September 25, 2004
In Defense of Uncle Remus
I believe Joel Chandler Harris gets a bum rap. I find the tales of Br'er Rabbit, and Bear, and Fox, exquisite fables, worthy of Aesop, without the obligatory little Greek boy.
Harris is generally considered a racist, with his stereotypical depictions of coloured folk, as envisioned through woodland creatures. But I submit he was a sentimental realist, a cultural anthropologist, who was adamant in saving the oral histories of the rural blacks he encountered.
I will submit the Disney film Song of the South might be construed as racist, if you have that bent of mind, but I must tell you I like it, and whenever I hear Zipa-Dee-Doo-Dah I do the fucking Teaberry Shuffle down the sidewalk.
Harris was merely recording what he knew, and saw, because he was a journalist. Little known fact: Harris was a reporter for the Savannah Morning News, until he fled the city to avoid a yellow fever epidemic in 1879, and wrote his stories after that to pay the bills.
I think Harris got his bad rep over the Tar Baby story. I have to say, however, that just because the Tar Baby was black didn't make him Negro. Tar was an essential component of the rural South. It kept your roof on, it kept your walls on. It was ubiquitous, and cheap, and readily accessible to a conniving little fucker like Br'er Rabbit. THAT is why the Baby was made of Tar. It was an obvious construct.
Did you know Joel Chandler Harris was a bastard? That must have sucked in 1800's Georgia.
Finally: visit the Wrens' Nest in Atlanta, Harris' farmhouse, or the Uncle Remus Museum in Eatonton, Georgia, to get the true measure of the man.
I love the Tar Baby story. My grandma used to tell us that story over and over again.
Posted by: Danielle at September 26, 2004 1:32 AMThose stories are well remembered and loved by those of us who were raised well before the spector of political correctness reared its ugly head. And all are poorer for it.
Posted by: Guy S. at September 26, 2004 2:45 AMNothing racist in Song of the South. Far from it. A truly far right winger should have denounced it as liberal. Uncle Remus is the hero of the movie. He takes time with the Master's children when the Master is TOO BUSY, and consoles, comforts and enriches the little white children. The message: Black folk are more caring than white folk, and understand what is truly important.
Racist? No way.
Now, had the Master whipped Remus for taking the white children inside of his house, and the movie closed with a tearful Remus apologizing for corrupting the white chillun, that might have been racist.
There's a Br'er Rabbit monument on the courthouse lawn in Eatonton, one of the odder little statues I've seen in my small town ramblings.
Posted by: rankin' rob at September 26, 2004 11:22 AMI've played the Uncle Remus Golf Course, where prisoners from Reidsville rake the sand traps and mow the greens. I bought a sleeve of logo balls as a souvenir.
Maybe I'll give you one of those at the Blog-Fest.
Posted by: Acidman at September 26, 2004 11:42 AMSome years ago ( late 80's ) I was on a field assignment in Hotlanta and one day after a BBQ lunch I took a stroll in the neighbouthood. My path took me by this old but moderately well kept up house, which I learned from a convenient plaque was "Wren's Nest". As I was standing there two local minority gentlemen wandered by and wondered aloud what the significance of the house might be.
I volunteered that it was the hosue of Joel Chandler Harris author of the Brer Rabbit stories. They allowed as how neither reference rang a bell.
This surprised me.