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Uncle Tomism
[ uhng-kuhl tom-iz-uhm ]
noun
- a pattern of social behavior characterized by a willingly submissive attitude on the part of the Black participants in a given interaction and a benevolent but patronizing attitude on the part of the white participants.
Word History and Origins
Origin of Uncle Tomism1
Example Sentences
Like other marginalized groups — Jews of an earlier generation who objected to the tenement soap operas of Clifford Odets; blacks who found Uncle Tomism in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” — many gays saw betrayal in honest, let alone exaggerated, portraits.
As Sperb puts it: “Not only is Song of the South a movie derogatory because of its ‘Uncle Tomism,’ it was made by people who were well aware of the stereotype, who knew others would be offended, and who clearly felt there was nothing wrong with that.”
It was widely scorned among the African-American intelligentsia, who viewed it as an example of Uncle Tomism.
At the intermission, we got to talking and I asked them if they remembered when “Porgy and Bess” was viewed as Uncle Tomism.
Uncle Tomism, notwithstanding, Hill and the Fab Five both elected, for their own reasons, to play in the big house.
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