02/19/2009 04:50:42 AM EST

Monkeys, apes, and African-Americans

posted by Sorenzo

Would people PLEASE stop comparing primates with African people?

When reading, please keep in mind I'm not trying to be insensitive to American history of intolerance.

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Hey.
I was just thinking. Okay, so once upon a time, someone got the idea to call African-Americans "monkeys", implying they were less developed.

Can we get past that, already? Do you guys have any idea how stupid a person would be to seriously make that stipulation?

Firstly. Humans are great apes, not monkeys. This makes "monkey" an even less relevant term when talking about humans.
Secondly. Neither monkeys or great apes are less - or more - developed than humans.
Thirdly. The only thing African people have in common with great apes (more so than everyone else) is the fact that they happen to come from Africa. "Race" is not even a biologically viable term; the average difference between "races" is less than the difference between two random people of a certain "race".
Fourthly. You'd have to be a friggin' zombie redneck to have anything against Africans or Arabs or Chinese people or anyone because they don't look exactly like you do. Who cares what idiots think?

My point is... Stick to real issues (like education levels and poverty among minorities), and just forget about idiocy and innuendo coming from people who have absolutely no right to be noticed in the first place. If you want to combat racism, don't make yourself look like a fool by accusing everyone and everything of being racist. Come on, you've got better things to do than convincing the lunatic fringe to be politically correct. 

And I'd be happy to be compared to a chimp. Those things are cute.

And lastly... If you think there are too many racists in America, move somewhere else. Come to Europe. Nice place, no racists and no damned fundies.
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Monkeys, apes, and African-Americans | 12 comments (12 topical, 0 hidden)
like your point (none / 0)
especially like the way you used human evolution and the fact you brought up on how we ARE apes... makes me feel tingly ^.^

by jdiabla on 02/19/2009 05:26:58 AM EST

Euro devaluation (none / 1)
Come to Europe. Nice place, no racists and no damned fundies.

There are no racists in Europe? Bullshit.

by Twba on 02/19/2009 06:11:04 AM EST

Okay (none / 0)
I exaggerated. There are idiots everywhere. Still, Europe is a generally tolerant place. Depending on the country, too, of course.

by Sorenzo on 02/19/2009 06:34:38 AM EST

[ Parent ]
Contrast (none / 0)
Still, Europe is a generally tolerant place.

And America is so intolerant that it elected a black man president.

by Twba on 02/19/2009 06:41:18 AM EST

[ Parent ]
both right (none / 0)
alot more radical groups reside in america becuas in europe they would be taken down becuase they don't stand for that x.x like we ave neo nazis and kkk and europe has.... a couple racist song writers from amsterdam whose only message issepertion of races not abolition of any

by jdiabla on 02/19/2009 08:38:51 AM EST

[ Parent ]
Germany (none / 0)
Have you ever been to Europe?

by Twba on 02/19/2009 09:32:05 AM EST

[ Parent ]
I have to side with twba (none / 0)
who is clearly in the right here. The discussion of racism, intolerance, and extremism certainly doesn't need to be confined to germany either. Most countries in europe the election of a black man is virtually impossible, and not merely because of demographic unlikelihood. Many Europeans are too quick to look down their noses at America, for what they see as a provincial mindset. Don't throw stones if you live in a glass house.

by hazmat on 02/19/2009 10:08:27 AM EST

[ Parent ]
You ain't seen nuthin (none / 0)
Don't even get me started on Australia.

by OneHitKill on 02/19/2009 11:22:06 AM EST

[ Parent ]
are there even natives left alive in australia? (none / 0)
i know there aren't in tazmania but australia isn't europe... even though the people that live there now are from europe. but i'm talking about places like england and france as places that are more tolerant. amsterdam is actually not very tolerant at all from what i've heard... but eh...

by jdiabla on 02/19/2009 11:43:18 AM EST

[ Parent ]
few facts from friends (none / 0)
i asked my ex about germany and the racism there. i got the answer that anyhting even resembling nazi-ism was a crime. also i know some people think whites and black shouldn't live together, but they are ALOT more tolerant than people here.

by jdiabla on 02/19/2009 11:40:40 AM EST

[ Parent ]
To each their own (none / 0)
Germans are certainly less racist toward blacks yet are quite racist toward Turks and Jews. Sort of reverse of the US.

"No, you are a paid blogger assigned to counter anyone that posts something negative about the government or Obama." by Mcamelyne II on 05/17/2011

by Robrob on 02/19/2009 01:56:14 PM EST

[ Parent ]
things that make ya go...Hmmm (none / 0)
First off, if you believe Darwin, we are all evolved from genus apes and specifically chimpanzees, our closest primate relatives. While Africans and African Americans have often faced the stigma of being associated as more closely related to chimps or primates than so-called "white" humans, it is ironic that "black" Americans and Africans in general are most probably MORE highly evolved (and thus less closely related) to chimps. Again we are all primates, all homo sapiens in the same family. Again, ironically, it is the very stigma, their darker skin that is the very raison de etre of said evolution.

Let me explain, the roots of all humans can be traced to Africa about 50,000 years ago, when a small tribe left, presumably moving towards India. At the time, Neanderthals, or homo erectus, was widely spread throughout Europe. We are currently in the new age, the human cold is finally about to be wiped out, we're on the verge of reviving a clone of Neanderthal man and all but ready to revive the Woolly Mammoth from its long frozen sleep in the tundra of the steppes. But there is some evidence that there was in fact a second wave of less evolved humans, homo sapiens, not homo erectus and not neanderthals, which left Africa moving northward into Europe around 30 or 40 thousand years ago. The tribe leaving Africa moves down into Australia, eventually comes back, retracing their steps to India and then splits, half going into Europe and Eurasia and the Americas and half going back into Africa. At this point the Africans have now evolved from the small band of say 10,000 that left, and along with their even darker pigmentation comes the disease of sickle cell anemia.

The pale skin whites evolving in Northern France as hunter gatherers form the stock of the genetic base of much of Europe, but they are eventually conquered by wave after wave moving from India and Russia, the Celts, the Gauls, the Firbolgs, the Milasians, the Goths, the Visigoths, the Franks, the Vikings the Normans the Saxons, the Jutes, the Romans, the Turks. Well, not in that specific order, and there is evidence that the Italians, contrary to their myth of being Trojans lost at sea, were in fact descended from Africans themselves. But the history of Asia minor and northern Africa and the Mediterranean is another ball of wax in itself.

The point here is that we whom are descended from northern European "whites" myself for instance being Irish, are most probably at least partially LESS evolved and thus more closely related to our primate cousins than our black brothers and sisters are. Now, I'm pretty sure that the genes carrying our inferior less evolved traits deal pretty much solely with our skin tone and have no effect on the shape of our cranium or lack of intelligence, but when I see all this white power superiority inferiority complex Nazi trash KKK bullshit, it really makes me wonder.

Whatever you do, don't click this link (studies show you're more likely if you shouldn't)

by tiggerporn on 02/19/2009 01:54:41 PM EST

Monkeys, apes, and African-Americans | 12 comments (12 topical, 0 hidden)
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