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TokenBoomer@lemmy.world

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Ms Rachel calls out uncle tom (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 day ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

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[–] ech@lemmy.ca 16 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

It's definitely been Flanderized pretty drastically over time, but honestly, I can see where it stemmed from, with his "happy" times with the "good" master. While I don't expect Stowe intended it as such, anything but a full bore condemnation of slavery, top to bottom, is understandably seen (at least by modern eyes) as being soft on it, if not outright apologetic. And the character's inclusion in minstrel shows and the general popularity with white people probably didn't help it any on that front.

[–] bloup@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 18 hours ago

“Insane” was a strong word, and I actually do understand how it came to mean what it has. It just seems like anybody who knows what it means to be called an “Uncle Tom” who also takes some time to learn more about the character winds up being shocked that he isn’t just some kind of prototype of Stephen from Django Unchained.