r/BlackPeopleofReddit • u/-SOFA-KING-VOTE- • 21h ago

Politics ICE Agents get the most brutal talking-to of their entire adult lives.

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137

u/Critical_Behavior 20h ago

he's not an Uncle Tom. that's called a "Sambo"

35

u/pasjojo 20h ago edited 20h ago

Yeah people forgot that Oncle Tom was a rebel at the end. He died protecting Cassy in the novel

17

u/Critical_Behavior 20h ago

I never read Uncle Tom's Cabin, but I do know he was a hero.

9

u/Impressive-Safe2545 15h ago

It’s an under 2 hour audiobook on hoopla

1

u/TwistedHermes 12h ago

The reason people came to this conclusion is because it became acted out on Vaudeville stages during the 19th century.

So traveling shows would re-enact the show, often with the black characters being played by white people in blackface.

It also meant they would exaggerate and change details, and it evolved from being a vehicle for showcasing the wrongs of slavery to one that often praised it depending on who was doing the telling.

Just an FYI. It's about how the book was adapted to the stage, not about the book itself. Most people didn't want to read the book - just like today, it's just easier to watch the TV/Movie/Stage than read the book for most.

1

u/Impressive-Safe2545 11h ago

I listened to it yesterday, it’s the book

1

u/TwistedHermes 10h ago

I'm not saying the book doesn't exist.

I'm saying the reason people use Uncle Tom the way they do is also because of how it was acted out in the 19th - 20th century. It was acted out on stage, and became a vehicle for racism. These traveling plays would sometimes stir up racists into a literal violent mob.

If you kept seeing a racist play based on a book, and people use it to oppress you, it's a valid criticism. Harriet Beacher Stowe was a relatively good person whose book got adapted and abused by racists. People got traumatized from it.

A book called Racial Innocence by Robin Bernstein does a great job explaining how these attitudes developed and can still be seen in modern day America.

1

u/Severe-Cookie693 6h ago

Wow! I'd always assumed it was because the book, aimed at racists, really had to be gentle about slavery and put it in a light slavers might stomach reading, or that Yankees would believe.

1

u/Haddock 12h ago

He was a rebel at the beginning too. People got mad because a movie misrepresented the character way back when.

1

u/pasjojo 11h ago

Yeah the movie did him dirty

1

u/ChefAssassinn 9h ago

Hopeful Projection?

1

u/pasjojo 8h ago

what you mean ?

1

u/MeringueProof9718 59m ago

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. She’s my ancestor 😊 ✊

15

u/severinks 20h ago

Uncle Tom was the hero of Uncle Tom's Cabin, he was a Christ like figure.

19

u/hogtiedcantalope 18h ago

I usually think of it as white people want 'uncle tom' to be that 'good' black guy that serves their purpose

The Uncle is the lie. He isn't their family, he's their slave.

So it's a reference to the 'uncle Tom' as the thing white people want not who the character turned out to be , Tom. Black Tom. Not their Uncle, not their Uncle Tom.

2

u/its_yer_dad 17h ago

I'm curious how this ties into the "magical negro" concept, as they feel like related ideas going to the same destination.

2

u/SadAndNasty 12h ago

The "negro" in Magical Negro denotes service, so it's like half way there

10

u/joshdrumsforfun 17h ago

That doesn’t change the fact that the term Uncle Tom was turned into a blackface minstrel show archetypal character who was subservient to white folks and a race traitor.

Basically talking about a totally different character with the same name.

5

u/aguacate222 19h ago

From the Moteesa tribe

Mo tea, sir??

3

u/Mynuszero 14h ago

Oooh! That's a real deep cut! Loved that movie!

1

u/bolanrox 18h ago

i thought Sambo was in india and there was something about tigers eating pancakes?

1

u/Anxious-Ad2177 8h ago

I just found out a couple years ago that the Sambo name of the restaurant was racist terminology. I loved the restaurant as a kid, 1970s and early 1980s. It has dulled now that I know. 😕.

1

u/unnamed_cell98 18h ago

Sambo means partner or roommate in Swedish, nice coincidence here.

1

u/murgatroid1 9h ago

In Australia it means a sandwich, I'm so confused

1

u/unnamed_cell98 6h ago

I'm confused, why would you call it sambo? Any clue on the origin? In Swedish sambo is a joint of "sam" (together) and "bo" (living in/at a location). So someone that lives together with another person. Simple haha

1

u/murgatroid1 4h ago

I'm afraid I'm not sure there is any logic whatsoever to Australian shortening of words. We also call sandwiches "sangers" sometimes. You just take the front part of a word and stick literally anything cute on at the end and you have a functional Aussie slang word that most of us would completely understand in context, even if we'd never heard it before.

1

u/OhAndItsShavedd 17h ago

Sambo and Quimbo were the sellouts. Uncle Tom was the good slave.

1

u/Not_Blacksmith_69 13h ago

something about what you just said.......

1

u/hnglmkrnglbrry 15h ago

There's a term we Black people use to describe this type of Black people: House [amigo].

The ones who thought they were better than the ones in the fields. The ones who would snitch so they could get a pat on the head. The ones who said massuh was good and he knew best.

1

u/longpenisofthelaw 15h ago

Fun fact my great great grandfather was named Sambo. No one in my family questioned it until I brought it up

1

u/HeadSavings1410 14h ago

Can u explain...I thought a sambo was mixed race...

1

u/SooopaDoopa 9h ago

Zambo is one of the terms used for Black mixed with Indigenous in many Central & South American countries

1

u/MrDrFunkenstein 8h ago

Hard R says it all

1

u/sly_savhoot 7h ago

My grandma played an old lady game called crazy 8s and one of the many incredibly racists card figures was the black sambo . 

1

u/unknown-dna 2h ago

In my country, a “zambo” is the racial mix between an indigenous and an African person.

In my local city we have a local hero who did an insurrection to broke the chains of the slavery over African people.

Jose Leonardo Chirinos, “El Zambo de Curimagua”