Who Determined Black People Resemble Monkeys?
I woke up this morning, went to the bathroom, and looked in the mirror. I saw a reflection of a thirty-five-year-old black American man—not a monkey. I eat a banana every morning, but I do not resemble a monkey in appearance or behavior. For some reason, though, many black Americans think they resemble monkeys. This is evident from the reaction to the University of Mississippi skirmish.
Last week, Ole Miss was added to the list of major universities swept up in pro-Palestine fanaticism. During a protest, a crowd of white male fraternity students jeered a black woman protesting in favor of Palestine. One of the students appeared to be making monkey gestures at the woman.
A white Ole Miss frat boy dances like a monkey and makes monkey noises near a Black woman who was protesting for Palestine.
— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) May 3, 2024
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I say "appeared" because it is not entirely clear he was making monkey noises and gestures. My first thought was that he was making fun of the woman's weight.
The white student making the alleged gestures has been removed from his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta.
What should have been a local story in Mississippi turned into national outrage. Left-wing corporate media rushed to pump out headlines like "Frat Member Kicked Out Of Group After Making Monkey Noises At Black Woman During Protest" and "Fraternity Boots Bro Who Made Monkey Noises at Black Ole Miss Protester". MSNBC jumped on the opportunity to throw partisan politics into the mix: "Ole Miss shows how Republicans want to pull white fraternities into the campus culture wars".
Nevertheless, it got me thinking: where did the black person/monkey/ape stereotype come from? I've seen and heard plenty of white people get called "mayo monkeys". George W. Bush was portrayed as a monkey by the media, including in the animated series Family Guy. So why does the stereotype stick to black people?
We can largely blame science and the denial of biblical truths.
Terms like "human species" and "races of men" are mere scientific creations; they are absent from The Bible. They belong to the atheistic teachings of "natural development".
The Greek philosopher Plato is widely attributed as the originator of the modern concept of "race". Plato was a descendant of Solon, who was a jurist in ancient Athens. Solon had spent ten years in Egypt, where he had discussions with many Egyptian priests. Amidst these discussions is where Solon first heard of the legendary island of Atlantis, whose existence is still unproven today. Over time, Solon obtained enough information to write a history of Atlantis. However, before he could complete his work, Solon passed away. Plato took the mantle to complete the project. He also passed away before its completion. However, Plato mentioned Atlantis in his other literary works. In one of his books, Critias, Plato frequently referenced the "races of men" in Atlantis.
From there, the ignorance spread. Scientists like Charles Darwin, Ernst Haeckel, John Tyndall, Thomas Huxley, and Alexander Winchell accelerated this thinking. They separated humans into five races ranked in this order: Caucasian, Mongolian, Indian, Malay, and Negro. The Negro's characteristics were deemed similar to apes. Winchell wrote in his 1878 book Adamites and Preadamites, "The face of the Negro occupies the greater portion of the total length of the head. His anterior cranium is less developed than his posterior, relatively to that of the White. His occipital foramen is situated more backward in relation to the total projection of the head, but more forward in relation to the cranium only. In other words, the Negro has the cerebral cranium less developed than the White."
In English, the Negro had a smaller brain and wasn't as bright.
Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species is one of the most bigoted books ever written. Darwin goes through this scientific rigmarole of why people with dark skin are nothing more than wandering beasts.
Winchell, Darwin, and their eighteenth-century contemporaries tried to study the world without the foundation of scriptural doctrine. The Bible teaches that God created Man in his image and likeness, not apes. Man, especially the Negro man, cannot be a descendant of apes. The ape-to-human theory is both foolish and bigoted.
The entire discussion of different human races was started by foolish and bigoted individuals. Yet, people, specifically black people, continue to cherish a legacy of ignorance that many say continues to oppress them. Blacks continue to legitimize the teachings of bigoted human beings by adopting their degenerate theories.
Blacks are the most racist group of Americans. From my personal experiences, conversations with other blacks almost always have racial over and undertones. Fashion choices, food, music. Everything is centered around being black. We will wear overpriced clothing while eating and listening to food and music that destroys us because it is the "black" thing to do. We will make sweeping generalizations about people based on their skin color because we think they might be making sweeping generalizations about us because of our skin color. We will actively seek the worst and most racist interpretation of anything a white person says. All the while believing we are not capable of racism because of a lack of institutional power.
Instead of furthering Charles Darwin or Alex Winchell's racist legacy, we should adopt Booker T. Washington's vision of unity. On November 12, 1902, Washington was invited by the Allentown, Pennslyvania chapter of the Young Men's Christian Association to give a speech about the current social climate in America. He ended his speech by saying, "There are ten million blacks in this country who rise when the white man rises and who are bound to fall if he falls. You cannot separate the destiny of the two." It was a biblically-sound message. He stressed the importance of working together to build a better nation.
Today, black Americans choose to be angered by some white college frat boy in Mississippi making noises and gyrations toward an overweight black woman.
If the stereotype is inappropriate or inaccurate, why give it credence? Why do we continue to acknowledge it?
It doesn't matter if one Ole Miss white guy or every white person in the country thinks blacks look like monkeys. Black people think black people look like monkeys.
