UNCLE TOM

UNCLE TOM Derived from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), the derisive expression "Uncle Tom" is principally used by blacks in reference to other blacks who either cater to white tastes or defer to and solicit the favor of whites owing to meekness or ambition. Many modern young blacks, for ex­ample, would label Booker T. Washington as having been an "Uncle Tom" owing to his late nineteenth century policy of com­promise and accommodation to white America. Popular varia­tions of the term would include "oreo" or "oreo cookie" (black on the outside but white on the inside), and "Auntie Sarah," the feminine equivalent of an "Uncle Tom."