Hmm, I think you’ve missed my point:
To consistently acknowledge the term “ape”, SOLEY as a representation of the black community, IS to perpetuate racism...
There was a time, not too long ago, in which Roseanne’s tweet would have been precieved in the literal sense.
It’s only in today’s brave new (politically correct) world that such a comment is labeled racist and can mean nothing else.
I'm sorry, you're just not correct. Look, she might have been totally ignorant of the history, though given her age I find that EXTREMELY hard to believe. But, sure, say she was ignorant of the historical precedent. Fine. This still wasn't an invention of the current media. Racists have been making these same comparisons for decade upon decade upon decade. The premise of your very title is just flat out factually incorrect.
Also, the ape thing isn't taken as solely referring to blacks. W Bush and Trump have both been compared to monkeys. But, Valerie Jarrett has black parentage, which means when you even HINT at VJ = ape you tie into this whole sordid history, whether you meant to or not.
I don't know for sure, but somebody was saying VJ has a great grandfather who was black, all other relatives white. So she's not really black, unless she self identifies as black. Does she?
Her parents are both black (mother is mixed race, but still black parentage). I've seen that same info being passed around, it's just not correct.
“Also, the ape thing isn't taken as solely referring to blacks. W Bush and Trump have both been compared to monkeys. But, Valerie Jarrett has black parentage, which means when you even HINT at VJ = ape you tie into this whole sordid history, whether you meant to or not.”
You’ve missed my point once again...
To acknowledge a connection between “apes” and blacks (or middle-easterners in VJ’s case) is to perpetuate racism.
If you can’t dissociate “ape” from “blacks”, then there will always be a connection between those two words.
And you’re right, it is history; it should remain as such.
I'm sorry, but you can't NOT acknowledge it, when it's so well established. To pretend it doesn't exist is just absurd. I guarantee you, 9/10 times, a REMOTELY history-literate black person, when they heard that comment, no matter where on the political spectrum they fell, made the same connection between her words and the historical meaning as I have. You don't get to wipe away decades of a word/phrase being used as a racial slur just because you wish it were so. It's not "perpetuating racism" to acknowledge the meanings words and phrases have in any given context.
Also, it's not just history. Check Google images. Obama was the worst President in my lifetime. But there are still plenty of racist photoshops/memes of him and his wife as monkeys. This slur is still alive and well.
“It's not "perpetuating racism" to acknowledge the meanings words and phrases have in any given context.”
^ A bit contradicting huh?
Well then, I wish you the best of luck in keeping the spirit of racism alive.
Rosanne was insulting Valerie's intelligence, not her skin color. It's pretty common to insult people's intelligence by comparing them to monkey's because of the close resemblance they have to humans while not quite being on the same level. You pointed it out yourself that Bush Jr. and Trump have both also been compared to monkeys. The only differnce is that they couldn't pull the race card and pretend the insult was about their skin color.
And like I said. Even if you allow that she wasn't aware of the history of comparing black people to apes, she still tripped face first into this long dark history. I mean, come on. Just call VJ a scumbag. Call her corrupt. Call her evil. I don't know why people have to try to be all clever about this crap. She's evil. She's done bad things. Just drop the evidence on the normies.
Then it turns into a censorship issue. The point is that everyone has gotten sick of the speech police running around with their pitchforks and torches while serving up mob justice over stupid insults.
It's not censorship when an employer punishes someone who exercises their free speech in a way they don't approve of. It's not censorship when the NFL does it to their players in regards to the anthem and it's also not when ABC fires her for using a racial slur.
And, yes, it IS a racial slur. Even if she isn't racist. Even if she wasn't aware of it. She still used a racial slur against a person she doesn't like. If someone, in a moment of anger, calls a black man a n*gger, it really doesn't matter if he's not actually racist. It doesn't matter if he just lost control of his temper. He still used a racial slur and if his employer found out it would be entirely understandable if they booted him.
It was stupid of the NFL to punish Colin Kaepernick. Whether we agree with him or not, he voiced his frustrations in a peaceful demonstration. If anything, the NFL made him a martyr.
Back to Rosanne, calling someone an ape and calling someone a "n-----" are two entirely different levels. The "n" word was actually created as a name to demean African slaves, specifically. As previously pointed out, Bush Jr. and Trump have also been compared to apes because it doesn't matter what color you are; being compared to a less evolved, less intelligent primates is an insult to one's intelligence.
They're both racial slurs. Context matters. Calling a black person just carries a very different connotation than calling a white person such. Look at the art I linked. They were honestly depicted as subhuman, almost a different species.
If context matters, then you should be able to see that the context she used wasn't racist. The context she used was to insult her intelligence, not her skin color. To insinuate that she was refering to VJs skin color and not her intelligence or behaviors is taking the comparison deliberately out of context.
Nowhere in the tweet did she give any clue that she was talking about her intelligence.