Although the term’s provenance rests in African folklore (i.e., the gum doll Anansi created to trap Mmoatia), some Americans consider tar baby to be a pejorative term for African Americans. The Oxford English Dictionary defines tar baby as “a difficult problem which is only aggravated by attempts to solve it”, but the online subscription-only version adds a second definition: “a derogatory term for a Black (U.S.)
He’ll probably switch it out for a picture of the tar baby from Song of the South before the unveiling.