How is this racist?
Home Depot had to issue an apology over this racist tweet. I don’t get how it’s racist. Would it still be racist if the other two guys were white? What am I missing?
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It appears to be comparing black people to apes. That seems obvious to me. No, it would not be racist if the other two guys were white.
I guess you could see it that way. They, apparently, weren’t taking offense at the guy in the monkey mask, who may very well have been black himself.
Why wouldn’t it be racist if they were white? We ARE monkeys, after all!
Historically, anti-black propaganda has made the association between black people and primates. Given this very real, extremely racist part of our cultural history in the United States, their PR firm should have known better.
There has been no consistent anti-white propaganda associating white people with primates to my knowledge. Therefore, an imagine with two white people and a monkey probably would not have had the same effect.
GA @muppetish. But still…it’s odd that the guy wearing the mask isn’t the one who was censored.
It’s possible the guy that posted it didn’t see the potential for racism any more than I did. But, I guess he should have.
Racism is in the eye of the beholder.
If most of the responses said “the one in the middle”! All this issues could have been avoided. People are so damn sensitive now days, they are just waiting for a cause to fight over!
As one busboy put it after he and I witnessed a row in a restaurant between a customer and manager:
“Some people are just out to have a bad time.”
I agree completely with @Smitha. I’m starting to think people WANT these type of problems.
This is so clearly offensive you’d have to be ½ sandwich short of a picnic not to see it—or making an excuse for it. Two racist white dudes thought this was hilarious and the general public could see it?
Yeah right. No racism there.
@MadMadMax
“Clearly offensive?”
Anyone can find anything offensive at any time. Where does it end?
Home Depot, as a private entity, has every right to censor, and in this “what you have expressed is offensive until proven otherwise” world isn’t very surprising.
Aren’t fake slip and fall lawsuits enough?
Everyone, EVERYONE, would benefit if more concrete problems were addressed.
Old time Jim Crow racist crap.
No one said racism doesn’t exist @MadMadMax. I just didn’t see this particular photograph as racist. And if it is meant to be racist, what’s the fool doing with a monkey mask on, sitting between two black guys?
And who are the “two racist white dudes” that you refer to?
I like what @SecondHandStoke said, “Racism is in the eye of the beholder.”
^ Thank you.
I dearly miss my “Prejudice is all in your head” T shirt but it broke over time.
I bought it in a gay bookstore in good ol’ Atlanta, fun days.
I referred to two white dudes based on something I read here. I thought the two people sending the ignorant tweet were white. If they were black, which would be weird since white people have never historically been referred to as primates, then the two black guys are being callous and racist.
If one perpetuates racism look more closely.
You will inevitably find the offender has something to gain from it.
We are primates though!
I have not idea what color the person was who tweeted it. Could have been white and didn’t see that it could be construed as racist. Could have been black and didn’t see anything racist in it.
Plainly racist.
Putting it up as a “one of these things is not like the other” is plainly stating that the other two people in the photograph are indistinguishable from a giant ape.
I assume this was part of a sports exhibition of some type. Was the ape a mascot of a team that was involved? Was there any particularly good reason for Home Depot – a hardware store – to promote a photograph of this sports exhibition in general, or this photo in particular? How do they benefit?
The only answer is that it was a click-through campaign, intended to draw traffic to their Twitter page, to their website, and to get their name in the news. It’s effectively free publicity.
The way to get that free publicity? Do your damnedest to insult someone. In this case, the black community who have been dealing with juxtaposition of blacks as “monkeys” since at least the beginning of the 20th century.
See, I didn’t see it like that, Seek. I just saw a dude with a monkey mask on, and he, obviously, was the different drummer. That’s all I thought.
The photo, then, wasn’t aimed at you.
^ Ha, I didn’t click @muppetish ‘s link. They posted the same one I did.
The implication is as clear as it is damning.
But why isn’t the guy in the monkey mask getting the crap beat out of him, then?
