Comedian Michelle Wolf blasted the Trump Administration during the annual White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington, D.C. For the second year in a row, Donald Trump decided to skip the dinner. Instead, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was a representative for the Trump’s White House.
Wolf went after Trump, but she blasted Sanders who often looked uncomfortable during the dinner. She took aim at Sanders’ inability to hold an organized press conference.
“Every time Sarah steps up to the podium, I get excited, because I’m not really sure what we’re going to get — you know, a press briefing, a bunch of lies or divided into softball teams. ‘It’s shirts and skins, and this time don’t be such a little b–, Jim Acosta!”
Wolf also went after Sanders for her willingness to continue to lie on behalf of Donald Trump.
“I think she’s very resourceful. She burns facts, and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies,” Wolf said.
But Wolf’s most scathing attack was her comparing Sanders to Uncle Tom.
“And I’m never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders, you know? Is it Sarah Sanders, is it Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is it Cousin Huckabee, is it Auntie Huckabee Sanders? Like, what’s Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? Oh, I know. Aunt Coulter,” Wolf said.
Uncle Tom is often viewed throughout history as a Black person who works against Black progression. However, the character Uncle Tom was not a sell out in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In fact, Uncle Tom was committed to his fellow slaves and often sacrificed his own chance at freedom to help others. It wasn’t until a Marcus Garvey supporter, Rev. George Alexander McGuire, used the name in a demeaning way that it became a negative term.
In a speech in 1919, McGuire said, the Uncle Tom n—r has got to go, and his place must be taken by the new leader of the Negro race. Not a Black man with a white heart, but a Black man with a Black heart.”
Even with Stowe’s novel as evidence, McGuire changed the meaning of Uncle Tom and it continued through several generations.
While Wolf’s joke could be considered historically inaccurate, it points to the fact that Sanders is willing to ignore the truth to protect Trump and his lies.
