You’ve heard Elijah Muhammad’s racial mythology from his own mouth. Now... how about a tale from “Uncle Remus,” that fictional ol’ plantation Negro created by white Southern journalist Joel Chandler Harris?By way of LibriVox – the online database of public-domain audiobooks – I present the most controversial Uncle Remus story of all: “Why the Negro Is Black” (read by Mark F. Smith).
As with Elijah Muhammad’s explanation of the “grafting” process, this Uncle Remus tale takes us way back to a time when all human beings were black.
To hear the complete 4-minute story on my Vox blog, click here. (Be aware: there are N-words in the text.)
3 comments:
Hah! Check out the amusing Wren's Nest (Harris' home) blog, :
http://www.wrensnestonline.com/blog/
Didn't Chandler Harris just transcribe already-existing folklore, which in turn was derived from the old Anansi stories?
Controversy is brewing in Marietta where a local tavern owner is selling T-shirts that feature a cartoon chimp, “Curious George” peeling a banana, with the words “Obama in ‘08” written underneath.
Mulligan’s Bar and Grill owner Mike Norman defends his actions and calls the T-shirts “cute.” But critics say they’re offensive and racist, according to an article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“It’s time to put an end to this,” said Rich Pellegrino, a Mableton resident and director of the Cobb-Cherokee Immigrant Alliance. “There’s no place for these views, not in this day and age,” he said.
Several groups plan to protest the T-shirts this afternoon in front of the bar located down the street from the Big Chicken.
Is this a matter of free speech or is the shirt racially motivated?
What are your thoughts?
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