Uncle Toms
Subservient to oppressors
Uncle Toms is the plural of Uncle Tom, a derogatory term for a Black person perceived as excessively deferential to white people or complicit in their own oppression.
From the protagonist of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 antislavery novel *Uncle Tom's Cabin*, whose patient suffering was later reinterpreted as servility.
He called the Black conservatives Uncle Toms.
The term carries strong contempt, implying betrayal of one's community for acceptance by the dominant group.
- slaveryOwnership of people
- subservienceExcessive willingness to obey
- deferentialShowing humble submission
- servileExcessively submissive, lacking independence
- oppressedTreated with cruel control
Harriet Beecher Stowe · sellout · minstrel shows · race · emancipation · stereotype · subjugation · obedience · literary · pejorative · assimilation · depictions · survival strategies · collaborator · boot licker · masters · freedoms · history
Uncle Tomsfreedom fighters
Armed opponents of oppression
Malcolm X · Nat Turner · Harriet Tubman · Huey Newton · Angela Davis