“Tar Baby” Revisited

Like I always say: if you wait long enough, someone will do the work for you.

Okay, maybe I don’t always say that and maybe it’s not true at all, but at any rate I got lucky this time. First, an article from the estimable yet awkwardly named Tampa Bay’s Ten that covers the not-so-recent verbal “blunder” by the governor of South Carolina. Why this is news nearly a month after the fact is beside the point, I guess. Hey, at least the headline is a little incendiary.

Now, take a gander at this recent article from The Chatham Journal Weekly, fresh (well, maybe a little stale by now) off the presses in Pittsboro, NC.

I’ll let you weigh the issues without too much of my preaching but I do think it’s a shame that the language of African American folklore has been reduced to a convenient political issue. That said, I think white Republican men prone to spewing forth down-home colloquialisms may be on to something. I mean, they’ve gotten in trouble for saying “tar baby” three or four times this year alone. Initially I thought that they’d learn from the first two times, but now it seems like the more they say it, the more attention they’ll grab. Perhaps they’re banking on the fact that voters will see right through the cries of racism, reaffirm their disdain for the “politically correct” left, and march straight to the polls.

Yes, white Republican men, I see what you’re up to. I can only hope for a national scandal that ushers people through the doors at Wren’s Nest. Or at least one that reminds folks that we’re still here.