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Uncle Tom
 
 
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Uncle Tom is a pejorative
Pejorative

Words and phrases are pejorative if they imply disapproval or contempt. When used as an adjective, pejorative is synonymous with derogatory, derisive, dyslogistic, and contemptuous....
 for a black person
Black people

Black people is a term usually referring to a Race of humans with a dark skin color, but the term has also been used to categorise a number of diverse populations into one common group....
 who is perceived by others as behaving in a subservient manner to White American
White American

White American is an umbrella term officially employed by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget and other U.S. government for the classification of United States citizens or resident aliens "having origins in any of the original peoples of Ethnic groups of Europe, the Ethnic groups of the Middle East, or Ethnic gro...
 authority figures, or as seeking ingratiation with them by way of unnecessary accommodation. The term "Uncle Tom" comes from the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an abolitionist, whose novel Uncle Tom's Cabin depicted life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the U.S....
's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and History of slavery in the United States, so much in the latter case that the novel intensified the Origins of the American Civil War lea...
, although there is debate over whether the character himself is deserving of the pejorative attributed to him. Stowe never meant Uncle Tom to be a derided character, but the term as a pejorative has developed based on how later versions of the character, stripped of his strength, were depicted on stage.

Notable controversial users
During a 1995 game between the New Jersey Nets
New Jersey Nets

The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team in the National Basketball Association that plays in the Eastern Conference 's Atlantic Division ....
 and the Utah Jazz
Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz is a professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are currently members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association ....
, Nets' forward Derrick Coleman
Derrick Coleman

Derrick D. Coleman is a retired United States basketball player in the National Basketball Association. Coleman grew up and attended high school in Detroit, Michigan and attended college at Syracuse University....
 called the Jazz's Karl Malone
Karl Malone

Karl Anthony Malone is a retired United States professional basketball player.Born in Summerfield, Louisiana, he was nicknamed in college as the Mailman for his consistency and his work in the post....
, a conservative Republican off the court, an "Uncle Tom."

In 2008, the journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is an Uganda-born journalist and author, based in London....
 referred to some Asians and Blacks who supported the British Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservative Party, is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom....
 as "Uncle Toms."

In 2008, Illinois Senate President Emil Jones
Emil Jones

Emil Jones, Jr. was the President of the Illinois Senate. A Democratic Party , Jones served in the Illinois Senate from 1983 to 2009, where he served as President of the Illinois Senate from 2003 to the end of his term....
 allegedly called Delmarie Cobb of Chicago an "Uncle Tom" due to Cobb speaking out in support of Hillary Clinton.

On election night 2008, Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader is an American attorney at law, author, lecturer, political activism, and perennial candidate for presidency as an independent candidate for President of the United States in United States presidential election, 2004 and United States presidential election, 2008, and a Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2000....
 said about Barack Obama
Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the List of Presidents of the United States and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office....
, "To put it very simply, he is our first African-American president, or he will be.






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Encyclopedia


Uncle Tom is a pejorative
Pejorative

Words and phrases are pejorative if they imply disapproval or contempt. When used as an adjective, pejorative is synonymous with derogatory, derisive, dyslogistic, and contemptuous....
 for a black person
Black people

Black people is a term usually referring to a Race of humans with a dark skin color, but the term has also been used to categorise a number of diverse populations into one common group....
 who is perceived by others as behaving in a subservient manner to White American
White American

White American is an umbrella term officially employed by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget and other U.S. government for the classification of United States citizens or resident aliens "having origins in any of the original peoples of Ethnic groups of Europe, the Ethnic groups of the Middle East, or Ethnic gro...
 authority figures, or as seeking ingratiation with them by way of unnecessary accommodation. The term "Uncle Tom" comes from the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an abolitionist, whose novel Uncle Tom's Cabin depicted life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the U.S....
's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and History of slavery in the United States, so much in the latter case that the novel intensified the Origins of the American Civil War lea...
, although there is debate over whether the character himself is deserving of the pejorative attributed to him. Stowe never meant Uncle Tom to be a derided character, but the term as a pejorative has developed based on how later versions of the character, stripped of his strength, were depicted on stage.

