Stored somewhere in my collection of "Things I Will Never Get Rid Of" is my childhood copy of Little Black Sambo. It's pages are beyond well-worn.
Most would've trashed the Little Golden Book a long time ago.
Worth nothing as far as a collectible, I've held on to the book nonetheless. My brothers and I loved the book, especially the vivid illustrations of the tigers chasing one another round and round a tree, eventually melting into delicious butter.
Those of us who are old enough to remember Sambo standing up to the tigers are old enough to remember the "racially weighted past" that has dogged the book for decades. The association was enough to bring down a restaurant chain with the same name in the 1980's.
For many--and I'd venture to say most--the name Sambo brings up images of racism, not pancakes.
That being said, many (or most) would view the statement, "So Sambo beat the Bitch!" beyond poor form.
Per LA Progressive:
This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.
(...)
Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.
Based on the sarcastic acceptance speech Palin gave last week, I can only bet that someone has a video somewhere of this woman pulling a George Allen.
Bring It On.
