Restaurant Doesn't Really Understand Why Its 'Uncle Tom' Burger Is a Problem

Master Tom's is a restaurant in Brisbane, Australia that describes itself as being a "California-inspired funky breakfast and burger bar with a twist." Unfortunately that 'twist' is an accidental sprinkle of casual racism, pulled not from Southern California, but from the worst parts of the Antebellum South.

Nestled in the middle of its menu, right after the Cluckster and Crispy Chook chicken sandwiches, is a burger called the "Uncle Tom," which, as anyone who ever took high school English remembers, is considered to be an offensive term for Blacks. Unfortunately, neither that news—nor Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel that birthed the phrase—seem to have reached Australia yet.

Although the restaurant has been open since December, the offensiveness of the Uncle Tom burger wasn't noticed until last week. According to the Daily Mail, customer Jonathan Butler-White spotted the burger on the menu, presumably rubbed his eyes in disbelief, and then walked out of the restaurant. "'I think it's concerning but I don't think it's surprising,' he told the news outlet. "I did leave straight away."

The restaurant was receptive to Butler-White's complaints, but said that it was completely unaware of the implications of the name. In a Facebook post, Master Tom's management said that there was "no racist connection to the term" within the restaurant itself. "The venue is named after the owner's son whose middle name is Tom, the same as the owner's middle name," the post said. "The menu was written after the venue was named and throughout the menu there is a play on the two words 'Master' and 'Tom'" (OK, fine, but that doesn't totally explain why they pulled 'Uncle' out of the ether, if they'd never heard that two-word combo before).

The term originated in Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, but in the years that followed the book's publication, the meaning of the name changed, and was used to reference blacks that were seen as being too deferential to whites. According to The Root, the term was first used in a derogatory way during a convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1919. "The Uncle Tom n____ 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," Reverend George Alexander McGuire, UNIA Chaplain-General said.

Back in present-day Australia, Master Tom's is currently holding a "Rename the Most Offensive Burger in Australia" contest, promising a year's worth of free burgers to anyone who can give it a new name that's, you know, completely unrelated to slavery. (And because Facebook is a burning landfill, most of the suggestions are more problematic than the burger's original moniker).

The response to the controversy has been mixed, with some people arguing that yes, the restaurant is wrong, while others are defending its right to use the name ("This is AUSTRALIA, not AMERICA OMFG," one woman commented). Another angry Australian argued that the restaurant knew exactly what it was doing, and the proof is right there on its menu. "You idiots put 'Uncle Tom' on the menu right before 'Plant Master' (Plantation Master) […] and you really want to run with the story that this was an honest mistake?" he wrote.

MUNCHIES has reached out to Master Tom's for comment but hasn't yet received a response.