The old label of "Uncle Tom" just doesn't have the sting it once did, writes Victor Alan Pate. Is it time to look for a more devastating sobriquet to hurl at traitors?
"Uncle Tom" Needs an Update
The Label Has Lost Its Potency
by Victor Alan Pate, Sr.
"You ain't nuthin' but an Uncle Tom! That's a sell out Uncle Tom!"
If we have reason to feel that the best interests of Black folk have been betrayed by a Black individual or group, then we award the perpetrator the "Uncle Tom" badge of shame. I've used the characterization to shame many a sell-out. Times change.
It appears to me, the badge of shame has lost its potency. I've heard Black sellouts retaliate with comments like, "I'll be a Uncle Tom, if I'm gettin' paid!" Needless to say, this "Tom-a-fying" ain't workin'.
I feel that truly shaming people who betray their own group's dignity and interests is an effective social-psychological weapon. Thirty years ago, association with "Uncle Toms" brought serious social complications down on the offender. The "Uncle Tom" could not shop, socialize or even travel with any sense of comfort in many Black communities. Having a relative with the label of ‘Tom" was a huge embarrassment to the whole family. Not in 2006. Who cares about "Uncle Tom" anyway?
"Thirty years ago, association with ‘Uncle Toms' brought serious social complications down on the offender. Not in 2006."
Well I do! I want these male and female minstrel punks to suffer. I want to give ordinary Blacks a tool that can be used to build a social-psychological wall around Blacks that willingly serve the interests of white supremacy. Aahhhhh!!! I need inspiration. Cold brew, CD collection (Public Enemy featuring Paris; Last Poets; Dead Prez; Damian Marley; The Coup; Michael Franti and Spearhead) and cough-cough!
While I was listening to the latest release of the revolutionary hip-hop group, "The Coup" (Pick a Bigger Weapon), I decided to read the CD liner notes and came to realize that the conceptual title was the answer. PICK A BIGGER WEAPON. The following is my attempt to increase the heat, in the seat, of these bLack-skinned wanna-be white supremacists.
The Retirement of good ol' Uncle Tom
Many people use and misuse slogans without critically analyzing the history associated with them. "Uncle Tom" is classic.
First Point. It must be realized that a majority of Black people in 2006 haven't the faintest idea about the writer, Harriet Beecher-Stowe, and have never read Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Second point. Uncle Tom is a fictional character and his storybook persona was not vile. He never betrayed anyone. He was a law-abiding character that was non-violent, docile and accepted his low class position. His character had more morals than the targets of distain in the modern day Black experience.
Third point. When we actually had legally segregated schools (1954 on back), the book Uncle Tom's Cabin was read quite regularly. The social-educational reasons that it was read ranged from creating non-threatening, compliant Blacks to good historical classroom research projects on the subject of American slavery. In fact, the idea of using the character of "Uncle Tom" as weapon of ridicule was created in the classroom, by the students (social political research has continuously proven that oppressed societies will generate rebellious youth at a faster rate than the adult population). In recent decades, however, Black history has been thoroughly evicted from many inner-city public schools. Minus historical references or sufficient group memory, the effectiveness of labeling someone an "Uncle Tom" becomes problematical. We are left without a proper weapon with which to punish the transgressor.
"There were attempts to draft Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas as the new ‘Uncle Tom' - but that whole marketing concept just didn't work."
Not that some of us haven't tried to find a new "whippin' stick" to replace "Uncle Tom." There were attempts to draft Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas as the new "Uncle Tom" - but that whole marketing concept just didn't work. After all, Thomas is malicious and vile, unlike the literary Uncle Tom. The fictional "Uncle" could not and would not take such a high position in this white man's government and there's nothing in "Uncle Tom's" character that resembles the sheer wickedness of Clarence Thomas. (Also, without some reading of Uncle Tom's Cabin, most Blacks will not pick up on the concept of transference - from Tom to Thomas).
As Boots Riley's friend suggested: "Time to PICK A BIGGER WEAPON!"
"Uncle Tom" is no longer in vogue. Nurse Eunice Rivers, the Black villainess of the real-life Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, should become the new personification of evil, the person whose name is synonymous with the racial Badge of Dishonor. "Nurse Rivers" - that's the ticket! Here's why:
First point. The history of Nurse Rivers and the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment does not bring the complex social palette that the "Uncle Tom" characterization presents. And far more Blacks have some knowledge of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, than the story of Uncle Tom's Cabin. There was even a recent Presidential (William Jefferson Clinton) apology to the surviving victims.
Second Point. Nurse Rivers is no fiction! She was real and her acts were real, with real people affected. Her acts were vile, malicious and premeditated. I'm aware that there were other Blacks involved and could be used, but her role was well defined as an agent of betrayal.
Third Point. The decades-long story of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment is very involved and brings a lot of data with it - great concepts to inspire some African-Americans to venture down the research path. Good training for the much-needed Conspiracy Theorists in Black thought (conspiracy theories are brainstorms with research). But doesn't the history of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment and Nurse Eunice Rivers cause the same problem as the history of Harriet Beecher-Stowe's book? No. Delving into the history of the Tuskegee Experiment and Nurse Eunice Rivers can produce a high school senior's term paper. However, a thirty-second explanation of the history of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment and Nurse Eunice Rivers is very simple to explain and just as simple to understand.
"Far more Blacks have some knowledge of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, than the story of Uncle Tom's Cabin."
Fourth Point. Nurse Rivers allows us to bring forward the issue of class attitudes in Black culture. African Americans that have achieved knowledge and positions of influence need to be put on notice, again. We have ceased scrutinizing our "learned" and "well to do" Black classes. How many of these window dressing achievers, who have no fear of an "Uncle Tom" label, will publicly profess that they are proud to be a "Nurse Rivers" when the real Nurse Rivers willingly managed the infectious poisoning of poor Black families? This scenario is much different than "Uncle Tomin'" for personal wealth.
In closing, I would like to present some conceptual slogan-like ideas for our house-cleaning objective. Nurse Eunice Rivers' name has symbolism that is just too useful to ignore. Rivers, in the geological sense, flow from one point to another and in nature this is usually a good arrangement. However, the nurse Rivers flows from the ocean of white supremacy, death and despair. It is our duty, as responsible Black people to build a dam in front these kinds of vile Rivers. We must harass, shame, obstruct and denounce the Cory Booker-Rivers, the Ken Blackwell-Rivers, the T.D. Jakes-Rivers, the Condi Rice-Rivers, etc., so they can no longer poison our struggle for freedom, justice and world happiness. Humiliate the "Nurse Rivers" in our culture.
Damn Them... Permanently!
Victor Alan Pate, Sr. is a Father, Grandfather, Musician and wage-slave. A Black Nationalistic Liberal and a Community Activist who resides in Dayton, Ohio. He is currently working to create a local periodical "Damn the Rivers" to expose the Sellouts who directly harm Blacks in the city of Dayton and the state of Ohio. Mr. Pate can be contacted at Victor.Pate@cityofdayton.org.
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