# Is calling a black person an "Ape" a racist remark? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 26, 2013, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-calling-a-black-person-an-ape-a-racist-remark/659386 "2013-05-26T08:28:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-calling-a-black-person-an-ape-a-racist-remark/659386/121 "2013-05-30T01:01:35Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > How? > > Osmosis? The Force? Telepathy? There’s no such thing as common sense or even common understanding when you cross societies, and cultures. > > The whole “Black face” thing was never a part of Australian culture, it was an American thing. Those guys were as much poking fun at US culture as at the Jackson 5. Actually the whole “blackface thing” was a part of Australian culture. Just because you were unaware says more about your ignorance than it does about the existence of that particular bit of racist rot. Maybe not as blatant but still there. Hell I remember watching the black and white minstrel show on the telly! [feature | Maxine Clarke - Overland literary journal](http://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-199/feature-maxine-clarke/) > [@](#): > > Henry Melville’s 1834 play Bushrangers included an Aboriginal character known only as Native. The character was played by a white actor in blackface. ‘Me want baccy and bredley [tobacco and bread] – me long time – me got very old blanket,’ whined Native pitifully. When ‘Blacky’ (as he was endearingly referred to by white characters) was told to dance a corroboree in exchange for the goods, the blackfaced actor up and jigged obligingly. While Charles Chauvel’s 1955 film Jedda was the first Australian film to use Aboriginal actors, the character Half Cast Joe was played by a white man in blackface. Purportedly comedic blackface occurred on Australian prime time television as recently as November 2007, when The Chaser’s War on Everything presenters performed a political ditty to the tune of the Jackson Five’s Blame It on the Boogie. > > > [@](#): > > ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-calling-a-black-person-an-ape-a-racist-remark/659386/122 "2013-05-30T01:08:36Z")
sorry about continuing the black face hijack but missed this > **[Blackface & minstrel shows](https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/arts/black-face-minstrel-shows)** > > White actors mimed Aboriginal characters by wearing blackface, a practice considered normal up until the 1970s. While more and more Aboriginal people play black characters, blackface is still used occasionally, sparking debates about whether it is... > [@](#): > > White actors mimed Aboriginal characters by wearing blackface, a practice considered normal until the mid-1950s . Today more and more Aboriginal people play black characters, but blackface continues to be used occasionally, sparking debates about whether it is racist. > [@](#): > > The earliest blackface appearance in Australia is probably in Henry Melville’s Bushrangers (1834), what is commonly regarded as the first play written and produced in Australia [11]. An Aboriginal character called ‘Native’ makes an appearance played by a white man in blackface. > > Jirra Lulla Harvey, Victorian correspondent for the national Aboriginal newspaper, The Koori Mail, explains that “in Australian minstrelsy Aboriginal characters were redefined according to this global typecasting.” > > “No longer were they Yorta Yorta or Wathaurung, they became simple characterisations of the Black Other. When relegated to this position, Aboriginal characters (and the people they supposedly depict) become laden with cultural stereotypes from across the ages and the seas.” [3] > > The popular bush melodram Trooper O’Brien had white actors in black face who played Aboriginal people as one of the bad things that could happen to a white woman in the exotic bush. > > [Blackface] is a hurtful and degrading history that denied our right to self-representation and helped to create the racial stereotypes that plague our nation today. > —Jirra Lulla Harvey, Aboriginal newspaper reader [11] And here is a perspective from an indigenous person about the topic [http://eurasian-sensation.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/aboriginal-perspective-on-blackface.html](http://eurasian-sensation.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/aboriginal-perspective-on-blackface.html) Here endeth my hijack ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-calling-a-black-person-an-ape-a-racist-remark/659386/123 "2013-05-30T08:33:04Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > McGuire should be sacked…if not for the latent racism in his comments, then surely for his complete and utter fuckwittery. I concur, and enjoyed seeing his rhinophyma - not so pretty now, aye Eddie? (Y’ arrogant moron.) All in all, I think the entire thing is a complete overreaction and proof that there is no such thing as quality journalism anymore. Any piece of crap is Big News. For fuck’s sake - life’s not too bad if so many people can think so hard about what a 13-year-old girl said to a grown man who’s paid to play footy. I am underwhelmed. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-calling-a-black-person-an-ape-a-racist-remark/659386/124 "2013-05-30T11:10:17Z")
Final word from me in this thread, thanks for all the opinions and info. Eddie McGuire fucked up, no doubt . But anyone who genuinely thinks he is a racist is a total fuckwit. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-calling-a-black-person-an-ape-a-racist-remark/659386/125 "2013-05-30T11:20:33Z")
He’s a misogynistic, bullying, egocentric, ignorant, homophobic, fuckwit. He doesn’t have time to be a racist. ---
**Author:** ![blame\_my\_sister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@blame\_my\_sister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blame_my_sister)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-calling-a-black-person-an-ape-a-racist-remark/659386/126 "2013-05-30T11:24:35Z")
[http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4722082.html](http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4722082.html) ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-calling-a-black-person-an-ape-a-racist-remark/659386/127 "2013-05-30T11:55:56Z")
> [@blame\_my\_sister](#): > > [http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4722082.html](http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4722082.html) I said I was finished in this thread, but I had to say that is a damn good article. Well posted. ---
**Author:** ![blame\_my\_sister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@blame\_my\_sister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blame_my_sister)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-calling-a-black-person-an-ape-a-racist-remark/659386/128 "2013-05-30T12:34:06Z")
🙂 I thought so too re: quality article. I was trying to explain to someone else that white supremacy thinking and found your thread and the article… I thought you might appreciate it too so I registered :D… my first and prob only post … ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-calling-a-black-person-an-ape-a-racist-remark/659386/129 "2013-05-30T12:47:58Z")
Stick around. You might enjoy it here.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-calling-a-black-person-an-ape-a-racist-remark/659386/130 "2013-05-30T17:03:21Z")
I’m from London and I brought this up with a mate from Glasgow, we agreed it’s sort of racist on a football pitch. Anything you shout at an opposing player will be taken in the worst, possible light in English or Scottish football, outside of the match usually you’ll talk about games and have a joke about the referee being an idiot. Inside the stadium different rules apply, and the girl needs to understand that. She may have been standing close to people who take exception to her language and decided, in the heat of the moment, to physically correct her or those with her. The footballer could have just been making a point that he wanted her to be able to safely watch the match. He probably has nieces and cousins. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-calling-a-black-person-an-ape-a-racist-remark/659386.md?page=6)