Uncle Tom

English

Etymology

Referring to the character in the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Noun

Uncle Tom (plural Uncle Toms)

1. (derogatory, ethnic slur) A black man who is servile towards white authority and accepting of white supremacy, a black race traitor.

   Synonyms: coconut, Oreo

   • 1968, Norman Mailer, “Nixon in Miami”, in Harper's, §6:

     ...their master... was no ad for anybody but the most arcane Black Power, he was an old prince of a witch doctor—insult him at your peril—but the other ten musicians with their trumpets and snares and assorted brass would prove no pull for Nixon on TV with any Black votes watching, for they were old and meek, naught but elderly Black Southern musicians, a veritable Ganges of Uncle Toms. They had disappeared with Tom Swift and Little Lord Fauntleroy.

   • 1985 April 1, Steven Leinen, quoting a police officer, Black Police, White Society‎^[1], NYU Press:

     Some blacks don't want to deal with the black cop because they see him as an Uncle Tom, a person who stands by while the white cop abuses and shows disrespect toward other blacks.

   • 2014 April 2, David Remnick, King of the World: Muhammed Ali and the Rise of an American Hero‎^[2], Knopf Doubleday:

     One of the less entertaining components of the Ali act was the way he tried to "outblack" someone like Frazier, call him an Uncle Tom, an "honorary white," when in fact Frazier had grown up dirt poor in South Carolina.

   • 2017 February 8, Burgess Everett, “Tim Scott, the lone black GOP senator, rises to Sessions' defense”, in Politico‎^[3]:

     "You are an Uncle Tom, Scott. You're for Sessions. How does a black man turn on his own," Scott said, reading criticisms of himself on social media.

Hypernyms

• race traitor

Coordinate terms

• Aunt Jane, Aunt Jemima, Aunt Thomasina, Rastus

Derived terms

• Aunt Thomasina
• Uncle Tomahawk
• Uncle Tommery
• Uncle Tommish
• Uncle Tommism

See also

• Samboism