Notable controversial users


During a 1995 game between the New Jersey Nets
New Jersey Nets

The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team in the National Basketball Association that plays in the Eastern Conference 's Atlantic Division ....
 and the Utah Jazz
Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz is a professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are currently members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association ....
, Nets' forward Derrick Coleman
Derrick Coleman

Derrick D. Coleman is a retired United States basketball player in the National Basketball Association. Coleman grew up and attended high school in Detroit, Michigan and attended college at Syracuse University....
 called the Jazz's Karl Malone
Karl Malone

Karl Anthony Malone is a retired United States professional basketball player.Born in Summerfield, Louisiana, he was nicknamed in college as the Mailman for his consistency and his work in the post....
, a conservative Republican off the court, an "Uncle Tom."

In 2008, the journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is an Uganda-born journalist and author, based in London....
 referred to some Asians and Blacks who supported the British Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservative Party, is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom....
 as "Uncle Toms."

In 2008, Illinois Senate President Emil Jones
Emil Jones

Emil Jones, Jr. was the President of the Illinois Senate. A Democratic Party , Jones served in the Illinois Senate from 1983 to 2009, where he served as President of the Illinois Senate from 2003 to the end of his term....
 allegedly called Delmarie Cobb of Chicago an "Uncle Tom" due to Cobb speaking out in support of Hillary Clinton.

On election night 2008, Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader is an American attorney at law, author, lecturer, political activism, and perennial candidate for presidency as an independent candidate for President of the United States in United States presidential election, 2004 and United States presidential election, 2008, and a Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2000....
 said about Barack Obama
Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the List of Presidents of the United States and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office....
, "To put it very simply, he is our first African-American president, or he will be. And we wish him well. But his choice, basically, is whether he's going to be Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam is a national personification of the United States , and sometimes more specifically of the American government, with the first usage of the term dating from the War of 1812 and the first illustration dating from 1852....
 for the people of this country, or Uncle Tom for the giant corporations who are running America into the ground."

See also

  • House Negro
    House Negro

    House Negro is a pejorative term for a Black people, comparing them to a servant inside the house of a master during slavery. The term comes from a speech by Malcolm X where he explains that during slavery, there were two kinds of slaves, "House Negroes" who worked in the master's house and "Field Negroes" who performed the manual labor outsi...
  • Beulah (series)
    Beulah (series)

    The Beulah Show is an American situation comedy that ran in radio on CBS from 1945 in radio to 1954 in radio, and in television on American Broadcasting Company from 1950 in television to 1953 in television....
  • Blackface
    Blackface

    'Blackface', in the narrow sense is a style of theatre makeup that originated in the United States, used to take on the appearance of certain archetypes of Racism in the United States, especially those of the "happy-go-lucky List of ethnic slurs#D on the plantation#Slavery, para-slavery and plantations" or the "dandy List of ethnic slur...
  • Jump Jim Crow
    Jump Jim Crow

    Jump Jim Crow is a song and dance from 1828 that was done in blackface by white comedian Thomas D. Rice. The first song sheet edition appeared in the early 1830s, published by E....
  • List of ethnic slurs
    List of ethnic slurs

    The following is a list of ethnic slurs that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or to refer to them in a derogatory , pejorative , or insulting manner in the English language-speaking world....
  • Nigga
    Nigga

    Nigga is a term used in African American Vernacular English that began as an eye dialect form of the word nigger ....
  • Race traitor
    Race traitor

    Race traitor is a pejorative reference to a person who is perceived as supporting attitudes or positions thought to be against the interests or well-being of their own Race ....
  • self-hating Jew
    Self-hating Jew

    Self-hating Jew is a pejorative term "often used rhetorically to discount Jews who differ in their life-styles, interests or political positions from their accusers"....


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