Last week, a person with the Twitter handle @arizonasunblock from Tampa, Florida, noticed that Bradley, who has been on the high court since 2015, appeared to make major changes to her Wikipedia biography earlier this year.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Thomas and that other guy in florida that helped craft the new educational standards with comments like “[slaves] learned new skills they could use for personal gain…” make me wonder why the hell america hasn’t already collapsed in on itself already

        • Blakerboy777@artemis.camp
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          1 year ago

          I can’t comment on the use of “Uncle Tom” specifically.

          But we ought not to use insults like that ever. By using them on people who “deserve it”, we are basically saying these terrible things are true, but we usually don’t say them because it’s rude. A better way to think is that we don’t use discriminatory insults/slurs because the hatred they represent is completely without merit.

          • grue@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yeah, but not necessarily for the same disregarding-of-context enlightened-centrist enforcing-of-“civility” bullshit that Reddit banned people for.

    • It’s an inaccurate epithet anyhow. Uncle Tom was overly nice to whites so as not to draw their wrath.

      In the end, the whites beat Uncle Tom to death when he refused to give the whereabouts of two runaway slaves.

      I don’t know what epithet you’d call someone who turned in the two slaves and lived to work the big house another day, but that’s what you should call Clarence.

      I used to call Clarence an Uncle Tom, but then I read the book.

        • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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          1 year ago

          As someone who also read the book and was shocked that Tom wasn’t the minstrel show Tom that really earned the name: this weird effort to take back his name is self defeating and artificial.

          It says quite a lot that people also try to say “Maybe we should call them Uncle Ruckuses instead!”

          Mainly, it says they’re not clued in enough to realize the show/comic had two Uncle Toms. One had Uncle in his name, the other Tom.

          MacGruder wasn’t being very subtle, and yet everyone seems to have missed it anyways.

          Hell, if nothing else this whole weird idea is erasure of the minstrel shows. If you want to raise some actual awareness then feel free to separate Book Tom from Minstrel Tom, because we need to remember both.

    • spacedance
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      1 year ago

      We’re just using racial slurs now? Come on, that’s over the line.

      • ratman150
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think that’s a racial slur my guy, a dictionary indicates it’s slang for female genitalia.

        • techt@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I believe they’re referring to the use of Uncle Thomas, which while perhaps semantically appropriate is definitely a racially charged moniker.

          • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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            1 year ago

            There’s a pretty big difference from a racial slur and a racial moniker that is only acceptable for people of that race to use as an accusation of betraying the community.