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Uncle Tom – check it

The phrase “Uncle Tom” is more of a slur on the Christ than on blackness. My guess is that it was the case that many folk were tired of turning the other cheek and decided that *fighting* was the answer, and in doing so, rejected the notion that Yahweh was going to save them (this is always one of the major struggles of our time…and a struggle with people deciding to believe or not…whether or not the meek really will inherit the earth :)

Always interesting to note how different phrases/ideas are co-opted for different purposes, even when not fully appropriate…sometimes its done intentionally to dilute or twist the meaning, and many times it’s done out of ignorance. I even came across an article that mentions “Uncle-Tomism” with regard to some homosexuals and their alleged pandering to the “straight mainstream” (at least that’s how i took it).

References:

On Uncle Tom

Found on a comment from a post at this post from a black republican

whose site was found on Negrophile.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 19th, 2005 at 4:16 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

jon

thanks a *grip* for more references. i need to tackle the first link first.

George

In a recent Reason interview, Neal Stephenson mentions Walter Wink: [...] Wink’s interpretation of the New Testament is that Jesus was not a pacifist milksop but (among other things) was encouraging people to resist the dominant power system of the era, that being the Roman Empire. Mind you, Wink is no fan of violence either, and he devotes a lot of ink to attacking what he calls the Myth of Redemptive Violence, which he sees as a meme by which domination systems are perpetuated. But he is clearly all in favor of people standing up against oppressive power systems of all stripes. [...]

Knowing nothing about Wink before reading that, I went looking and found this, and this and this. (And, to come closer to the impetus for your post, this.)

Lastly, a Seattle Times article from September '02 has some academics' takes on "Uncle Tom's Cabin."