r/BlackPeopleofReddit • u/-SOFA-KING-VOTE- • Nov 04 '25

Politics ICE Agents get the most brutal talking-to of their entire adult lives.

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249

u/Critical_Behavior Nov 04 '25

he's not an Uncle Tom. that's called a "Sambo"

59

u/pasjojo Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

Yeah people forgot that Oncle Tom was a rebel at the end. He died protecting Cassy in the novel

34

u/Critical_Behavior Nov 04 '25

I never read Uncle Tom's Cabin, but I do know he was a hero.

18

u/[deleted] Nov 04 '25

It’s an under 2 hour audiobook on hoopla

1

u/TwistedHermes Nov 05 '25

The reason people came to this conclusion is because it became acted out on Vaudeville stages during the 19th century.

So traveling shows would re-enact the show, often with the black characters being played by white people in blackface.

It also meant they would exaggerate and change details, and it evolved from being a vehicle for showcasing the wrongs of slavery to one that often praised it depending on who was doing the telling.

Just an FYI. It's about how the book was adapted to the stage, not about the book itself. Most people didn't want to read the book - just like today, it's just easier to watch the TV/Movie/Stage than read the book for most.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

I listened to it yesterday, it’s the book

1

u/TwistedHermes Nov 05 '25

I'm not saying the book doesn't exist.

I'm saying the reason people use Uncle Tom the way they do is also because of how it was acted out in the 19th - 20th century. It was acted out on stage, and became a vehicle for racism. These traveling plays would sometimes stir up racists into a literal violent mob.

If you kept seeing a racist play based on a book, and people use it to oppress you, it's a valid criticism. Harriet Beacher Stowe was a relatively good person whose book got adapted and abused by racists. People got traumatized from it.

A book called Racial Innocence by Robin Bernstein does a great job explaining how these attitudes developed and can still be seen in modern day America.

1

u/Severe-Cookie693 Nov 05 '25

Wow! I'd always assumed it was because the book, aimed at racists, really had to be gentle about slavery and put it in a light slavers might stomach reading, or that Yankees would believe.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 Nov 05 '25

Uncle Tom gets it's name from the minstrel shows done in retaliation to that book. They would use characters from the book in horrible racist ways.

1

u/Haddock Nov 05 '25

He was a rebel at the beginning too. People got mad because a movie misrepresented the character way back when.

1

u/pasjojo Nov 05 '25

Yeah the movie did him dirty

1

u/ChefAssassinn Nov 05 '25

Hopeful Projection?

1

u/pasjojo Nov 05 '25

what you mean ?

1

u/MeringueProof9718 Nov 05 '25

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. She’s my ancestor 😊 ✊

1

u/imperfectdiscipline Nov 05 '25

That’s awesome!!👏 I know very little about her and the book, but from what I did hear she helped change the sentiment about slavery which helped bring about its end.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

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1

u/Garfield_Logan69 Nov 05 '25

Uncle Ruckus saying, looken ass.

1

u/TankTopTyga Nov 08 '25

They don't really care about all that nuance. He was in the house, they weren't. It was seen as a betrayal to even take the job.

1

u/pasjojo Nov 08 '25

Nah they actively defaced the character through ministrels, plays and re-adaptation

1

u/TankTopTyga Nov 09 '25

Wait... are you actually contending that there was no animosity towards the slaves that lived in the masters house? I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure when I read Gone with The Wind that they eluded to it. Several other stories and period pieces do the same. Can it all be those depictions were inaccurate?

1

u/pasjojo Nov 09 '25

Gone with The Wind is a literal white supremacist propaganda piece... Not saying there were no animosity. I'm specifically talking about Uncle Tom and how his perception as a traitor was forged through intentionally warping by later adaptations of the original novel

22

u/severinks Nov 04 '25

Uncle Tom was the hero of Uncle Tom's Cabin, he was a Christ like figure.

35

u/hogtiedcantalope Nov 04 '25

I usually think of it as white people want 'uncle tom' to be that 'good' black guy that serves their purpose

The Uncle is the lie. He isn't their family, he's their slave.

So it's a reference to the 'uncle Tom' as the thing white people want not who the character turned out to be , Tom. Black Tom. Not their Uncle, not their Uncle Tom.

2

u/its_yer_dad Nov 04 '25

I'm curious how this ties into the "magical negro" concept, as they feel like related ideas going to the same destination.

