Question

[chasovschik.livejournal.com]

Ladies and and Gentlemen,

I need some help. From discussions here I have got an impression that reference to a monkey is racistic. Various posters and signs featuring monkeys were more than once presented here in order to prove the racist nature of anti-Obama movement.

Being born far from here, I'm not sure I fully understand this cultural reference.

Here are two pictures:



First one is from Liberal Street Fighter, 2006, second one is from here, found via Google.

I will highly appreciate the comprehensive explanation: are both pictures racist? If only one, which one and why?


UPD: Thanks everybody, I got it. Could have guessed actually.

Comments

[chasovschik.livejournal.com]

Please elaborate.

[hikarugenji.livejournal.com]

Whites do not have a long tradition of being compared negatively to monkeys; blacks do. Therefore when Bush is drawn as a monkey the implication is simply that he's stupid, but there's nothing racist about it because there's no tradition of "white people = monkeys".

Racist portrayals and language are nothing but tradition and convention. There's no reason why certain words or images should be inherently racist; they become racist due to the tradition and history of use.

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

African Americans were widely caricatured as apes/monkeys in 19th and early 20th century America. It was always used in a racist context and is considered taboo today because of America's tumultuous history of racism.

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

now now now that caricature is still present in the 21st century.

[thebigbadbutch.livejournal.com]

What? Don't you know that as soon as someone says something mean about a white guy it completely erases all racism ever?

[saint-monkey.livejournal.com]

that's REVERSE discrimination, you know.
(don't get me started on THAT term.)