(06-01-2015, 11:34 PM)Brettie link Wrote:That's your interpretation PI2C.....no-one else's (that's 'cos apparently we're all racist according to you)I agree with PI2C. When you need to preface a comment by saying that you hesitate to make it for fear of it being called racist, that's a pretty good clue that it shouldn't be said.
There are some associations or words that have a limited geographical history as racist put downs. For instance, referring to an indigenous youth as a boy or using blackface in impersonations is not likely to spark outrage here though it would create a firestorm in the US. But comparing blacks to apes or monkeys is incredibly offensive to every black racial grouping. It's an easy comparison to make given that the apes and monkeys used in those comparisons have dark fur. Yet we know the physical comparison is just a convenient cover for an assertion that they are sub-human. Given that African-Americans and Indigenous Australians have unfortunately suffered a history of being subjugated and stripped of rights, that comparison cuts to the core. Remember how Andrew Symonds reacted when the Indians called him a monkey or the Sri Lankans reacted when the Australian cricketers told them to stop chattering like monkeys? Remember when there was a furore when Eddie McGuire suggested they should get Goodes to play King Kong?
Why then, knowing that the comparison was problematic, would anyone compare that dance with a chimpanzee charge? It didn't further the argument being advanced AT ALL. Was it being suggested that those who created the dance were copying chimpanzees? If so, that's nonsense. The dance is a fusion of moves from the traditional dances of various tribes throughout Australia.
Strangely enough, the chimp charge and battles in which troupes of chimpanzees go to war against each other are often seen as examples in which chimpanzees behave like humans and there has been debate as to whether this is a natural behaviour or one that is influenced by interactions with humans. These behaviours are often used by evolutionary biologists and "man-watchers" to consider human interactions. How odd that this is now been inverted by suggesting indigenous Australians are acting like chimpanzees.
I have no doubt that the comment was racist, although that doesn't mean the poster is racist. It's a good lesson that if any of us has an inkling that a comment (s)he proposes to post could be seen as racist, then don't do it.