Tony Snow’s ‘Tar Baby’ comment: Like it or not, it comes off as racist

Above: The Great Sam Langford: The Boston Tar Baby was one of the best, and died a tortured soul.

Recently, both White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney chose to show off their stylish vocabularies by using the term “Tar Baby” as a way to describe situations that appeared innocuous, but were in the end traps.

I’m very anti-PC, which may or may not go without saying. But I’m just some doofus on the Internet and I take responsibility for my own words. And I’m not running for office any time soon.

In this case, however, Snow and Romney using the term Tar Baby, is just another sign of the Bush administration’s, and today’s politician’s arrogance.

One of the great fighters of all time was named Sam Langford. He is consistently listed by historians as one of the greatest ever, though he never owned any title. That’s because he was black, in a time when being a ridiculously good black fighter was a terrible flaw.

As a young man who was in love with boxing, I was – and remain – fascinated with Langford. The poor man died blind and penniless, was a victim of Jack Johnson’s – the first black heavyweight champion – shenanigans, and was a brilliant talent who was basically destroyed because of his race.

Anyway, what’s funny is that if you research him now, they list him as “The Boston Terror.” Which is nice and all, but anyone who knows boxing knows his nickname was the “Boston Tar Baby.”

Now, I’m going to guess that wasn’t his nickname because he was a from Boston and looked innocuous but was a trap. If it did, great, he was kind of small, after all. But to most, myself included, the nickname implied race.

My point is: The man who speaks for the President — the beleagured President from a party with a reputation of not caring about black voters – to be unaware that the term “Tar Baby” would offend, is unexcusable and just a lie. Bush was ushered in on a platform of ignorance: why suddenly would they figure that people would be enlightened to the real meaning of that term?

He can point to all the dictionaries he wants, but the simple fact is this: With a president who is in a never-ending PR battle, Snow’s comment hurt him, and hurt the party. Like it or not, it did.

Tony Snow is a macaca, plain and simple.

–WKW