The Symbolic Betrayal of the Black Race: In his book, “Black Labor White Wealth”, Dr. Claude Anderson relates," the term Uncle Tom is not an appropriate label for an individual who is “white on the inside and black on the outside” and sells out his race by placing his personal gains with whites ahead of the rights and gains of his people. Contrary to popular usage of the label, the character Tom was not the culprit in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Uncle Tom was a brave man with dignity who cared about his family and race. The real villain was another black slave named Sambo. He was totally committed to the white master and used every opportunity to undermine the other slaves.Sambo, in many respects, was like today’s black conservatives. Sambo always followed the white slave master, Simon Legree, and offered to show him how to “tree the coons.” It was black Sambo who beat Uncle to death for both refusing to whip a black female slave or sell out his people. Uncle Tom tried to empower his people by undermining and beating the social structure whenever he could. Uncle Tom felt it was important to get his people across the river to freedom. He risked his life to do so. The Sambo character personifies a very successful social control construct created by conservatives. He was such a successful phenomenon that the concept he personified became a greater danger to blacks than Uncle Tom. As blacks move towards structuring policies of racial accountability, it will be very important for them to know who helps and who hurts the race. Sambo was the black slave character in numerous novels and movies who was willing to pick up a weapon and defend his white master against the approaching Union army or hide the master’s silver from Northern carpetbaggers. What is the difference between the fictional Sambo characters and today’s real-life blacks who join the conservative movement to argue against affirmative action, black reparations, and set-asides? They declare that the world is now color blind and are opposed to any policies requiring whites to share the socioeconomic burden that centuries of slavery and second class citizenship have imposed on blacks. Isn’t espousing a color blind, race-neutral, melting pot society, a moderate way of hiding master’s silver? What are black conservatives conserving when black America is burdened by poverty, crime, unemployment, homelessness, and other social pathologies? Based upon historical treatment alone, there should be a general antagonism between blacks and conservatives. Though conservatives claim that they are not racist, for centuries, they have opposed programs and policies to help blacks. Andrew Hacker, a white writer, provided insight on this in his new book, Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, and Unequal. Hacker asserted that: “There persists the belief that members of the black race represent an inferior strain of the human species…Of course, the belief is seldom voiced in public. Most whites who call themselves conservatives hold this view about blacks and proclaim it when they are sure of their company. Since white conservatives share their true feelings only in the privacy of other whites, there is a strong possibility that black conservatives do not know how white conservatives truly feel about them.”
The Symbolic Betrayal of the Black Race: In his book, “Black Labor White Wealth”, Dr. Claude Anderson relates," the term Uncle Tom is not an appropriate label for an individual who is “white on the inside and black on the outside” and sells out his race by placing his personal gains with whites ahead of the rights and gains of his people. Contrary to popular usage of the label, the character Tom was not the culprit in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Uncle Tom was a brave man with dignity who cared about his family and race. The real villain was another black slave named Sambo. He was totally committed to the white master and used every opportunity to undermine the other slaves.Sambo, in many respects, was like today’s black conservatives. Sambo always followed the white slave master, Simon Legree, and offered to show him how to “tree the coons.” It was black Sambo who beat Uncle to death for both refusing to whip a black female slave or sell out his people. Uncle Tom tried to empower his people by undermining and beating the social structure whenever he could. Uncle Tom felt it was important to get his people across the river to freedom. He risked his life to do so. The Sambo character personifies a very successful social control construct created by conservatives. He was such a successful phenomenon that the concept he personified became a greater danger to blacks than Uncle Tom. As blacks move towards structuring policies of racial accountability, it will be very important for them to know who helps and who hurts the race. Sambo was the black slave character in numerous novels and movies who was willing to pick up a weapon and defend his white master against the approaching Union army or hide the master’s silver from Northern carpetbaggers. What is the difference between the fictional Sambo characters and today’s real-life blacks who join the conservative movement to argue against affirmative action, black reparations, and set-asides? They declare that the world is now color blind and are opposed to any policies requiring whites to share the socioeconomic burden that centuries of slavery and second class citizenship have imposed on blacks. Isn’t espousing a color blind, race-neutral, melting pot society, a moderate way of hiding master’s silver? What are black conservatives conserving when black America is burdened by poverty, crime, unemployment, homelessness, and other social pathologies? Based upon historical treatment alone, there should be a general antagonism between blacks and conservatives. Though conservatives claim that they are not racist, for centuries, they have opposed programs and policies to help blacks. Andrew Hacker, a white writer, provided insight on this in his new book, Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, and Unequal. Hacker asserted that: “There persists the belief that members of the black race represent an inferior strain of the human species…Of course, the belief is seldom voiced in public. Most whites who call themselves conservatives hold this view about blacks and proclaim it when they are sure of their company. Since white conservatives share their true feelings only in the privacy of other whites, there is a strong possibility that black conservatives do not know how white conservatives truly feel about them.”