Off the Mark by Mark Parisi for June 20, 2011

The restaurant was called Sambo’s, after parts of the names of the owners. People associated the name with the BOOK, which was called “Little Black Sambo”, so the owners eventually took advantage and decorated it with similar images, and called the butter “tiger butter”.In the 70’s, the “Black” in the title was considered pejorative, so it was changed to “Little Sambo”, and then to various other titles, under which it still exists.In both book and restaurant the images were made light skinned.The accusations of bigotry still haunted the chain, and restaurants were closed or sold off till today there is only one Sambo’s left.Interestingly, Little Black Sambo in the original was not an African American but an Indian lad, as “black” was used in India to denote darker skin — still not exactly PC.