Damn. That should say “assume.”
Yes it is, obviously and blatantly racist to the point that i don’t understand why it is even in question.
Yep, it is racist, no question.
Also, on a technical level, all human beings are in fact apes. This isn’t something that is polite to point out in any company, however. “Ape” has long been a racial insult to dark skinned people. I suppose if people made a concerted effort to call Donald Trump an orangutan often, then it might just start referring to uncouth idiots. But then orangutans and other apes might get offended.
(UK)
Yes, yes and hell yes - Do Not Do It.
These discussions always get bogged down by whether or not the person in question has racist feelings in their heart, or similar bullshit. It doesn’t matter, and we’ll never know. Comparing black people to monkeys or apes has a long racist history, and it’s utterly inappropriate to refer to someone like that. If she didn’t know before, she does now. Ignorance is no excuse. The feelings of a spoiled little girl rank FAR below the feelings of the man she insulted. I don’t know if she knew it was racist, but she absolutely knew it was mean.
I recall seeing a little boy who called his mother a bitch. He knew it was an insult, but he had NO IDEA how bad of an insult it was. Well, he found out when his mother whipped around and told him he would never ever use that word again. It was an appropriate response; how else will he learn the gravity of what he’s done? Same here.
Really, one should think twice before using any animal-related epithet for historically discriminated against minorities.
I may be reading too much into this, but I don’t think the footballer being upset at the girl is really about the girl. I’m sure he expects racial epithets from adults. I think the reason teenager saying it made it worse is because it’s 2013, for fuck’s sake. We’re supposed to be more enlightened than that, and yet here’s proof that the same racist bullshit is going to continue on with this newer generation.
I don’t think that calling a black person an ape is racist in the sense of “jungle bunny”* or similar taunts that explicitly try to associate blacks with a negative trait that is (believed to be) common to them. However, ape has been the fall-back insult for groups identified according to ethnicity for quite a while. (Interestingly, referring to the Irish immigrants, (or transportees), as apes was pretty prevalent in early Australian history.) Once a slur used used as a default ethnic taunt, any later use is going to be influenced by that history.
As to the earlier reference to “big ape,” that would tend to be different usage, more similar to “big lug” as a somewhat affectionate, (if occasionally dismissive), personal appellation that was not connected to an ethnic slur.
*Jungle bunny would be directed at people of African ancestry rather that aboriginal Australians, but it illustrates the point I am attempting.
We’re all Apes and we need to stop taking this as an insult or indulging in recreational outrage about it. Call a white guy an Ape, it’s ok, call a minority an ape and it’s a horrific insult? No, Get The Fuck Over It.
It does partly depend upon context and regionality of the speaker.
Round my way its not unusual to call some dimwitted person a ‘daft apeth’.
If that were applied to a black person, its easy to see how the error could be made, but its a part of our regional language and has a different context.
Some folk might also think the word ‘niggardly’ is racist too - again, it isn’t unless there is a certain amount of deliberate twisting of the proper meaning.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apeth
shortened version of half-penny worth, in other words not a full penny, so of course it would be impossible for the person to get a clue because the whole penny would never drop
also i don’t get why am i not allowed to call them “darkies”
i mean they are dark-colored, right?
it’s PC gone mad is what it is
Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the situation, but how does a particular footballer pick out the individual person in what, I’m assuming (yeah, I know), is a large crowd for the match while simultaneously playing the game? Was she being so loud and obnoxious that she gained the attention of the player on the field?
I’ve never been to a professional soccer match, but even at the minor leage baseball ballpark, someone would have to be extremely loud and animated right over the dugout to have the players be able to hear the insult and know exactly where it came from. In that case, yes, she should have been expelled for hurling the insult and generally being a disruption for the player, the team and the other fans.
The capacity of the ground is around 100k. I would estimate that the crowd would have been at least 85,000.
The secondary question stemming from the OP’s,
If the term is racist, but not widely used in that context, nor even understood to be racist by the seeming majority of people ( in Australia only ) is it fair for this 13 year old girl to be publicly accused of racism, have her photo plastered all over newspapers, tv and internet and not be able to publicly defend her actions?
He held press conferences to highlight this issue of racism, saying how much more it hurt hearing that comment from a young girl, that he had to take a stand to fight racism etc etc. All well and good, and the right thing to do.
She has apologised to the offended footballer, in a phone call, where she explained that she was not aware that the term was racist (making her one of the majority who were unaware until now )and where he apparently explained why the term was racist to him. He has acknowledged her apology, so I assume that he understands that her intent was not to be racist.
Should he now withdraw his public accusation of racism, acknowledging that she had no intention of racially vilifying him ( or anyone else ) and that both had made a mistake.
In this instance, she had sideline seats, and the flow of play had Goodes only a couple of feet away from her. Footage Here
^
the crowd was only about 65,000 Friday night, I was there but in the other forward pocket.
As to how he heard the girl, she was sitting front row on the fence and yelled at him when he was no more than 10-15 metres away so he would have heard her clearly.
There’s been a lot of debate about the merits of the term and it does seem that a large number of Aussies (maybe not a majority but certainly a large number) did not realise the term was racist. Me included.
hence the tread, I’m curious as to whether this is a generally accepted racist term elsewhere or not. The answer appears to be mixed and context is important.
I suppose the question really should be, to a “black” person, if someone called you an Ape would you consider that an insult based on your appearance or would you consider it to be a racist remark or both. (or neither?)
The great broadcaster Howard Cosell, carried away during a spectacular American football play, described a smallish black player as “scampering down the field like a monkey!” It was an innocent remark by a fair minded man but it cost him his job. I innocently accused a young black man of having a bad attitude once and learned those are fightin words because for centuries in the US a black person who considered him/herself equal to whites was said to have an attitude problem. There is real evil in the history behind these insults, it’s not just political correctness.
Consider me better educated. 
As a pink USAian, I generally refrain from making comparisons of people to critters outside of my immediate circle, where we know one another well enough to joke like that.
I would hope that the apology was as well publicized as the original incident to further fight ignorance.
I couldn’t. teenagers are experts at finding ways to tear others to shreds.
I find it totally plausible that the girl didn’t actually think of it as a racist taunt when she said it. It was hashed out last night on a local board I go to, and I was honestly surprised how many adult folk were saying they didn’t know ape/monkey etc as a racist term.
But. Just because she doesn’t think of it as racist, doesn’t necessarily lessen the impact to the person hearing it. It’s really the verbal equivalent of a rock tossed up in the air at random. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean that rock to hit you in the head” - well, you may not have meant to, but you did throw the rock and it did hit someone in the head, so you may be less culpable than if you set out to brain them, but that doesn’t mean not culpable at all. You don’t want something you say to be taken as a racist taunt? Then don’t taunt.
On the other other hand, now she’s apologised, Goode has accepted it, that should be the end of the matter. The public shaming is all rather OTT, and I think there’s an element in these cases where people just love getting on their high horse and pointing fingers, partly in order to convince themselves and other that they would never do anything so horrendous, and isn’t it nice that there are all these people around doing things that are bad, so we can congratulate ourselves on how good we are by comparison. She did something stupid. She’s thirteen. These things often go together. Plastering her face over the internet for it isn’t right either.
No, it didn’t. Assuming you are talking about the 1973 incident. He was also not fired for the 1983 incident, but retired at the end of the season.