tar baby

a dummy made of tar, which cannot be struck without getting oneself hopelessly stuck to it–from the story “mr. rabbit and mr. fox” by joe harris, as told by his fictional narrator, uncle remus.

tar baby has become short hand for a situation better avoided than confronted.
the issue of immigration has become a tar baby for president gearge w. bush.
a situation almost impossible to get out of; a problem virtually unsolvable;
his political advisers told him to stay away from the controversy,
that it was a no-win cause, a “tar baby.”
a sticky mess. something unable to get away from.alternate: similar to a catch-22. d-mned if you do and d-mned if you dont. a mistaken notion or misunderstanding that immediately produces indignation.
talking about un-wed teen pregnancy is a real tar baby
tar baby is a synonym for n-gg-r, except that it is only used in bigoted manners, whereas n-gg-r can be a sign of respect, if the speaker is also african american.

it comes from a children’s story in which the dark skin and seeming ignorance (caused by a lack of schooling) of slaves were explained by the idea that black children were baptised in tar, which made them dark and dumb.

see n-gg-r
biff: let’s beat the sh-t out of that tar baby.
tad: shall we?
a tarbaby is an african american (negro) who is dark. they happen to be so dark that they resemble dinosaurs in the ancient tarpits
boy oh boy look at that tarbaby. i bet i couldn’t see him in a dark alley.
now used as an insult to black people, the tar baby was originally a jet black baby doll (becaue it was made out of tar) used to trap br’er rabbit rabbit in an american folk tale.

tar baby can also be a term used to describe a “sticky” situation.
it’s not racist to call an actual tar baby a tar baby! that’s like saying it’s racist to call ritz “crackers” or chocolate sandwich cookies “oreos”!
a tarbaby is a beautiful tortoisesh-ll cat with golden eyes who loves to chirp and chortle. though often sweet and affectionate, they are easily irritated and will often whine when they are displeased.
tarbaby likes to pursue yarn in the early hours of the morning.

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