Tar-Baby: One’s Beliefs Cause the Consequences

[DISCLAIMER]

In childhood, my sisters and I owned a vinyl record of the controversial live-action/animated musical drama film Song of the South (1946). Although I’m biracial (white and black), I’m not offended by my beliefs about the film’s racial dynamics. I’ll explain this view in a bit.

Based on the collective written stories Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings: The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation (1886) by Joel Chandler Harris, the film follows a young boy named Johnny who befriends Uncle Remus, an elderly black worker on the plantation (i.e., a slave).

Experiencing joy from his beliefs about Uncle Remus’ tales concerning the adventures of Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear, Johnny learns about how to cope with the challenges he endures while living on the plantation. Again, I’ll explain the belief-and-outcome view in a bit.

Also, for context, the term br’er is slang for the word briar (a plant, such as a rose, blackberry, or greenbrier, having a usually woody and thorny or prickly stem). In Song of the South, Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear devise a scheme to trap, physically batter, and then eat Br’er Rabbit.

Of the plan, one source states, “The Tar-Baby is the second of the Uncle Remus stories published in 1881; it is about a doll made of tar and turpentine used by the villainous Br’er Fox to entrap Br’er Rabbit. The more that Br’er Rabbit fights the Tar-Baby, the more entangled he becomes.”

Property of Walt Disney Productions and RKO Radio Pictures, fair use

Noteworthy, the aforementioned source states that the phrase “tar baby” has acquired idiomatic meanings over the years, including a negative racial connotation. Like the terms pickaninny, nigger, spook, coon, sambo, gollywog, and others, tar baby is now a derogatory term for blacks.

With this in mind, “Tar-Baby” used herein isn’t intended to reference pejorative terms such as tar baby, niglet, and so forth. Regarding how the Tar-Baby is depicted in Song of the South, referring to the inanimate object as “Tar Baby,” one source states:

In the second animated segment of the film, Br’er Fox is determined to catch Br’er Rabbit. Using tar and items from Br’er Bear such as buttons from his jacket (for the eyes), the bowl of a corncob pipe (for the nose), and hair from his tail (for a hairdo), he makes the Tar Baby. He and Br’er Bear take it to the road. After putting Br’er Bear’s hat on its head, they hear Br’er Rabbit coming and hide behind a tree and nearby bush.

As Br’er Rabbit sees the Tar Baby, he greets it with, “How Do You Do?”, but receives no response. He tries again and still, naturally, receives no reply. Then Br’er Rabbit, perceiving the [inanimate’s] unresponsiveness as rudeness, punches it in the face. He gets his fist stuck in the tar. He hits it again with his remaining hand, and then kicks it, but the more he fights, the more stuck he gets. He becomes so entrapped in the tar that “he can scarcely move his eyeballs.” Then Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear come out of hiding and dance around Br’er Rabbit with glee.

Br’er Fox prepares to cook Br’er Rabbit “right there and now”. Then Br’er Bear walks up with the intention of knocking Br’er Rabbit’s head off. As Br’er Fox pulls Br’er Rabbit out of the tar, Br’er Rabbit sees a briar patch. He begs Br’er Fox not to throw him in it, prompting him to do just that. When he does, Br’er Rabbit pretends to yelp in pain, as Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear take off their hats in respectful silence. Then Br’er Rabbit appears and reveals that he was born and raised in a briar patch, which causes Br’er Fox to feel humiliated for being tricked again.

As a young boy, I played a vinyl record and joyfully danced when remembering scenes from Song of the South—which used to frequently air on television in my youth. I appreciated how Uncle Remus taught Johnny an invaluable lesson about self-caused anger and aggression.

Nonetheless, I didn’t quite grasp the concept well enough to actually apply it to my mental, emotional, and behavioral health (collectively “mental health”). Yet, now I understand it well enough to provide a psychoeducational lesson on Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT).

REBT uses the ABC model to illustrate that when an undesirable Action occurs and you Believe an unhelpful narrative about the event, it’s your unfavorable assumption, not the occurrence itself, that causes an unpleasant Consequence. This is known as distress or disturbance.

