They Can’t Help It

5:53 pm EST March 16th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 15 Comments

McCain joins the “tar baby” crowd.

ALSO: Do you get the sense that McCain had a “senior moment” here?

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15 Responses to “They Can’t Help It”

  1. fd10801 says:
    March 16, 2007 at 6:07 pm

    “tar baby” is a racial epithet? Is it as bad as “articulate.”
    What is the world coming to?

  2. Oliver Willis says:
    March 16, 2007 at 6:19 pm

    What’s funny is that you’re actually old enough to remember the use of tar baby as a regular racial epithet, Frank.

  3. Misplaced Patriot says:
    March 16, 2007 at 6:22 pm

    A friend of mine used ‘tar baby’ in a meeting the other day. I told him afterwards that it was considered offensive, but honestly, I couldn’t tell him why, just that he should watch the usage.

    So, what, exactly, is wrong with using the metaphor of the ‘tar baby’ to reference a problem that gets worse the more you tangle with it?

  4. fd10801 says:
    March 16, 2007 at 6:26 pm

    I’m old enough to remember the tar baby’s being a cartoon character. I had too many black friends as a child to even think of using a racial epithet.

  5. Nimrod Gently says:
    March 16, 2007 at 6:26 pm

    It’s probably more racially charged over there, but McCain didn’t use it in any racial sense, like against Obama or something.

  6. Rory_Is_Freedom says:
    March 16, 2007 at 11:50 pm

    Why mutht we be tho then-thi-tive??

    Political correctness is nothing by censorship practiced by those with far too much time on their hands.

  7. Counterfactual says:
    March 17, 2007 at 10:01 am

    Oliver, I am afraid this is exactly the kind of unthinking enforcement of politically correct rules on what people are allowed to say that allows convervatives to dismiss actions that are fights against real racism as liberals just being politically correct. The use of tar baby here is not racist at all. It is a metaphor, as I am sure you know, for a baby that is sticky because it is made of tar so that if you grab it, you can’t let go. In other words, a situation that once you get into, you can’t get out of. Hmmm… it seems to me it would be hard to come up with a better description of the Bush Administration.

    Kindly explain to me how McCain’s use of it in this situation is a racist statment.

  8. fd10801 says:
    March 17, 2007 at 10:31 am

    Counterfactual: Liberals are absurdly politically correct

  9. Duros62 says:
    March 17, 2007 at 11:28 am

    Italics, be gone!

    Wow, do you guys not remember the flap with Tony Snow just, what was it, 5 months ago?
    I find it interesting that this term “tar baby”, while meant to convey a sticky situation, a) is viewed as racially insensitive and b)has come back into the lexicon almost 60 years after it first appeared.
    There are better expressions to use. But I agree with Rory.

  10. jimmmm says:
    March 17, 2007 at 8:29 pm

    It’s a shame. Tar-Baby is such a wondefully evocative phrase, from a great work of dialect literature–J. C. Harris’s Brer Rabbit stories. In its original use, it is, indeed, a problem that becomes stickier.

    But unfortunately, the term’s been co-opted by racists, largely in the south, where Harris’ stories were most popular, so, unfortunately, anybody literate enough to understand and use it should also be aware of its more benighted connotation, and thus steer clear of it.

    McCain isn’t a name-calling racist. Much as I despise the two-faced motherfucker and wish he would just quit public office and go open mail for Rev. Falwell, I am at least willing to concede this.

    Tony Snow on the other hand? Something tells me he’s used the “n” word when among friends.

  11. jimmmm says:
    March 17, 2007 at 8:30 pm

    FD: You’re confusing uneducated with politically correct.

    But that’s okay, because I often confuse stupid with politically INcorrect….

  12. fd10801 says:
    March 17, 2007 at 9:08 pm

    jimmmm: Uneducated AND stupid go well with political correctness, as you have demonstrated.

  13. Beans says:
    March 18, 2007 at 9:46 am

    Frank, you hit it on the nose again. Those uneducated and stupid liberals use their “political correctness” nonsense to limit our language. You can’t call someone a “tar baby” anymore because of them. I remember the old days when you could call a Mexican a “wetback” and a homo a “fag” and a crossdresser a “shim”. These liberals don’t respect the English language.

  14. fd10801 says:
    March 18, 2007 at 11:46 am

    Ah, yes, where we would be without Beans?
    Besides comfortable and … happy
    “s” is dead, long live Beans!

  15. fd10801 says:
    March 18, 2007 at 11:58 am

    BTW, is anyone on this blog aware that Toni Morrison wrote a novel called Tar Baby, and that page after page of Googling refers not to an offensive term, but the story from African folklore relayed to Americans by J.C. Harris’ stories?