Oppression In 'Brer Rabbit And The Tar Box'

People of African descent has been oppressed for more than 300 years now. Majority of the oppression was in the form of slavery in the Americas, Africa and the Caribbean. This oppression has now transcended in other forms as in mass incarceration and police brutality (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 2017, par3). There have been multiple stories that has addressed the issue of oppression that contains African-descent. Folk tales from the African culture like Brer Rabbit and Anansi allows for the audience to visualize the oppression and discrimination Africans faced. Brer Rabbit was usually an inspiration and gave slaves a sense of hope that things can be oppression can end Brer Rabbit is a main character in a few folktales

They were performing small rebellious acts towards whites to overcome oppression. Slaves would do minor acts like acting as if they forgot important information, break tools, fake an illness and even create slowdowns while performing their duties (DigitalHistory2016, Par1-2). In “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby”, Brer Rabbit used his cleverness to act as if he forgot that he wouldn’t be hurt by the briar patch. His act of rebellion allowed him to get away from Brer Fox, who didn’t know that Brer Rabbit grew up in a briar patch. A large portion of southern population, during the 19th century, didn’t have education. The poor white population weren’t given the opportunity to get an education, so most of them worked on plantations instead ( Vinovskis pg. 317). In the story, Brer Fox would represent specifically a poor white overseer in the folktale because with the limited education he was easily outsmarted. Certainly it wasn’t that simple during the 19th century, but simple acts like singing spirituals and talking in code were ways slaves outsmarted overseers because they usually overlooked the true meaning of the messages. The message behind this folktale inspired slaves they can use what they know to outsmart overseers to end the

It was a time period where the Southern states rejoined the union as well as African-Americans being granted a form of citizenship through three amendments (Educational Broadcasting Cooperation, 2002). African-Americans felt they were finally equal to the Whites. Looking at the “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby” during this time create a different message then rebelling to alleviate oppression. During this time African Americans wanted to gain respect and be viewed as equal to whites. The message during the 1880s motivates African-Americans to demand respect for whites. In “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby” as Brer Rabbit was walking he was getting frustrated that the Tar Baby wasn’t speaking to him. Brer Rabbit feels that he is equal to the Tar baby and that he or she should speak because it is the nicest thing to do. During the Reconstruction Era, some African American held roles in the government(History.com 2012) This caused a lot of tension with whites that carry themselves in the thought of white supremacy. Those men demand respect because they knew that was their way to create change for the newly freed. African Americans during that time could have looked at Brer Rabbit as an inspiration of having courage to demand respect because they knew as slave repercussions of talking to whites any kind of way. Along those lines African-Americans during the Jim Crow Era can use “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby” as a