Things That Aren't Racist

OK, lets just stop this whole idea that anytime you say a word that could be a racial slur, it's automatically a slur, no matter the context. Tom Davis made the mistake of using the term tar-baby in the same memo in which he was discussing Barack Obama:

“Remember,” Davis writes, “Hispanic voters are a swing group in this election and future elections. John McCain, being from a border state, may be out of sync with many Republicans but he has standing among Hispanics. Barrack Obama has not made the sale to Hispanic voters. Thus, this issue is a tar baby for anyone who touches it, with land mines everywhere.”

Uhm, it's classless that he spelled his Obama's name, but come on, that IS a definition of tar-baby. 

Comments

[Levi Stahl]

He's not the first to be tagged for using tar baby. I understand why people are sensitive about the term, but ultimately that's frustrating because it's a really useful term! It carries a lot of implicit information that would take a dozen or so words to convey without it.

[asl]

I certainly agree with you on the usage of 'tar baby' here. I just don't understand what he means. So Obama has to 'make the sale'. Is that the issue or the 'tar baby'? What are the land mines of making that sale?

[Dan Miller]

In Davis' (further) defense, he's a Yglesias-level speller--that's not the first typo I noticed in that report. Apparently, there is "deep-seeded anxiety" about the GOP.

[Nmaginate]

"God Damn America" was a really useful turn of a phrase which, in context, made all kinds of rhetorical sense, inflection and all.

[Nmaginate]

Now that I think about it, with Keith Olbermann's commentary on Prez. Bush's golf sacrifice, I'm trying to understand why Keith wasn't a vocal advocate/defender of Rev. Wright. But I guess it's "useful" for Keith to have his time and space for loud and theatrical diatribes (about killing INNOCENT Iraqis, etc., no less) and for Pat "Whitey" Buchanan to have a primetime TV role Imus would envy.

[matt]

I kind of like the typo. It might improve Obama's military cred.