Sambos restaurant FINALLY gets rid of that offensive name

[Demovictory9]

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https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/Sambos-Santa-Barbara-changes-name-protest-15323128.php

The only remaining location of a historic breakfast chain in Santa Barbara is changing its name after thousands of people petitioned against its use of a racial epithet.

The owners of Sambo's on W. Cabrillo Blvd. haven't decided on a new name yet, but agreed that it was time for the 63-year-old restaurant to take action amid nationwide protests against police brutality and widespread racism. On Thursday, staff began to temporarily cover the bubble-lettered sign with symbols demonstrating peace and love.


"Our family has looked into our hearts and realize that we must be sensitive when others whom we respect make a strong appeal. So today we stand in solidarity with those seeking change and doing our part as best we can," Chad and Michelle Stevens wrote in a joint statement on the restaurant's Facebook page.


When the restaurant was established in 1957, founders Sam Battistone — Chad's grandfather — and Newell Bohnett chose the title because it combined the first three letters of Battistone's name and the last two of Bohnett's. The term is a derogatory slur against black and indigenous people, and the decision forced several locations to close or rename throughout the 1980s, according to the Santa Barbara Independent. Still, for decades, the walls of Sambo's restaurants nationwide were adorned with painted imagery associated with "The Story of Little Black Sambo," a children's book written by Helen Bannerman in 1899 that became controversial for its depictions of racial stereotypes.

"Thank you for taking initiative and hearing the community's outcry," wrote Yvonne Garcia on Facebook. "I have close family members who have been offended by this name since I was a kid."

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. We had one in my town...I ate there...I will never forget my boss took me there once

when I drove delivery for a commercial laundry operation, and he ordered eggs, bacon and sausage and hashbrowns, but no toast.

He weighed about 350 lbs and pointed out to me that he was having a "healthy" breakfast because he wasnt eating toast.



That is the last time I remember eating there.

[Demovictory9]

3. I had a boss who tried to take us to the Playboy club for lunch, I refused

no Sambos, no Hooters, No Playboy Club.

[Crunchy Frog]

9. I went to a Hooters once for a bachelorette party.

We drank alot and the bride-to-be had a full sized blow-up male doll handcuffed to her. I think the food was actually pretty good though.

[madinmaryland]

17. I ate at hooters about 20 years ago. Beer was fine, but the food sucked.

[Crunchy Frog]

25. Well, I may have drank enough beer that I didn't notice that the food sucked.

It was a long time ago and my memory's a little hazy.

[2naSalit]

2. Never bothered them until now.

How white of them.

I remember having that storybook when I was young and when I started asking why people were calling me Sambo, my mom got rid of it.

[liberal N proud]

4. I thought they were gone long ago

[Demovictory9]

7. nope. they got rid of the Sambo imagery but not the name

[rurallib]

21. I thought they were gone sometime @1970

I was amazed to see they are still around.

[LeftInTX]

5. They're still around?

I thought they changed their name awhile back.

I last ate at one over 50 years ago.

[SMC22307]

6. I remember going to Sambo's as a kid in SW PA back in the 1960s.

I really don't remember much other than it being loud and colorful. I can't believe there's still one left!

[Demovictory9]

8. yep, in California in 2020!!

[mr_lebowski]

11. I have this vague recollection of going to one in either Lafayette or Walnut Creek, CA about

1974-ish, as a young kid.

Nobody tripped on a place being called Sambo's in 1974.

They all dried up and blew away by the early 1980's in the Bay Area.

[Demovictory9]

14. black people didnt like the name, didn't have the voice yet

[mr_lebowski]

20. Fair enough ... no White People tripped on it, I should've said ... nt

[Demovictory9]

24. confed flag, Sambos, imagery from jim crow... whites said blacks were being sensitive

same as women not wanting to use "he" to refer to all. I grew up in the 70s. I remember the arguments.

[kimbutgar]

16. I also remember going to on in Pleasant Hill

[mr_lebowski]

19. Maybe it was Pleasant Hill I'm thinking of ...

I'm thinking it might've been where there was later, at least for a long time, a Denny's. Near CC & Gregory, across from the old Payless?

[kimbutgar]

28. Yes, I was in college at DVC and went to one with a classmate.

The food was so so.

[mr_lebowski]

31. I am also DVC alum ... transferred to Cal Poly after ...

Actually with a short stint at Cuesta in SLO in between

[kimbutgar]

32. Transferred to Chico State

I grew up in SF and family friends let me live with them in Pleasant Hill to attend DVC. While at DVC people I met People who told me about Chico. I went up there and fell in love with the college town. A friend of mines boyfriend transferred to SLO and she came up to Chico with me. He transferred the next semester to Chico!

[mr_lebowski]

36. I lived some years in Quincy as a child so I know the area ...

I'm pretty happy that I went to SLO and lived by the beach for those years.

Chico area is nice, but for my money, gimme the Central Coast all day long.

Guess it depends on what you like

[kimbutgar]

38. I grew up not far from the Ocean Walking distance from my house so I took it for granted!

But the Central Coast is gorgeous!

[Iggo]

27. Santa Barbara

[Maraya1969]

10. Isn't that the story where the tigers ran around in a circle and turned into a pool

of butter? I could never understand how that happened.

I seem to remember that. I remember the name of course but I did not know it was a derogatory name.

[Hekate]

12. Kind of a Santa Barbara landmark, but should have changed the name 30+ years ago. By the way...

...for anyone raised with the story who loved the words and didn't "see" the truly offensive illustrations (ahem), look up "The Story of Little Babaji" illustrated by Fred Marcellino. Helen Bannerman lived in India for 30 years -- home of tigers and melted butter (ghi) and why she set and illustrated the tale she wrote for her children in Africa no one can say.

