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Speaking of sticks and stones, I stumbled across a Facebook group, Uncle Tom: Anthology and I couldn’t help but ponder on the pejorative, Uncle Tom.

Like school yard kids eager to exact retribution for bubble gum stolen and secrets revealed, Black Americans, and oddly enough Al-Qeda and even Ralph Nader love to hurl this incendiary insult. This Facebook group dedicates itself to the maintenance of a list of Uncle Toms. Go easy on them, lest you get tagged with that sticky label. I think the idea, albeit a little less than constructive, is interesting. Who is with us and who is against us.

The use of the term Uncle Tom and the devotion of a group to its full scale usage has a bit of mob mentality rising from it. It’s kind of reminiscent of McCarthyism when careers were lost and homes relocated to undisclosed international destination at the mere mention of the C word. I completely get the concept but I think there are some pretty fatal flaws.

When I was in college it was easy for us to brand anyone who looked unsympathetic to our cause or had politics deemed “anti-black” as an Uncle Tom. Among those was Colin Powell. Despite his popularity NOW, there was a time when black America didn’t think so highly of him. Primarily because of his conservative agenda and his break with mainstream black thought. Colin was not always so well liked. He was labeled an Uncle Tom.

I heard him speak one day, and it came to me that we (people in general) love to sit in philosophical judgement of others. We render verdicts and hand down ill fitting sentences all the while relying soley on our community politics to universally condemn. It’s similar to West Indians coming to the states and looking at some black Americans and judging all Black Americans based on a lazy few.

What this assumption fails to take into account is that the transplanted West Indians are clearly, in general terms, a highly motivated group. Otherwise they would still be on their island. Their collective demonstrated initiative requires them to overcome to be here. They then think, well, if I did it, why can’t they. There are quite a few “theys” that are doing it.

So the first immutable law of Uncle Tomism, is that the insult takes out of context the environment of the denigrated. We call those slaves who shucked and jived Uncle Toms. Well, believe it or not shucking and jiving kept families together and skin intact. Just like we’re fond of dreaming every African was a prince, we’re also in love with the notion that we held the power during the troubling period known as slavery. I still think most Americans, actuall Universal citizens, can not fathom the depths of suffering endured by enslaved Africans throughout the diaspora. It’s easy for us to sit in air conditioned rooms theorizing, but those folks ,fewer luxuries necessitated simply survival. Their choices were hard and fast.

Consider another point. Early minstrel entertainers are often the butt of jokes. But without these brave, yes I said it, brave performers who had to endure unimaginable treatment, you wouldn’t get the Will Smith’s and Sydney Poitiers. This is the long road to success happen like that. The roads to success must be paved and the pathway is paved with heartache, pain, blood, sweat, tears and sorrow. Shouldn’t we be compassionate for all those who would walk that road for themselves and others?

The last point about the pejorative, Uncle Tom is that it is less then accurate and it’s an easy way. By using the blanket term we are relived of all obligations to prove the allegation and be clear about our motivations. It’s much easier to say Uncle Tom, which is less than descriptive of the particular offense against blacks, than it is to say more precisely, Clarence Thomas is hypocrite.

Now granted, in what Uncle Tom does have going for it is that it is a bucket to hang those who violate the rules of blackness. Now I hope I haven’t violated too many rules and won’t end up blacklisted (that was fun) as an infidel and blaspheme.