John McCain And The " Tar Baby " Remark

   Not that the Republicans had much of a chance of getting the black vote in 2008, but John McCain made damned sure on Friday that he was not going to get to many black voters in his corner when he used the term " tar baby " at a town hall meeting in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

   I will let you be the judge of whether it sounds as if he was using the phrase in a racial way. McCain was speaking on federal involvement in custody cases when he said,

"For me to stand here and ... say I'm going to declare divorces invalid because of someone who feels they weren't treated fairly in court, we are getting into a tar baby of enormous proportions and I don't know how you get out of that."      Source

   McCain did tell reporters that he shouldn't have used the word and that it was wrong to do so, but the press will still have more to write about the incident, such as it was.

   I do not see any sort of racial meaning from the way that he spoke but I am sure that some group somewhere will make more out of this than is necessary. This is America after all.

The term dates to the 19th century Uncle Remus stories, referring to a doll made of tar that traps Br'er Rabbit. It has become known as a way of describing a sticky mess and has been used as a derogatory term for a black person.

 

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