Uncle Tom--definition??

[Tyler Durden]

Sorry if this term offends some people.

I'm having an argument with a friend over the meaning. I said it's someone who's a sellout. He says it's a black man that knows much more than he leads on.

Who's right?

[skaboomizzy]

I didn't grow up in a particularly urban area (the foothills of SW PA), but my understanding of the term was a black person who "sold out" and adopted the "white" lifestyle.

Personally, I despise racial stereotypes. But they were kinda part of the background noise of where I grew up, so I heard all the BS.

[Tyler Durden]

Thanks very much. so far i'm winning 1-0.

anyone else please?

[adios]

Closer to someone who "sells out" but to what I don't know. I guess an African-American who believes that they don't need any special treatment due to the color of their skin would be an "Uncle Tom." It's a silly form of peer pressure.

[MMMMMM]

Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book by Harriet Beecher Stowe, details the life of Tom, a Negro slave in America. Tom is a good person who looks out for both his fellow slaves and the white plantation owners with a good and caring heart. In the tale, he is eventually sold "down the river" where he finally succumbs to harsh treatment and his body eventually fails, though his spirit remains strong, steadfast and beautiful.

The term "an Uncle Tom" is a misnomer, but it generally is used to refer to a black man who is a lackey or sellout to whites, and who perhaps betrays his own race in the process. That is how the term is used colloquially, but such usage is actually an unfounded slur on the spirit of a great (though fictional) character.

[Rushmore]

I believe you're trying to start another thread altogether.

Not that I wouldn't participate, of course.

[adios]

Ok I plead guilty but I honestly don't know to whom an "Uncle Tom" sells out to or to what.

[Tyler Durden]

Any more thoughts on this topic?

TIA

[Cyrus]

You are far closer to the meaning than your friend, no doubt about it.

"Uncle Tom" is a derogatory characterization given by a black man to another black man (never by a white man; never to a black woman) that refers to that other black man as not being assertive enough in his dealings with the White man (almost never with any other race). If a black man is deemed by his black peers to be too conciliatory in issues concerning Blacks in White society, then he runs the risk to be called "Uncle Tom". Hard-liners in all belief systems have harsh words for those who are more moderate and this is one such example. The term "Uncle Tom" has added resonance because it is clearly a black (fictional) character that Whites strongly approve of -- which, to the eyes of beligerent hard-liners, is precisely what makes an "Uncle Tom" the wrong thing to be.

Bear in mind that the meaning of words changes and is enriched all the time. Note, for instance, the currently changed use of the term nigger, a term that has been wonderfully usurped and defangled by the black community. It's a fickle old wor(l)d.