Bejeweled Tar Baby

jajeanpierre

jajeanpierre

Chameleon Enthusiast
Quad quad saying "NO!"

Pictures don't do justice to the beautiful sparkly green they get on their heads and back, and the velvety black. Photos seem to make the green appear white, which it isn't. (Thanks go to Gene Cash for coming up with the "tar baby" description.)
 

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You don't want the credit for the tar baby description?? Why not? That's very generous of you to give credit to Gene for it.
Is it wrong that I'm cracking up as I type this. lol.
 
Craigwyatt said:
You don't want the credit for the tar baby description?? Why not? That's very generous of you to give credit to Gene for it.
Is it wrong that I'm cracking up as I type this. lol.
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Tar baby is the perfect description--she is exactly the color of oil washed up on the beach. Tar Baby is Gene's description and it is perfect. "How did your breeding attempt go?" "All I got was Tar Babies." That says it all.
 
Whoa. Just a joke. What else could tar baby mean for you to take what I said so seriously? Again it was just a joke. Not anything else.
 
Side note: "Tar baby" in my area is used as a terrible racial slur, one you'd never ever say unless you wanted to be socially ostracized forever, and maybe also punched in the face. I actually had to look it up to see what else it could mean, in context. Colloquialism fail.
 
Ditto on the racial slur. I did a double take on the title of this post and realized it didn't have offensive intent... But yeah, not a phrase I would use without expecting to get punched. Too easily misunderstood.
 
Lathis said:
Ditto on the racial slur. I did a double take on the title of this post and realized it didn't have offensive intent... But yeah, not a phrase I would use without expecting to get punched. Too easily misunderstood.
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YIKES!!! I'm Canadian--we don't have the long history of slavery and the same fight for civil rights that the US had.

I did a search on it and here is what Wikipedia has to say:

"The Tar-Baby is a fictional character in the second of the Uncle Remus stories published in 1881; it is a doll made of tar and turpentine used to entrap Br'er Rabbit. The more that Br'er Rabbit fights the Tar-Baby, the more entangled he becomes.

In modern usage, "tar baby" refers to any "sticky situation" that is only aggravated by additional involvement in it."

I continued to research the term and found that although the origin had nothing to do with racism, the fact that tar is black and baby is dismissive makes it seem very much like a racist term.

I wasn't living in the US nor following US politics closely when Mitt Romney and others got into hot water for using the term in 2006.

So, for that I apologize. I had no idea a reference to a trap from a book written in 1881 could be perceived as a racist term.
 
jajeanpierre said:
YIKES!!!
Click to expand...

I understood what you meant and that no derogatory intention was there. Unfortunately it does have a loaded double meaning depending on what part of the world you are from. Having "hillbilly" members of my family who use it as a racial slur (which for the record, I absolutely do not condone!), it's one of those words that makes me cringe regardless of context or intent to offend.

Important lesson for everyone: Cultural context is important!

Anyways, very beautiful photo of your quad :D
 
Your Canadian. Ok. Now it makes better sence. Tar baby is kinda saying the N word to someone that's black.
 
The only time I ever heard that term was in the Disney movie "Song of the South". The classic song, "Zippity Doo Dah" came from that movie. For a time, the full, original, unedited movie could only be bought from overseas sources (on eBay, etc.). It may still be that way. The movie, of course, is the source material for the Splash Mountain ride at Disney World in Orlando. I looked for the movie before taking my kids to Disney World because I knew we would be riding that ride and I wanted them to be familiar with the characters (Brier Rabbit, Brier Fox, Brier Bear, etc.). I was very surprised to find that the movie was not easily found in the States.
 
Jackpot!:The Irony of a Sticky Situation

Just wanted to bump this up and keep the conversation going. Wouldn't want to see this thread from falling into the depths of oblivion, now would we? Of all the things I would have liked to be acknowledged and given credit for, this is it huh?. Thanks, Janet. :D I'll admit that I used it first as a metaphorical description of how ridiculously, almost impossibly black my females were going when introduced to a male. As a child of the seventies, I read and loved the stories of Brer Rabbit and this was the image that was conjured while responding to a specific email and that was the depth of my intent. Not to coin a new "term of endearment" for unreceptive females, and most certainly not as a derogatory term towards any person. I'm afraid my innocuous use lulled Janet a bit and culminated in this thread.(Thank you Lathis for at least acknowledging intent, however obscured it was in print). The intent was solely based on the images I remember from that golden book I had as a child. Not Disney's movie or the Uncle Remus stories, which sadly, I was completely unaware of.