Noteworthy, with virtually any undesirable Action that occurs, it’s your unfavorable Beliefs which cause unpleasant distress or disturbance (Consequence). Given this framing of self-distress and self-disturbance, it’s worth noting that one REBT source states (page 71):

REBT conceptualizes [distress] as healthy even though it is intense. Other approaches to therapy have as their goal the reduction of the intensity of negative emotions. They take this position because they do not keenly differentiate between healthy negative emotions (distress) and unhealthy negative emotions (disturbance).

Now, REBT keenly distinguishes between healthy distress and unhealthy disturbance. Healthy distress stems from your rational beliefs about a negative activating event [Action], whilst disturbance stems from your irrational beliefs about the same event.

Complete elimination of distress is highly unlikely in an impermanent and uncertain world wherein people conceptually suffer, struggle, and battle with, or merely experience hardship. Still, individuals often make matters worse for themselves by disturbing about such instances.

In particular, there are four predominate irrational beliefs which people often use to distress or disturb themselves: global evaluations, low frustration tolerance, awfulizing, and demandingness. When contemplating these unproductive beliefs, think of the acronym GLAD.

Worth noting, the two forms of should, must, and ought demands with which people most often distress or disturb are associated with use of absolutistic and conditional beliefs. Generally speaking, these scripts serve as inflexible commands used toward oneself, others, and life.

An absolute must narrative is, “You absolutely must do as I say!” A conditional should narrative is, “Either you should do as I say, or you should be punished!” Noteworthy, in REBT literature, demandingness of this sort is said to function as a primary appraisal mechanism of self-upset.

Global evaluations (i.e., self-downing, other-downing, and life-downing), low frustration tolerance (also known as frustration intolerance), and awfulizing (e.g., terrible, horrible, etc.) function as secondary appraisal mechanisms. Together, GLAD will make you sad or mad, etc.

While still functioning as prescriptive rather than descriptive, flexible use of recommendatory, preferential, ideal, empirical, moral and ethical, and legal ought beliefs won’t inevitably cause disturbance, as they may align with distress. Rigidity versus flexibility makes a difference.

Additionally, from a psychological standpoint, people distress or disturb themselves using a Belief-Consequence (B-C) connection. Of course, this isn’t to suggest that in the context of the naturalistic or physical world there is no Action-Consequence (A-C) connection.

From an A-C view, Br’er Rabbit physically battered the Tar-Baby (Action) and became trapped in tar (Consequence). However, this unexpected outcome didn’t result without an obvious cause. Specifically, a B-C view explains of the animated character caused his own self-disturbance.

For example, the Tar-Baby didn’t acknowledge Br’er Rabbit’s greeting (Action) and the latter plausibly Believed, “This character is worthless [G], and I can’t tolerate this form of disrespect [L], as it’s appalling [A], because others absolutely must return my salutation [D]!”

Earlier, I said that I’d explain how my Beliefs about Song of the South didn’t cause offense (Consequence) and how Johnny’s Beliefs about Uncle Remus’ tales caused joy (Consequence), as the B-C connection also explains how Br’er Rabbit caused his own anger and aggression.

Addressing how people upset themselves with unhelpful attitudes, the ABC model incorporates Disputation of unproductive philosophies of life in order to explore Effective new beliefs. Whereas rigid beliefs cause self-disturbance, flexible beliefs result in an un-disturbed condition.

In Song of the South, the Tar-Baby was merely an element in an Action. It couldn’t cause anger and aggression, because one’s Beliefs cause the Consequences one endures. And the more Br’er Rabbit self-disturbed with a B-C connection, the more stuck he then became.

Now, I offer to you this psychoeducational lesson from my youth. Can you apply the ABC model to your own life? If you think so, then let’s test your resolve. Nigger! (Hard-R, and everything.) Are you offended (Consequence) by your Belief about this word? If so, then Dispute your Belief.

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

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