Uncle Tom: A rare unpopular historical term.
Michael Delos Santos
Ms. Kingsley
English 123
11 / 9 /17
Unit 2 Essay
Uncle Tom: A rare unpopular historical term
The use of racial terms for African Americans is very disrespectful and racist examples such as the use of the N word and “Uncle Tom”. In Invisible Man by ralph ellison, The narrator mentions a historical reference that was used as a racist term. The use of these term “Uncle Tom” were used from Pre-civil war to the present day in society. African Americans and especially the narrator took this at a serious thing because it almost insulted them in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible man. African Americans were affected and knew they couldn’t harm anyone because they would also do harm to themselves as well. Racist people said the word to any African American person to insult and disrespect them. The racist term or slur “Uncle Tom” is one of the racist terms used by a white person because of the history and the deeper meaning behind it. This can include how the term became popular, where its origins are from, and how it was used in context.
“Uncle Tom” term usually originated from a novel called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by H.B Stowe. This novel was produced in 1851 and then later released to the public around july. The story is about how a character named Mr. Shelby can sell many slaves in order to clean his debt. This novel has turned out to be a success with 30,000 copies sold across the United States. The term “Uncle Tom” however was used a derogatory later on. The term was first used as an epithet in 1919 by Rev. George Alexander McGuire. According to the “The Root”, Mcguire had declared that “the Uncle Tom nigger has got to go, and his place must be taken by the new leader of the Negro race … not a black man with a white heart, but a black man with a black heart (Root.com).” The problem with Uncle Tom was not that he existed but, that he was coming North and taking some jobs away from other people such as progressive men. One example according to the root is they would work in railroad positions. Many people were affected by this and that is why they looked down upon African American former slaves. In the novel of Uncle Tom’s cabin, Uncle Tom was brutally beaten by white man for letting two African American women slaves escape to the North. In the Epithet, Uncle Tom is labeled as African Americans who are in a lower class. As the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, the novel has sold over 1 million copies. This is what poet Langston Hughes calls “America’s first protestant novel”, according to Britannica.
The novel Invisible man is about a man who lives in New York City during the 1920’s and realizes and experiences that he is living in a racist world. The term uncle tom is used most often and is mentioned. The grandfather epitomized a humble and subservient man by calling him “Uncle Tom”. “Dr. A. Herbert Bledsoe, the president of the college that the narrator attends. In one guise, Bledsoe plays the perfect Uncle Tom, fawning and grateful, who dances to the tune of Norton, a white philanthropist (enotes)”. It was also used when the narrator and some people form the brotherhood got into a fist fight with a racist man. “I heard a dry popping sound and saw the man sag and the pipe rang upon the walk; then someone caught me hard in the stomach and suddenly I knew that I was fighting too. I went to my knees and rolled and pulled erect, facing him. “Get up Uncle Tom”, he said, and I clipped him (369). In this story it was used by a white person to insult either the narrator or one of the brothers from the community. What the racist man was trying to imply is that he was trying to offend them and almost looking down upon him.
Today the term “Uncle Tom” is offensive because it propagates an idea that minorities cannot think for themselves and they have to follow a certain ideology otherwise they are betraying their community according to Metro.co.uk. African Americans that are in the lower class find it offensive because this may be the case that it is in. This can show up at a lot of black conservatives who are often labeled “Uncle Tom” because they are not part of the left leaning parties that normally get the bulk of minority votes. One of the most interesting fact is that today some people refer it to Muslims when the term was originally came from African Americans and the Novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. There is no explanation on how this can even relate to Muslim people or what the involvement is it in. Though today it is not merely used as it is with other racial words. Uncle Tom is still a racist word that is used today in this world, however it is hardly ever said or ever told. People today think of the book because of how the story affected African Americans. The story is what catches people’s attention and how they react to it. According to the Root, an article published by Adena Spingarn, a graduate student in English Literature at Harvard University wrote “ The irony of Uncle Tom’s change in meaning was how far whites lagged behind. At the same time that Uncle Tom was becoming an undesirable model for many in the black community, the Daughters of the Confederacy lobbied Southern legislatures to outlaw performances of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, because, they insisted, the play slandered the South in its harsh depiction of slavery. The truth about slavery remained a fraught political battleground, in which the Uncle Tom that was too submissive for many blacks seemed, at the same time, deeply dangerous to Southern whites”.
The word or term “Uncle Tom” is still a racist slang because of the history behind it and how it affected African Americans in many ways. Uncle Tom started out as a novel that a slave let 2 African American women escape to freedom. The novel then started as a successful book then became one to remember. The term was used again in Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man, and on how white people has used the word. Today in this world it is still an insult to African Americans and how it affects them in a way people use this term to disrespect them. Upon researching the term it is one thing to look up because of how the narrator Harriet Beache Stowe wrote the novel. As of today, we may not see on how hurtful the words are to African Americans as it is barely used, it can still lead to something bad and can be an insult.
https://www.enotes.com/topics/invisible-man/characters
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uncle-Toms-Cabin
http://metro.co.uk/2016/05/04/why-is-the-phrase-uncle-toms-so-offensive-5857996/
http://www.theroot.com/when-uncle-tom-became-an-insult-1790879561