That being said, and after spending the last few nights re-familiarizing myself with the subject and its contemporary perception, I'm deeply saddened that these stories have been almost completely laid to waste. Good art can sometimes unintentionally transcend the scope of its creator by tapping into a deeper subconscious and I believe that is what happened here. Whether the writer was "racist" or not, being inspired by the African-American folklore that it was, was enough to imbibe it with the magic that it has. Any good artist knows, the stronger the contrast, the more dramatic of an effect can be achieved. Wouldn't the more Uncle Remus was oppressed make his wisdom and kindness he imparted on Johnny just that much more powerful? Not to mention the apparent moment that Uncle Remus and Johnny's grandmother related to one another on the common ground of best intentions for the boy, transcending racial barriers once again, and depending on where the absentee father is that Remus is stepping in for, could have the admirable undertone that the African-American elder and grandmother hold the true wisdom that the children are the most important aspect of life other than the mad persuit of materialism. How is any of this derogatory, because of the dialect used? I think a culture imposing it's standards on another to the point of truth and historicity being lost in the wrinkles of time would be a greater travesty. If you strip off all the layers of other people's preconceived notions and truly look at it objectively, you might find that subscribing to the PC knee jerk rhetoric is actually what's doing the disservice and amplifying the feeling of shame in that culture by validating said shame. No one should be ashamed of small means and circumstance beyond their control. Quite the opposite. Surviving through such hardships should be a great source of pride. I really can't believe we are dismissing this entire body of work and its original origins because of a few simple-minded bigots that couldn't grasp the big picture in the first place. At what point do we say that an elder that lived through as much oppression as Remus had but can still display as much compassion towards the children that may even belong to some of his oppressors, showcases that he possessed the wisdom to know that compassion and guidance would be the best tools to affect positive change in the future, is a very good thing. To put this in perspective, this collection of stories with deep morals and thought that descended through cultural antiquity gets ostracized, but Tarantino's Django, that's full of depictions of slavery, dialect, racial slurs and atrocities is heralded with awards. Presumably due to its vigilante nature(not that I didn't think Django was brilliant. Just sayin'). Maybe this is what happens in a culture that's quicker to punch someone in the face than understand their intent. There's a huge difference between referencing a literary plot device from a children's book and using it with malicious intent, but if we as a society aren't willing to differentiate between the two, we might as well start burning books and erasing cultural history now(oh, wait a min...). I personally would find that unconscionable because I place value and appreciate where we all come from. If you go back far enough, we all come from the same place and truly are one family. Lets not forget "hillbilly" is also a derogatory term for the Scots-Irish that took up residence in the Appalachian mountains who, because of being poor, their dialect and traditions, are dismissed as uneducated simpletons, when, in actually, they are self-sustainable survivors that have shown a high aptitude for ingenuity, mechanical inclinations and a legacy of distillation. That doesn't however excuse anyone from the use of racial slurs. Breaking the Golden Rule is breaking the Golden Rule. I can not apologize for appreciating the story in question for I know deep in my heart there was no ill will intended in it's use, but I do feel I owe Janet an apology for putting her in this "sticky" situation unknowingly, and for that, I'm sorry.

And Perry, you're a very brave soul.

Thanks,
Gene Cash
 
Funny, but I thought "brer" was "brier" because in the Disney movie, "Song of the South", there is a scene where Brer Rabbit tricks Brer Fox into throwing him into a brier patch in order to escape being Brer Fox's lunch. Against the slow-witted Brer Bear's suggestion to simply knock Brer Rabbit's head "clean off" with a club, Brer Fox is fooled into thinking that Brer Rabbit will suffer greatly before becoming their lunch if he first throws the rabbit into the thorny brier patch. Of course, Brer Fox does the opposite of what Brer Rabbit begs him to do and proceeds to hurl Brer Rabbit into the brier patch. After pretending to be hurt, wailing and moaning to Brer Fox's delight, Brer Rabbit breaks into song and sings "born and bred in the brier patch..." while jumping above the patch so Brer Fox will see that he's unharmed. Brer Fox realizes that he's been outsmarted once again by his clever nemesis. Uncle Remus uses other short tales in the movie to teach the kids life lessons.

Gene, after seeing your post where you correctly spell "Brer" I looked it up and found out the the term is short for "brother", a title of sorts. And here all those years I thought it was "brier". :) Makes me feel kind of silly. My excuse is that I never read the books. We're somehow talking about chameleons, right? :)
 
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That's funny because I only had the golden book and my memory was that of "Burr Rabbit". Not being sure my memory serves me correctly.
 
Well, if its true that the predatory figures of Brer Fox and Bear represent the oppressive "white" faction that was outsmarted by the subservient "black" Brer Rabbit, then the "racist" writer failed miserably at promoting the correct protagonist, not to mention the life lessons of Uncle Remus conveyed upon the children. I felt silly as well. I learned a lot by researching the topic which shows its inherent value. I wish this conversation did in fact remain within the realm of chameleons as it was originally intended, and as it stands, I hope it returns as quickly as possible. I hold an affinity of chameleons for a reason, and its very much hermetical.
 
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