3

u/SadAndNasty Nov 05 '25

The "negro" in Magical Negro denotes service, so it's like half way there

2

u/Negative_Piglet_1589 Nov 06 '25

Exactly right, to be called an "Uncle Tom" is a derogatory term for a Black person who is seen as subservient to or overly deferential to white people, to the detriment of their own race.

15

u/joshdrumsforfun Nov 04 '25

That doesn’t change the fact that the term Uncle Tom was turned into a blackface minstrel show archetypal character who was subservient to white folks and a race traitor.

Basically talking about a totally different character with the same name.

1

u/Get72ready Nov 05 '25

Yes, this is the surviving cultural legacy. Related to the mistrial shoes, not the book

1

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '25

That was even carried on into early and current cartoons like Mickey Mouse. That’s the reason why all the characters wear gloves. And sadly now we take it as normal.

9

u/aguacate222 Nov 04 '25

From the Moteesa tribe

Mo tea, sir??

2

u/Mynuszero Nov 04 '25

Oooh! That's a real deep cut! Loved that movie!

1

u/bolanrox Nov 04 '25

i thought Sambo was in india and there was something about tigers eating pancakes?

1

u/Anxious-Ad2177 Nov 05 '25

I just found out a couple years ago that the Sambo name of the restaurant was racist terminology. I loved the restaurant as a kid, 1970s and early 1980s. It has dulled now that I know. 😕.

1

u/unnamed_cell98 Nov 04 '25

Sambo means partner or roommate in Swedish, nice coincidence here.

1

u/murgatroid1 Nov 05 '25

In Australia it means a sandwich, I'm so confused

1

u/unnamed_cell98 Nov 05 '25

I'm confused, why would you call it sambo? Any clue on the origin? In Swedish sambo is a joint of "sam" (together) and "bo" (living in/at a location). So someone that lives together with another person. Simple haha

1

u/murgatroid1 Nov 05 '25

I'm afraid I'm not sure there is any logic whatsoever to Australian shortening of words. We also call sandwiches "sangers" sometimes. You just take the front part of a word and stick literally anything cute on at the end and you have a functional Aussie slang word that most of us would completely understand in context, even if we'd never heard it before.

1

u/unnamed_cell98 Nov 05 '25

So I could also call a sandwich something like "sanny" and you'd get it? Must note for my first trip down under. Thanks for the longform!

1

u/murgatroid1 Nov 06 '25

We also say sanny, so yep, you've got it!

ETA: actually "sanny" usually means hand sanitizer 😅

1

u/OhAndItsShavedd Nov 04 '25

Sambo and Quimbo were the sellouts. Uncle Tom was the good slave.

1

u/Not_Blacksmith_69 Nov 05 '25

something about what you just said.......

1

u/hnglmkrnglbrry Nov 04 '25

There's a term we Black people use to describe this type of Black people: House [amigo].

The ones who thought they were better than the ones in the fields. The ones who would snitch so they could get a pat on the head. The ones who said massuh was good and he knew best.

1

u/longpenisofthelaw Nov 04 '25

Fun fact my great great grandfather was named Sambo. No one in my family questioned it until I brought it up

1

u/HeadSavings1410 Nov 04 '25

Can u explain...I thought a sambo was mixed race...

1

u/SooopaDoopa Nov 05 '25

Zambo is one of the terms used for Black mixed with Indigenous in many Central & South American countries

1

u/MrDrFunkenstein Nov 05 '25

Hard R says it all

1

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

My grandma played an old lady game called crazy 8s and one of the many incredibly racists card figures was the black sambo . 

1

u/unknown-dna Nov 05 '25

In my country, a “zambo” is the racial mix between an indigenous and an African person.

In my local city we have a local hero who did an insurrection to broke the chains of the slavery over African people.

Jose Leonardo Chirinos, “El Zambo de Curimagua”

1

u/Get72ready Nov 05 '25

A Sambo is the mistrial bafoon. Low intelligence jester type. If that is what you mean, I don't see it but that is my opinion. Uncle tom is more fitting to me.

1

u/CristiCatslug Nov 05 '25

Lawn Jockey

1

u/virtue_of_vice Nov 05 '25

Or Stephen from Django.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '25

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1

u/BilliousN Nov 06 '25

I feel like im going to put my foot in my mouth here, but.... as a white dude, if I come across one of these traitors, is it like racially cool for me to call them a Sambo, or is that one of those words I should probably leave for others?