Thursday, May 14, 2009
Daily Diversion / Politics / Silverman East Nashville Listserv Topic of the Week: Is the Name "Sambo" Racist?
Posted by Jack Silverman on Thu, May 14, 2009 at 6:37 AM
"Our cat that wondered [sic] off a week ago came home last night! He is in good shape but was very hungry! He is now collared and tagged! Yay! Life is good!"OK. So Sambo is a cat. A cat with an offensive name, perhaps, though it becomes apparent that Jess had no idea of the name's racist legacy. First reply comment, by Ryan:
"I'm glad that your cat came home, but SAMBO? Are you serious? I guess 'Whiskers' was too generic or something. What's your dog's name, Pickininny?"So began a listserv firestorm that as of this writing has garnered 95 comments on three separate threads. (The other two are titled "Look what Sambo started" and "The truth about Sambo Jangles.") Highlights from the melee, analysis and guaranteed winning Powerball numbers, after the jump:
Rembrandt: "I love sambo movies, i'll be baaack" Ryan: "I'm also quite fond of naming my domesticated animals after racial slurs. We should set up a play date with my cats, Honkey and Peckerwood." Jess: "I didn't name him and until last night discussing this email chain with Lauren did I realize it was a racial slur! It was originally a character in a children story. I'm very upset that his name could be racist and from now on we're only going to call him Sam. Our other cats are Roxy, Velma and Oscar and I don't think any of those are slurs!" Alexis: "You use [a racial slur] every time you call your cat. Seriously. While you may have been ignorant of the term's racist connotation when you originally selected the name, you know it now. And because it seems you're totally unfazed by it and unwilling to acknowledge that you gave your cat a racist name -- you send a pretty loud and clear 'impression' to all of us 'touchy' (i.e. black) people out there. Just saying." Grizzly: "...Alexis and Ryan, NO.....BODY......CAAAAAAARES. Lauren you better change that damn cat's name right on back to Sambo. Don't let the idiot side of East Nashville get to you or you'll have a loooooong stay here...." psychcat: "Name your pet whatever you like. Political Correctness is all about self-guilt anyway. I would have been more disappointed had you changed the cat's name... I like it. Remember, no one can offend you... you have to let them and accept it. We're all adults here (I'm assuming) so come on...." Chuck: "For those who may remember the old Jack Benny shows, should city of Rochester change its name?" Cecilia: "the name of your cat is precious!!! If I'd been creative enough I would have named my black cat (God rest her 17 year old soul) that instead of Kitten!!! see no creative mind here." Ryan: "Well, it's probably quite easy to forget that racial slurs exist if you've never been a racial minority on the receiving end of one.... that you would choose to name your cat 'Sambo' suggests that you're either unaware of this history or utterly insensitive to it. Why stop at Sambo? Why not call him Little Negro or Darky instead? People obviously have the right to name their pets whatever they like. But when you choose a racially provocative name, you can't really be surprised if some people (especially those silly, super-sensitive, over-educated Black folks) respond to it, and to you, negatively. To some it may be an issue of PCness; to me it's an issue of having the basic respect to not use an obvious racial slur in my presence (cyber or otherwise). Wryker: "it is a freaking cat--move along people..." Stephanie" "ha ha ha...you could say kumquat on here and start a mile long thread!" landotter: "So I can name my pet gopher 'Ralph Reed', and it's all cool?"Now when I was growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, Sambo was an unambiguously racist term. I still remember my parents taking me to see the musical Hair when I was 9 years old (yes, my folks are socialist heathens too), and I can still hear the verse from the song "Colored Spade" that went, "Uncle Tom, Aunt Jemima, Little Black Sambo." And there's a library's worth of Internet information about the term's storied racist past. Still, as she makes clear in subsequent posts, Jess had no idea that Sambo had ever been a pejorative. In fact, when I asked a worldly, college-educated mid-20s colleague of mine what the term "Sambo" meant to her, I was surprised to find she had no knowledge of its implications. But Scene editor Pete Kotz, another Yankee of a similar vintage to myself, remembers the term as an unmitigated racist slur. Which brings up a couple of questions: Is Sambo's racist legacy a regional or generational phenomenon? Is it still offensive? Can racist slurs expire? Surely Jess had no bad intentions and was unaware of the term's connotations. Still, I find it amusing is that so many posters felt the need to vehemently defend the name. As a friend of mine so succinctly put it, "Life is too short to defend 'Sambo.' "
Comments (18)
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The funny (?) thing is, Sambo was an Indian boy. The author was a Brit and Black Otherness meant something different to her than it does to Americans.
But ha, of course it's racist.
And while we're on the subject of bizarre British racism, check out Golliwogs. Seriously.
like
dislike
Golliwog, or its even worse short form, persists in some pretty high strata of British society.
I've got to say, on the scale of offenses, calling a housecat "Sambo" is about as minor as could be imagined.
I'm a Southerner and white, and growing up it was first not racist--watched it on the morning cartoon shows--and then when we realized we were all racists and began to think, Sambo was revealed as obviously racist. And colonial Brits often called the South Asians the n-word.
I have to ask--in the youtube picture above, what the hell is Sambo holding. Looks pretty phallic to me.
Has anyone seen "Dambusters?" They're remaking it and trying to find another name for the dog.
The only thing this proves is that East Nashville residents are a bunch of hypersensitive twits with too much time on their hands.
If it offends, then it is racist? Yes some people are too easily offended, I think it is how it's meant - was it meant offensively, no way it seems. I don't get offended if someone calls me a name relating to my race and background but others do so then refrain - simples!!!
Yeah, I think the whole point was not that people were offended, but that the name "Sambo" carries with it obvious meaning as a historically derogatory slur. If you know that, why name your cat that unless you're trying to be provocative? If you didn't know that it's an old racial slur, why get all defensive when someone points that out to you?
No one is saying you can't use the word or name your pet however you want, but if you name your cat "Hitler" or some other name loaded with significance, some people are gonna react. If you can't deal with the reaction, then don't use ignorant language.
Great recap! I was also amused that folks were so quick to defend the imagined race “neutrality” of the cat's name. Amused and somewhat disturbed.
My mom has a coffee cup from here:
http://www.sambosrestaurant.com/
no lie.
it's in Santa Barbara, CA - and apparently they've changed the cartoon in recent years to an Asian (Indian) kid, and a Tiger. Named Sam... and Bo.
needless to say, this was not the original logo in 1957.
Never heard of "Sambo" used as a racist term and I grew up in one of the most racist parts of Alabama.
This must be a term that Yankees used or "thought" that racists used.
I've heard plenty of other terms that were much worse than this.
Either way, I think it is a stupid name. It isn't cute or cuddly at all.
They should have named their kitten Loretta or Dolly or something else...
I always thought Sambo was a Russian Martial Arts?
Never heard of the racist Sambo? News to me?
Gilbert, "Sambo" is a racist slur, and if this debate let some clueless transport know not to use it in public, so he won't get his ass kicked by someone who took offense to being called the kind of name that is associated with our old local system of apartheid, then the debate is worthwhile.
But I'd like to see you demonstrate your disregard for sensitivity by going up to Main Street and North 9th and yelling the n-word. I'd pay money to see that, in fact.
Yes Sambo is racist but I do give the benefit if the doubt to the young lady who named her cat that.
What is sad about all this though is that it generated 95 comments or more while a thread about the Post Office doing a food drive for Second Harvest only got 1 or 2 comments.
In my opinion directing food to hungry people is just as important if not more important than the cat's name.
