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If you are a regular reader of this site, you know that I have been doing a series entitled “Tracing the roots of black Liberalism in the US”. If you have not taken the time to read this series, I strongly encourage you to do so as it provides some insight into the evolution of black politics here in the US. Currently, I am working on part 5 that will cover the 1960-70’s era. Here are the links to the other parts of the series:

I

II

III

iv

The following passage is taken from a book written by a former black Communist back in 1958 by the name of Manning Johnson. I found his story to be so gripping as it filled in many of the blanks of my series that I was simply not able to fill due to lack of much needed information.

You may be asking “Why is he posting the writings of some old guy?” The answer to that is quite simple–the black community has been repeating history for a very long time and it is time for us to stop this cycle.

In this passage he is talking about how Communist effectively used the tag “Uncle Tom”:

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“Except for a brief period during the latter 1930’s, the reds called those persons “Uncle Toms” who sought solution of the race problem through the medium of education, patience, understanding and discussion which would lead to mutual agreement. Since any program leading to a peaceful solution of the race problem automatically excludes and dooms red efforts among Negroes, it goes without saying that the reds are going to oppose it. The chief targets are the responsible advocates of such a program. They must “be discredited and isolated from the masses.” So, in addition to the tags of “enemy of the race,” “tool of the white ruling class,” “traitor to the race,” the reds have added the opprobrium of “Uncle Tom.”

In their usual diabolically clever way, the reds took the name of a fine, sincere and beloved character made famous in the greatest indictment of chattel slavery and transformed him into a “dirty, low, sneaky, reacherous, groveling, sniveling coward.” This the reds did in order to make the name “Uncle Tom” the symbol of social, economic and political leprosy.

Today, the name “Uncle Tom” among Negroes ranks with the term McCarthyism generally, turning many ministers into moral cowards, many politicians into scared jackrabbits and many other leaders in hypocrites.

No man dare stand up and proclaim convictions counter to red agitation without running the certain risk of being pilloried. The reds, their fellow travelers, leaders of the N.A.A.C.P. and other race agitators have created an ideal climate for such persecution.

Ironically, the communist definition of “Uncle Tom” applies to the Negro red and fellow traveler more than it does to any one else. In fact, I do not know of any Negro, living or dead, who sank to the depths of cowardice, servility, and treachery as has the Negro red. One has only to read the “wailings and lamentations” of Pettis Perry to his white masters in the Communist Party to do something about the widespread race prejudice permeating that Party from top to bottom. Such prejudice in the Communist Party, in the opinion of Pettis Perry, prevents the communist apparatus from effectively exploiting the Negro people.”

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So as you can see, anybody who thought outside of the box politically was labeled an “Uncle Tom”. AND THAT WAS OVER 50 YEARS AGO!!

And to this day, the “Uncle Tom” tag still lives on. In fact, one of my readers called me one the other day–

“Stop Uncle Tomming over here. .. You’d better decide whose side you are on!”

Trust me, this wasn’t the first time.