Tar Baby

Here is an interesting story from the near-by city of St.Cloud, MN.    

This guy, Leigh Lenzmeier, in a city meeting, referred to a sticky situation as a ‘tar-baby’.  

A little research on the term shows that this is an appropriate use of the term.  Apparently, most people were exposed to the term through the Br’er Rabbit folk tale, which can be read here.  Here is the folk-tale from the Afro-American Almanac.  Apparently, some claim the story is originally African or African-American in origin.

A Wikipedia search on the term refers to the Br’er rabbit story and a novel by the same name written by an African American author, but does not reference any racial connotations here.

But, you guessed it; some people claimed the remark is a ‘racist slur’ against African Americans.
In an e-mail to the Stearns County board, former president of the St. Cloud Area NAACP, LeRoy Hill Jr., called Lenzmeier's comments "bigoted and insulting" and said he "punched our community in the eye with that remark."
I think his comment is interesting; noting that he did not use the phrase “gave our community a black-eye”.   Seems the injured eye turns the save color as the sticky substance.  We have to be careful when making reference to any substance that has or could have a dark hue.     In the case of the ‘eye’ comment, the easy distinction of the discoloration of the injured portion of the face relative to the rest of the complexion is the actual meaning of the phrase.  Mr. Hill demonstrates that PC sanitization does not enhance public discourse but simply confuses it.

Mr. Hill should be able to recognize that at worst this comment was an honest mistake.  At worst.  However, I also question the sincerity here.  Does Mr. Hill call out everyone that is a ‘punch in the eye’.  What about rappers?  Does he rage against them?  Is he just ‘scoring points’ in some kind of battle?  Will he ever understand that the rest of us are ready to move on from that battle.

I think there are two directions we can go here.  One would be to make a giant list of every term that anyone, anywhere on the planet may find offensive.   Then train everyone, everywhere on the planet about those terms and instruct them not to use them.  Call it the big eraser system.  Such a list can be found on the internet.  Some of the terms are very offensive.  I thought at age 40 I’d heard every profanity out there.  Now, at 41, I’ve seen a few more.  (Since my children read this blog, I will not link the list here.)  However, there are many, many things there that struck me as silly.  Teapot, telephone, and Thanksgiving were a couple examples in the t’s (near tar-baby, which was also listed as a slur in the UK).  There are several problems with this approach, making it a bad idea.  The list itself is so offensive, it would be the worst violation in itself.  Also, the process would equip racist people to be more destructive and efficient with the use of racist terms.  Another problem is that, even if you could erase certain words and phrases from the planet, new racist terms would develop.  This does not address the heart of the problem.

The other approach would be for people to get a thicker skin, give one another a break, and stop the ‘victimhood’ mentality.  Tar-baby is not common racist slur.  It just isn’t.  It may be an obscure slur in another part of the world, but it doesn’t have that meaning in St.Cloud MN (or at least it didn’t until recently).   Perhaps someone in St.Cloud has heard the term used racially before, but I suspect not.  Clearly, the cause of anit-racism is not served by the actions of the professional victims that find racism in innocent remarks.  I would agree that this approach (although much more sound than the other) still leaves us short.

Perhaps the answer lies with a third solution.  This one will work because it comes from Christ.  “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  And “the standard which you judge other, so to you will be judged.”  Preaching these will affectively combat those other problems without creating additional ones.  The left, who are constantly reminding us of the problem, will have no part of the only solution that addresses the real problem, which is the hearts of people.  They seems to want everyone in a state of anger toward one another and staying there.  Sort of the opposite of God’s love.  I wonder where that comes from?