I wasn’t at the exhibition. I don’t know the reason the monkey was there.
The racist bit isn’t the picture itself. It’s the caption WITH the picture.
I’m looking for another example.
Wait…..OK, I had to really dig to find it offensive. The guy in the mask is white (look at his hands)...so to “fit in” with the black guys he put on a monkey mask. That is SO stupid. Or maybe I’m reading something into that isn’t there. Maybe he just had the mask lying around the house and decided to wear it. Maybe he would have worn a different mask he had lying around the house, say, a Darth Vader mask.
^ Yeah. You’re reading too much.
“Two black guys and a monkey. Bet you can’t tell which one’s the monkey.” – that’s it.
That’s basically what I said they were implying. It just didn’t come to mind right away. Like I said, I really had to work at it.
I’m still wondering how the guy in the mask got away with it if it was so bad.
He isn’t the one that posted it on twitter with the stupid caption?
A guy showed up wearing a monkey mask – no big deal.
A marketing employee posts that picture, with that caption, on the twitter of a nationally recognized company – Big fucking deal.
The bigot in the mask wasn’t kicked in the nuts because the caption, together with the pic is the key that unlocks they’re racist bullshit.
There’s nowt inherently racist about a monkey mask, it’s not like the prick wore a Klan hood.
So you don’t think the only white guy among the three wore the mask as a joke, to make fun of black people?
I know little about sports, so I had to look up this particular exhibition.
Apparently College Gameday is a pretty big football event. Doing a quick Google Images search for College Gameday 2013 shows a lot of people in varying degrees of spirit clothing and various costumes, wigs, and full mascot-type getup.
My guess is that the guy in the monkey mask was just in for a bit of fun.
Just another way for the hyper sensitive to make their point. Personally, I do not see the problem. But nobody can deny that there is a part of our milieu that is hyper sensitive. If we do not acquiesce to their hypersensitive needs, we are falling short of our social obligation. We can either say screw them, which is, in some cases, objectively correct, but politically incorrect, or we can pretend that we understand which is objectively immoral, but politically expedient.
I wish, in all and entire honesty, to be so unburdened by my life’s responsibilities to detect this racism out of the corner of my eye.
“If you aren’t outraged you aren’t payi..
Ooh tacos!
I remember when this picture came out all my liberal friends were tittering about it. Then when pictures like this came out, the exact same people were outraged.
The pic is racist, plainly.
@Rarebear posts pics of Bush, which is not racist, but certainly isn’t nice, because it makes fun of someone who is mentally retarded.
The pics of Michelle Obama are racist, because it is obviously payback for the Bush pics, and the emphasis is not on the similar expressions, but simply because she is black.
@filmfann Mentally retarded! HA HA HA HA HA!!!
What’s stupid is that OF COURSE there is a resemblance between us and monkeys! We’re all primates. It’s like making fun of a house cat that looks like a lion.
”...and from all those smart-ass folks say we come descended from monkeys!”
We had common ancestor. The monkeys evolved along a different branch.
^Executive or legislative?
It is racist because somebody says it is. The accusation alone is proof of the transgression.
@filmfann
“Is that your culture and heritage?!”
People for whom this is “obvious” worry me. Good for you, if it’s not obvious, because that means you see no connection between black people and monkeys. (and why would you??)
^ “Obvious” means righteous indignation is part of their self image.
Racism is a negative.
However I don’t have to try to prove who I am by constantly and loudly bitching about it.
If I’m not outraged it’s because I’m busy working.
@Gabby101 That’s about it. The question was “Which of these drummers is different?” When I looked at it I said, “Well, the one in the middle has a monkey mask on. This is a stupid question.” I would have thought the same thing if the one in the middle had a Cinderella mask on.
Although, if the one in the middle had had a Cinderella mask on, Those Who Need To Be Outraged Everyday would have screamed, “That’s implying that the other two are supposed to be lackeys, slaves, servants!! That’s outrageous!!”
It is what you see, I guess.
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