I came in to say this. "Oncle Tom" translates to "Uncle Tom" in English, and in the US it has an extremely derogatory meaning towards African Americans. It's essentially a "black man that sold out to the White Man".
The name choice probably wasn't motivated by this, but it's an unlucky choice if the goal was to grow in North America, similar to the Chevy Nova, which in Spanish was equivalent to "No Go".
It's from a book Uncle Tom's Cabin[1] by Harriet Beecher Stowe who was staunchly antislavery. In Europe it was very popular, and there was even an U-Bahn station in Berlin called "Onkel Tom's Hütte"[2]. Also, the story of the Chevy Nova in Spanish has been debunked many times[3], but for whatever reason it's a nice story and keeps getting retold. I suppose it's like JFK allegedly proclaiming himself a donut, coincidentally also in Berlin.
I do agree with you though that it's probably not a great choice for a name, if only because people in the US will be hypersensitive and might completely misconstrue the meaning.
The term is very loosely derived from the character from the book. Speaking as an American not given to hypersensitivity on this issue --- my immediate association was with the epithet. If I polled my block, which is majority African American, I'm guessing you'd get the same association from them. If you want to evoke the book in America, you probably use the whole title.
Not that there's anything wrong with the name, at least that I see. I'm just affirming the feedback you got previously. This isn't hypersensitivity; it's simply a cultural difference.
(PS: we chose the name "Matasano" for our software security firm because we gave up on naming and flipped through a list of cool-sounding plant names; turns out, in South America, a "Matasano" is an incompetent doctor.)
The best answer you could have given was, "it's from the name of our favorite Warrant song."
I agree. My intention in using the term "hypersensitive" was to mean "very sensitive" and not to conjure up the connotation that someone should not be sensitive about it.
Given the history of prejudice and intolerance in the US, there absolutely is reason to be sensitive about it.
Or, it could also be that Africans make up ~13% of the US population, and as much as 30-35% of the population in urban America, compared to 3% in France and less than 1% in Germany, and so we're just more familiar with African (American) cultural signifiers.
"As of 2004, French think-tank Institut Montaigne estimated that there were 51 million (85%) white people or European origin, 6 million (10%) North African people, 2 million (3.5%) Black people and 1 million (1.5%) people of Asian origin in Metropolitan France, including all generations of immigrant descendants." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_France#Ethnic_g...]
(emphasis mine)
So Africans make up 13% of the population in France as well (granting that "North African" does not typically conjure the same image as "African American"). It seems odd to deny that America's history doesn't affect its cultural sensitivity toward certain terms (especially the term in question).
You think I'm being more charitable to the US than I am. I'm implying that white people in the US aren't hypersensitive to racial stuff, which makes "Uncle Tom's" associations all the more significant.
Discussions of racism/discrimination are different in Europe than USA. Europe doesn't quite classify people by a small amount of 'races' (like white/black/etc.), instead using local ethnicities, which can get much more complex.
Haha! we named our software Marica for "Management des risques et des contrats d'assurance" (we're a French company).
We have since translated the software in several languages. It appears that marica in spanish means something like queer in English when used against homosexuals, only _more_ derogatory amongst these macho people :-(
While the name "Uncle Tom" comes from the book, the character of Uncle Tom from ~1865 onwards was portrayed almost exclusively in minstrel show retellings of the novel. Minstrel show's didn't quite... capture the anti-slavery sentiments of the book [1].
The novel's Uncle Tom was resistant to the harsher institutions of slavery, sometimes standing in vocal opposition to his masters. The minstrel show Uncle Tom was almost exclusively played by white men in black face, going for cheap laughs by exaggerating the perceived mannerisms of American blacks. Essentially, the novel was radical, progressive and extremely popular. In the process of turning it into a minstrel show, everything radical and progressive was stripped out and replaced with cheap, comfortable laughs for an audience with a concept of how black people are "supposed" to act.
And that's how people who have just read Uncle Tom's Cabin don't get why Uncle Tom is now an epithet for people perceived to be subservient, or cooperating with their oppressors.
That coupled with the header graphic on this post (graveyard with what's probably Jesus on a cross but could be misconstrued to be a lynching) gives me all kinds of uncomfortable feelings.
Well, "Oncle" translates as "Uncle" and Thomas is my first name. It is a French pun I chose 10 years ago; and I definitely not meant to promote slavery or whatsoever. I am more a humanist kind of person.
Sadly at the time I missed the point it could eventually be pejorative in North America (and probably elsewhere). Especially as the book is about getting access to freedom through hard work. A beautiful outcome.
"Oncle Tom" sounds friendly and familiar in French. You could read it as "Bro Tom", a guy you can speak and what with easily.
The header picture is a picture of mine depicting a french fisherman graveyard located in Iceland. While the company was heading to its own graveyard, I was visiting one. This is how to read it.
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/the-jedi/8468239532/
I bet on people intelligence rather than their ignorance. I will eventually have to scale my explanations only if I remain for a too long time on the first page of HN ;-)
Actually this is the very first time I hear a comment about being nicknamed "Uncle Tom". So far in Europe it did not even started a single spark of debate.
If I appear to become a fashionable talent in North America I might consider changing the username to avoid controversy. At that stage I understand it can offend people.
Now is a bit prematured in my opinion.
Thanks for raising the issue, I would have not figured that on my own :-)
Well, thanks for all of responses especially from oncletom. I of course know the book but I was curious about the thought process in choosing the name. I didn't want to assume the worst.
Unfortunately it won't play well with Americans despite your honest intentions. I would find it hard to introduce you to a contact if you used that domain for email.
One of my earliest memories from childhood is of my uncle, Tom, picking me up and strapping me in a carseat. (Considering carseat usage habits in the late 1970s I would have been quite young.) I still thought of the derogatory sense first, when I saw that phrase.
