UNCLE TOM

PRONUNCIATION: (UHNG-kuhl tom)

MEANING: noun: A person regarded as betraying their cultural allegiance by being subservient to another.

ETYMOLOGY: After Uncle Tom, an enslaved man in the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96). Earliest documented use: 1852.

NOTES: The term is considered disparaging and offensive, especially when applied to a Black person seen as being subservient to White people. In the book, Uncle Tom is a heroic figure. For example, he disobeys the orders to beat other enslaved people. In minstrel shows he was depicted as a passive figure and that image has taken root in the language.
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UNCLEFT OM - the mantra is uniform and in one piece

NUNC LE TOM - Here we are in Ancient Rome, and Brady takes the field...

UNCLE ATOM - J Robert Oppenheimer was considered by many to be the "Father of the Atomic Bomb." What does that make his younger brother Frank?