Tar Baby and Brer Mitt

Mitt Romney, governor of Massachusetts and Republican presidential hopeful, has run into a spot of trouble. It seems a lot of people are objecting to his description of a very difficult local highway project as a "tar baby." Apparently this is a slur against African Americans, according to many black spokesmen.

Odd, that, since the tar baby, best known from the Uncle Remus stories, is a standard figure in African folklore.

Ity is a sad state of affairs when one is so ashamed of one's own culture that any reference to it is construed as a slur.

But Mitt Roney can hardly be blamed for that.