The Melody Lingers On

Who has not heard of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby?

In recent months three national politicians have gotten into semantic trouble by referring to the "tar baby": that would be (1) Governor Mark Sanford, of Florida and South Carolina; (2) Senator John McCain of Arizona; and (3) Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Utah. It's not exactly a Southern idiom!

In fact, Robert Roosevelt, wealthy New York politician and uncle of Teddy, made the first effort to publicize the Brer Rabbit tales in Harper's late in the nineteenth century by transcribing stories told by his Georgian aunts. However, Joel Chandler Harris, illegitimate child of poor white Georgia, invented the Uncle Remus who first appeared in print in the Atlanta newspaper 1880, producing for himself a successful writing career. In each case the stories were told originally by Georgian slaves, although some suggest that the sea islands' Gullah culture also has tales of "Buh Rabbit."
By 1946 these African-based tales were famous enough that Walt Disney released his cutting-edge (technologically-speaking) Song of the South. Then the tales written by Harris became even more well known, if possible, after fifty years on the bookshelves of children all over the world. The next year the U.S. Postal System released a stamp in honor of Harris.

Sixty years later we are shoving this shared past under the rug like a broken vase. Thus, not only can't Song of the South be shown in theaters, it can't be released on video! Joel Chandler Harris, who once was as popular as Mark Twain (his friend), has been excised from American literature textbooks, even in discussions of local-color writers. It's a somewhat ironic twist of history that Harris was "progressive" in his day in regard to race relations!

No one can deny that the world of Uncle Remus had become fully ingrained in American (and, I suspect, world) culture by 1946, else why would Disney take these tales from the post-Civil War years and make them into a movie? Not even I am old enough to have seen the picture in 1946, but I did after its re-release in 1956. Who can forget "Zip-a-Dee-do-da"? It became a hit, sung by Bing Crosby, no less.

The major objections to the film seem to be its depiction of the "myth of the happy slave" and the impression that the tales originated with Harris. In the first case, I must ask, what about Gone with the Wind? It clearly shows more of these characteristics in its depictions of the slaves owned by the fictional O'Hara family. Years ago I was amazed to find it the favorite movie of a recent Chinese immigrant I taught in New Jersey. It enjoys world-wide distribution even today.

In regard to the second objection, I don't believe that Harris ever said that the tales were his. It is fairly clear that he based the figure of Uncle Remus on people that he knew. Marcus Cox, of the Citadel's African-American Studies program, has suggested that under the proper conditions "the film could be a valuable teaching tool."

I must query State Sen. Robert Ford, who has said "he would expect widespread controversy and calls for Disney's top officials to step down" if Disney changes its policy. Would it not be educational to SEE what stereotypes are in the film? Is our progress on the racial front so tenuous that seeing it would change the ways in which we view each other?

The Rev. Joseph A. Darby, pastor of an influencial AME church and officer in the Charleston NAACP is quoted in the Post and Courier saying that, "American history has to be treated gingerly."

I must respectfully disagree. It needs to be confronted because it is still with us. We need to know our history.