Uncle Tom
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- This article is about the racial term; for the P.G. Wodehouse character, see Tom Travers.
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The term as a pejorative epithet
Uncle Tom is a pejorative term for a black person who is perceived by other blacks to be obsequiously servile to white authority figures, or who simply are perceived as being unnecessarily accommodating of whites. The term Uncle Tom comes from the title character of white author Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.
It is used to denote African Americans whose political views or allegiances are considered by critics detrimental to blacks as a group.
The practice of covert resistance
During slavery, "tomming" could be a cunning subterfuge. White masters often gave well-liked and trusted slaves coveted, less physically demanding duties to perform. "Faithful" bondsmen and women also tended to be watched less closely, allowing them opportunities to escape to freedom or engage in clandestine acts of defiance. A tomming fieldhand who had been bullwhipped might set a field afire or destroy farm implements. An outwardly compliant cook whose husband or children had been sold away from her might burn down the cookhouse or exact a slow and agonizing death from her master by poisoning his food.
Slaves also often calculatingly pandered to white supremacist assumptions about blacks. The self-referential use of the word "nigger" to their own advantage was a typical, self-deprecatory artifice of tomming. Implicit in taking on such a label was the unspoken reminder to whites that a presumed inherently morally or intellectually inferior person or subhuman reasonably could not be held responsible for work performed incorrectly, an "accidental" fire, or any other similar occurrence. Tomming effectively could enable someone to dodge personal responsibility for sometimes blatant insubordination or perceived incompetence and allow them to escape completely the wrath of an overseer or master. Acting in a dimwitted manner was another effective device, which also helped put whites at ease. Stepin Fetchit, the 1940s on-screen persona of comedic actor Lincoln Perry, was the quintessential Uncle Tom. Whites often assumed that a black person who thought of himself as a "nigger," who apparently willingly accepted his subordinate status, or who was simple-minded, posed no threat to white authority.
This practice of masking defiance or rage with acquiescence, civility and even obtuseness continues today. As in years past, tomming can be a means of appropriating and preserving a degree of private autonomy in the face of social prejudice and institutionalized racism, an act of subversion -- or even an over-the-top, mocking response to race prejudice.
Other terms with the same meaning
Sometimes, women who tom are called Aunt Jemima after the popular pancake mix that long depicted a kerchief-headed family cook of that name.
A roughly equivalent term (for African-Americans) is Oreo, from the chocolate sandwich cookie with white filling (implying that one is black on the outside but white on the inside). Coconut has the same meaning for Hispanics (and Black British), and Twinkie or banana for Asians. American Indians sometimes will use the terms "Uncle Tomahawk", and "Apple". These terms are considered by some to be racist and offensive in contemporary society.
A common antonym for tomming is Mau-Mauing, a word derived from the violent, protonationalist Kikuyu uprising in British colonial Kenya.
References
- Osofsky, Gilbert, ed. (1969). Puttin' On Ole Massa: The Slave Narratives of Henry Bibb, William Wells Brown, and Solomon Northup. Harper & Row.