Romney's Spokesman Offers Lame Excuse For Governor's Use Of "Tar Baby"

[JABBS]

Click here to read the whole article.

Romney's spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, told the Associated Press that Romney "was unaware that some people find the term objectionable and he's sorry if anyone's offended."

That's lame for several reasons:

<snip>

3) "He's sorry if anyone's offended," isn't the same as saying, "He's sorry." It's an apology that passes the responsibility onto the offended. In effect, Fehrnstrom is saying that Romney isn't sure what he said was offensive -- since only "some people find the term objectionable" -- which discounts the credibility of the apology.

[soothsayer]

1. My local quiz came up with NO ONE who knew it was a slur. We

all knew the Uncle Remus analogy. Just saying....

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Ah....the old "I'm sorry you misunderstood" excuse. n/t

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. Bullshit

This just came up a few weeks ago with Tony Snow. Before that, I hadn't heard that term in about 35 years.

I almost wonder if this is orchestrated ignorance.

[fishwax]

8. orchestrated ignorance

great phrase! :thumbsup:

[JABBS]

13. i mentioned tony snow

in the article. that's an interesting theory. I don't know what the upside is -- connecting with racists who want to keep using the term? Is there market research on that sort of thing?

...

What racist term would you like to see reintroduced by politicians?

a) $%@%$
B) @%%$@%$
c) $%$@$^@#
d) @#$%$# #@@$%%@ and his mama!

[Pale Blue Dot]

15. It's a shout-out to the racist Republican base

that is relatively easy to deny later.

[bluerum]

4. Romney is a lame excuse for a governor.

He hates Massachusetts and takes advantage of every opportunity to give the commonwealth the back of his hand.

I still can't understand why the people of the state voted his sorry ass in.

[sallyseven]

5. Fernstrom is lame also. Romney is a mess

and I know I didn't vote for him. I had him figured out the min, he opened his mouth. At least his father and I remember him was a fairly decent man. Mittens is not.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. Absolutely right about the phrasing.

It's the kind of apology a petulant child would offer.
"I'm sorry that you walked into my fist."

[JABBS]

7. Ellen DeGeneres

has a bit about people who say something offensive, and then quickly say "Just kidding," like that solves the problem.

Romney's spokesman offered a similar half-hearted response.

[EST]

9. Romney is an arrogant SOB to the point of offensiveness.

He maintains a public persona that apparently satisfies many of his constituents but even the minimum amount of reading up on him that I've done tells me he is unfit for the job he currently occupies, let alone any bigger scene.
He will never get it and needs to be sidelined at the earliest opportunity.

[yellowcanine]

10. Ah, the back handed "apology". I am sorry if ANYONE'S offended.

Ok, so that puts it right on the offendee. It is not that Romney did anything offensive, you see, it is that there are all of these sensitive people that are easily offended. How about, "I am sorry I used offensive language. It was not intentional but I should have known that it was a poor choice of words. It won't happen again." Now that would be an apology.

[JABBS]

14. my point exactly :)

[yellowcanine]

11. Sounds as if Mitt has inherited the Romney foot in mouth disease.

Remember 1968 Georgy Romney presidential candidate "I was brainwashed.?"

[patcox2]

12. The sorry excuse that, umm, its not a slur?

Tar referring to stickiness, and a tar baby being an old metaphor for something you don't want to pick up because it'll get all over you?

Sometimes, when the hypersensitive and the professional victims shift into umbrage overdrive, it is appropriate to put the blame for their offendedness on themselves.

[JABBS]

16. a presidential candidate

should be aware of what might be offensive, even if it's not personally offensive to him. The fact is that Tony Snow just had the same thing occur in May. It's hard to believe Romney didn't know better.

as the article points out:

1) Romney wants to be a national politician. He should know better. There are lots of dated phrases people still use. In 1984, then-Democratic Presidential Candidate Jesse Jackson used the "colloquial" term "Hymies" to describe Jews and "Hymietown" to describe New York City. Those comments, along with other things Jackson did that upset Jewish voters, continues to tarnish his image today.

[Igel]

17. "Hymie" has a non-offensive meaning?

Care to enlighten me?

[JABBS]

19. i'm not saying that

I'm saying that some people use that term and claim that they are not being offensive. Jackson at the time defended himself, too, don't forget.

It's not a secret that "tar baby" is an offensive term to some, just like it's not a secret that "hymie" is an offensive term to some.

if you're running for president, though, you should be aware of such things. and given that tony snow just had a similar thing happen in May, you'd think Romney would be especially sensitive.

[Igel]

21. You must be asserting that for your analogy to hold.

Otherwise it's irrelevant.

The problem is that there are three parts of the English-speaking universe (in this matter): (1) some, based on their experience, believe that 'tar baby' has no racial meaning; (2) some believe that it can have a racial meaning, but need not, and decides on the meaning based upon context; and (3) part believes that it has only an offensive meaning, or that this is the only meaning that should be acknowledged.

(3) is diverse: some never heard the non-racist meaning, some simply don't care, it's a moral point that it's racist and can only be racist. Those in groups (1) and (2) are naive and sheltered, and have to learn better. IMHO, that's foolish. Why?

Because I'd prefer that the racist meaning of the term be forgotten--it's a perfectly good allusion--but as long as group (3) exists, it can't be. A whole new generation of whites that want to hate, many of which have never heard the term, have been taught that 'tar baby' is a handy racist term; a whole new generation of blacks have been told that any time they hear 'tar baby' it's obviously meant to insult them.

Perhaps one should be aware of such things, but there are many, many such things, and unless you've been called it or been vilified for using it, it's not the most important meaning.

[JABBS]

22. that may be true

I'm not suggesting that Romney said it in a racially offensive way. He, like Snow, may have meant to use it as a synonym for "sticky situation."

But my argument is that a national candidate, especially after the Snow thing a few weeks back, should be aware that others may be offended by such a term.

Like I said, Jesse Jackson initially defended his use of the word Hymie. He thought it had legitimate meaning, and had apparently used it a lot over the years. He claimed he had no ill will toward Jews.

That's fine, but it didn't change the fact that people in general -- Jewish voters specificially -- were offended by his use of the term.

Some people think it's ok to use "gay" as a synonym for wimpy. Some black people use the N word as a synonym for friend. But other people find those terms to be offensive, and if a potential presidential candidate were caught using one, he/she would likely be in a boatload of trouble.

Getting back to the original point of the article -- it would have been better for Romney's camp to apologize, rather to apologize by saying they didn't realize some people find such a term offensive. It a) becomes an apology with caveats and b) suggests a naivete that a presidential candidate doesn't want to be associated with.

[Ian David]

18. Republican Apology

Repuke: You're an asshole.
Person: Hey, I'm offended that you called me an asshole!
Repuke: I'm sorry if you're offended that I called you an asshole.
Person: Hey, that's not a real apology.
Repuke: You're not going to make me hug that Tarbaby.
Person: Hey...

[samsingh]

20. he's pretty stupid if he doesn't know what it means