Jay-Z Is Reimagining Racist ‘Sambo’ Character as ‘Jaybo’ … And I Feel Like This Could Get Messy

OK FOLKS! HISTORY TIIIIME!

Many of you may know of the “Sambo” character – and that it has been deemed terribly racist in the USA.

I grew up in Mexico, where the term “Zambo” and in turn, images of the “Sambo” character are still common. I dug into the history of the word… aaaaand yeah. It’s pretty racist.

According to this:

The word “sambo” came into the English language from the Latin American Spanish word zambo, the Spanish word in Latin America for a person of mixed African and Native American descent.[3] This in turn may have come from one of three African language sources. Webster’s Third International Dictionary holds that it may have come from the Kongo word nzambu (monkey). Note that the z of (Latin American) Spanish is pronounced like the English s rather than as the z in the word nzambu.

So as I mentioned, the word “sambo/zambo” are still commonly used in Mexico. I don’t think it’s possible root origin of “monkey” is commonly known or even considered.

The word became a name, and is pervasive thought popular culture…

Examples of “Sambo” as a common name can be found as far back as the 19th century. In Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair (serialised from 1847), the black skinned Indian servant of the Sedley family from Chapter One, is called Sambo. Similarly, in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), one of Simon Legree’s overseers is named Sambo. Instances of it being used as a stereotypical name for African Americans can be found as early as the Civil War.

Additionally…

The name became especially associated with the children’s book The Story of Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman, published in 1899. It was the story of a boy named “Sambo” who outwitted a group of hungry tigers. Bannerman also wrote Little Black Mingo, Little Black Quasha, and Little Black Squibba. In this book, Sambo is the name of a southern Indian boy.

The once-popular Sambo’s restaurant chain used the Helen Bannerman images to promote and decorate their restaurants, although the restaurants were originally named after the chain’s co-owners, Samuel Battistone and Newell Bohnett.[5] The word and the choice of a black icon by the chain had such negative connotations that, despite the actual origin of the chain’s name, they were contributing factors in the chain’s demise in the early 1980s.

So anyway… fast forward to today. Jay-Z reimagined the ‘Sambo’ character as ‘Jaybo’ for a recent music video.

WARNING: Explicit language.

Note: this video not only raised eyebrows for saying the n-word about a billion times, it also came under fire for seemingly anti-semitic comments. “You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it.”

Anyway… Jay-Z wants to put the character all over t-shirts now.

According to TMZ:

Jay-Z’s lead character from his ‘Story of O.J.’ music video is getting drafted for a whole new role … in fashion and home wares.

Hova’s company, S. Carter Enterprises, just filed docs to trademark the animated character, “Jaybo.” The plan is to plaster the little guy on T-shirts, sweaters, hats, blankets, shams, dinnerware, mugs, cocktail shakers and thermal containers.

Interesting move to commercialize Jaybo, since it’s a playoff of Sambo — the main character from an 1899 children’s book that’s widely held to be racist due to the illustrations.

Guess you could say Jay-Z’s reclaiming the character … sans Klan outfit.

Fine… do whatever you want.

My question… are people going to freak out when white people wear the JayBo character?

Jay-Z certainly has many white fans. Will this “JayBo” line be for “people of color only?” Or is everyone going to be ok with some white teenager wearing a Sambo tee?

Serious question.