Does this seem racist to you?

I think his story was aimed more at illegal immigrants (read: Hispanics) than Blacks. So no, the monkey correlation is probably just coincidental.

 

If you think it was an intentional link, then do you also think he would have left out the anecdote if not for a black president? Or should he have changed the subject to squirrels?

 

I would say that I'm not sure, but probably he was being racist. It was a strange anecdote to use. That period of British history tends to be swept under the carpet and I don't think refering to the ghosts of imperialism in a light hearted manner is at all wise. Certainly racism could be read into his monkey comparison, and by even leaving it to be ambiguous, that would seem to indicate it was actually his intention to make a racist joke. I didn't like him anyway - not someone I would get along with.

 

I remember Al Franken on SNL. I thought his skits were funny, though repetitive. My fav thing from SNL was probably Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey - they are priceless.

I don't know enough about this guy to make a judgement, but I can see how someone could interpret it as racist. I would say that in politics or anywhere really, the word monkey can be interpreted that way if someone is thinking about racism and knows of that usage

http://www.catallaxyfiles.com/blog/?p=849


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how do you conclude this guy is racist? just from some name mentioned??? I thought racism is a crime and there should be innocence presumption.

For me it seemed he was comparing Washington bureaucrats with monkeys. A fair joke in any country

 

I don't interpret his words as racist. I think he attacks his opponents with a degrading comment about their intelligence, rather than their race. I think the word "monkey" can be used as a derogatory term for people with supposedly lower intelligence, in this example the Obama Administration.

Unless there's some special meaning the word "monkey" has in America.

Franken looks like a monkey too. And he was a comedian...

 

Nope, wasn't racist to me. I don't really know where he was going with that, but it was really nothing more then a story.

 

Not racist, are you racist?

 

Ahhhh.

This is a bit controversial, if only because the name "monkey" has been used to describe African Americans in a negative light...but, I think this was an honest mistake. I think he was - as many people can be - ignorant of his choice of words, but this was a far less hateful gaff than say, Howard Cosell's "little monkey" remark.

Still, if you're a politician and you're playing to your audience you *have* to know what might politically charge your opponents. His speech writer should have double checked this, or he should've let someone else read over his notes. Or he needs more African American friends.

 

Based on everyone's comments, I feel I'm missing the context for understanding this. I'm not catching the relation between the monkeys on the golf course and the current administration, or the names he mentioned.

The first minute of his speech made me cringe though. All in all, someone from whom I didn't get a great vibe.

 

In a counter-intuitive way, this might be good for race relations. We all ought to mention monkeys as often as possible so that the word loses its strength of negative connotation. We can't let a few racist morons usurp such common words for their own bigotry.

 

"Must I be the butt of everyone's anecdotes?"

 

It's not an easy context to grasp, actually, and it was incredibly subtle. The transition in the last thirty seconds of the clip between the story of the monkeys on the golf course and stating that the monkeys are still grabbing the ball in DC can *subtly* insinuate that the President is a monkey - because he's African American and supposedly (in racist circles) African Americans look like monkeys. It depends on how you see it, and it depends on how you take it. I don't think he was smart enough to pull that off and mean it.

 

Yeah, I got a different message from it (as indicated in post #2). I doubt even most of the audience members understood exactly what he was getting at.

 

ROFL! Well, we use 'em enough on this forum. I think this alone makes us less biggoted.

 

Of course! DJ, MOAR MONKEYS!

 

Well it's such a cute butt.

 

That is the sole most racist thing I have ever heard throughout my entire life!