In any case, despite my growing up with catch-phrases like "lovely little pair of purple shoes with crimson soles and crimson linings" and "I am the grandest tiger in the jungle," I never read Little Black Sambo to my own kids. I didn't know how to get past the racism of the illustrations and names.

Marcellino's wonderful interpretation takes the story to India where it belongs, and renames the family Little Babaji, Mamaji, and Papaji. Published in 1996, it came too late for my kids, but I bought a copy for my library anyway. Highly recommended.

We all know about Sam Battistone and Newell Bohnett and their formerly-humorous homage to the buttery pancakes of the storybook, but I am so glad their descendents are moving on. All the best to them.

[Dream Girl]

18. I wished I'd known about this. I loved that story as a child and wished I could have shared it with

My son. I’m African American and the racist image was abhorrent. Still the story appealed to me, I don’t remember the details just that Sambo had an umbrella and rain boots and there was something about a turning into a puddle of melted butter and then his mother serving pancakes with lots of butter.. It was a fun story to me.

[Hekate]

22. Helen Bannerman had a genuine gift for rhythmic, almost lyrical, language. We had a repertoire...

...of quotes that followed us into adulthood that our own children know nothing of. I think you have to read it aloud, as to a child, to get the flavor. But a new garment, something colorful and non-utilitarian, would earn the compliment: "You are the grrrran-dest tiger in the jungle." And oh, what we wouldn't have given for something as gorgeous as his purple shoes with crimson soles and crimson linings.

I hope you can find Little Babaji -- it's worth a look, and if you are like me, it will be restorative.

[Darwin2019]

13. The story I remember was about a little boy in India named Sambo.

He chased a tiger around a tree until it turned into butter. I've never seen the African American version. Doesn't make the name any better though. The author lived in India for many years.

[Hekate]

23. Sambo lived in Africa. Babaji lives in India. The tigers chased each other around a tree...

...after stealing all of the little boy's fine new clothes and then disputing over who was the grandest. Fortunately they took off his clothes before commencing their battle. But round the tree they whirled until they turned into brown and yellow melted butter.

[Igel]

29. No, that's ahistorical.

Sambo was originally set in India. Given his skin coloration, the assumption is he was Tamil (either that ethnicity or in that group of ethnicities). Even check out the KJV where the Shulemite woman says "I am black, but comely"; in 1611 that didn't mean "African" per se, even if I have heard Americans in the last few decades sport their ignoramus credentials and make that claim.

Originally the story talked about ghee.

Even more disastrous for the African version and any assertion that the story was (reasonably) set in Africa ... There are no tigers in Africa. It would be like talking about the lemmings of Georgia, Scottish wombats, Canadian armadillos, or the vast herds of llamas that the Native Americans depended on for survival in the American midwest. The author was familiar with India. Not Africa.

Drawings to accompany the story when it got to the US years after first publication made the kid African-descended, not South Indian. Tamils were fairly uncommon, so the story was domesticated. Pictures were domesticated first--easier to overlook the text than his status as S. Asian.

Text revisions (copyright was a malleable concept) later altered the text to comport with American sensibilities and make it more clearly "relevant".

Where he was depends on the edition/revision/country you're looking at.

And given that level of misunderstanding, the name "Sambo" became an epithet for American blacks. In some areas, for some people.


Later the original text was restored with less 1920s-American drawings and since "Sambo" had been tainted they had to rename the kid. One of those restorations used Babaji as his name. Since, of course, we had Baba (aka "Barbar&quot already as an Indian name.

[ShazzieB]

39. Thanks for all this background.

I knew the story was originally set in India, but not all the details

Like a lot of people, I loved the store as a kid but came to detest it as an adult because or the racial angle. Haven't seen a copy of it in decades.

[LeftInTX]

30. Yes, Sambo was Indian

Darker skinned Indians are often referred to as black.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Little_Black_Sambo

I did like going to Sambos when I was a kid for pancakes because I loved the story of the tigers running around until they turned into butter...yum!!! But I was always disappointed that there was no syrup involved in the story..LOL..Oh well maple trees be damned....

I also liked that jungle murals on the walls and I think they always had some kinda of coloring stuff for kids. This was over 50 years ago. The chain really capitalized on the story about the butter and the pancakes.

[blitzen]

26. There is still a Lil' Sambo's in Lincoln City, OR--supposedly based on the story of the boy in India

https://lilsambos.com/

There were Sambo's throughout Oregon when I grew up in the 60s. This one still standing claims to have never been part of the infamous national chain.

[yonder]

15. My very first (taxes out of the paycheck) job was at a Sambos in Las Vegas.

I didn't last long as a dishwasher and the place stunk. I was pretty naive and it didn't dawn on me till a couple of years later that there was a problem with the name. This would've been about '69 or '70.

[Aristus]

33. We used to go to the Sambo's in San Antonio when I was a kid.

I wasn't old enough to be aware of the name's racist past. And anyway, the art work on the walls portrayed Sambo as Hindi, for some reason, instead of African-American, and a smart trickster, instead of a shambling, racist caricature.

Anyway, I thought the last Sambo's had closed back in the 80's...

On edit: I just read the posts above explaining the Hindi angle. Thank you.

[Mr. Ected]

34. This was my favorite book growing up

And as a child, I had no clue that it might surreptitiously harbor the seeds of racism. What I did love about it, though, was that the boy completely outsmarted the trio of tigers and they paid the ultimate price for it.

It also touched on my love for pancakes and maple syrup.

[kskiska]

35. I loved that book as a child, also

and never thought it referred to Africans. He was clearly an Indian boy who outsmarted the tigers, which don't exist in Africa.

[shanti]

37. The last one I remember seeing

was around Stockton/Lodi, and this was back in the 70's. Really had thought they were all gone by now.