherokee", Dover 1995, pp. 271–273, 232–236, 450. Reprinted from a Government Printing Office publication of 1900.
  7. ^ Romney Apologizes For 'Tar Baby', 2006-07-31.
  8. ^ "tar, n.1". OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. Retrieved: 2012-01-12.
  9. ^ By TA-NEHISI PAUL COATES (2006-08-01). "Time Magazine". Time.com. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1221764,00.html. Retrieved 2011-08-19. 
  10. ^ White House Press Briefing, 2006-05-16.
  11. ^ Washington at Work; The Senator Pursues 'Untold' M.I.A. Story New York Times, Barbara Crossette, 1992-08-10.
  12. ^ Senator John Kerry used the term to characterize Senator John McCain's attack on Obama, in an interview aired on MSNBC on 2008-07-22. "I think John [McCain] is trying to throw that big tar baby out there. You want to lose, you don't want to win. Of course Barack Obama wants America to be successful." (MSNBC video since removed, but internet searchable.)
  13. ^ Creators.com.
  14. ^ Seabrook City Councilman under fire for using term "tar baby"
  15. ^ "Click2Houston.com". Click2Houston.com. 2005-10-05. http://www.click2houston.com/news/5059431/detail.html. Retrieved 2010-07-03. 
  16. ^ Raised on point of order, Debates, House of Commons, Ottawa, Canada, Conservative MP, Pierre Poilievre, uses the term twice answering separate questions during Question Period. 2009-05-29.
  17. ^ Frank Gaffney used the term to refer to President Barack Obama's situation with regard to the Manhattan mosque issue, on Hugh Hewitt radio show 2010-8-16 and in this piece: http://bigpeace.com/fgaffney/2010/08/13/obamas-ground-zero-mosque/. Hewitt told Gaffney of the term's origins and he claimed ignorance on the Brer Rabbit connection.
  18. ^ "Full Interview 630 KHOW Audio Version". Khow.com. 2011-07-29. http://www.khow.com/cc-common/podcast/single_page.html?more_page=&podcast=fullshows_capsil&selected_podcast=072911HOUR3.mp3. Retrieved 2011-08-19. 
  19. ^ "Rep. Lamborn likens Obama to a "tar baby" - Race". Salon.com. http://www.salon.com/news/race/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/08/01/doug_lamborn_tar_baby. Retrieved 2011-08-19. 
  20. ^ "GOP Congressman, Doug Lamborn of Colorado, blasted for likening President Obama to a 'tar baby' New York Daily News". Nydailynews.com. 2011-08-02. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/08/02/2011-08-02_gop_congressman_doug_lamborn_of_colorado_blasted_for_likening_president_obama_to.html. Retrieved 2011-08-19. 
  21. ^ McWhorter: ‘Tar Baby’ Isn’t Actually a Racist Slur The New Republic, 2011-08-03.
  22. ^ Solar panels burn taxpayer dollars The Australian, 2011-05-23.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tar baby
  • González Casanova, Pablo (1946) : Cuentos indígenas.
  • Schultze Jena, Leonhard (1977) : Mito y Leyendas de los Pipiles de Izalco. El Salvador : Ediciones Cuscatlán.
  • Patiño Rosselli, Carlos (1983) : Lengua y sociedad en el Panlenque de San Basilio. Bogotá : Instituto Caro y Cuervo.

The Wiktionary entry for tarbaby Works related to Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings/The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story at Wikisource
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