Absolutely agreed. I do believe, though, that this indicates that the descriptor “jungle” for Black/other relationships precedes the Spike Lee film. Most of the people participating in this thread (I believe) are white and generally liberal; it may have been a more common term among those more concerned with race matters, ie the African-American and explicitly racist communities, both of whom would have more reason to discuss interracial relationships on a regular basis than the rest of the folks.
As noted earlier in the thread, the word comes from Hindi, and it came into English via the British encounter with India. Most of the early appearances of the word in English texts are in texts dealing with India.
By the mid-nineteenth century it was being used with reference to other places - the Middle East, Southern Africa and even (figuratively) England. The earliest usages that may refer particularly to African-Americans seem to be from the early twentieth century; "jungle’ became a slang term for a hoboes’ camp, though this could be either because many hoboes were black, or simply because the camp as seen as a chaotic and lawless place. However, shortly after that you have the emergence of terms like “jungle music”, a derogatory term for jazz, and that’s definitely a racial reference.
Huh. I never knew ‘Yellow Fever’ meant anything more than a term for a mosquito-borne viral fever that causes (amongst other symptoms) jaundice in its victims.
Ignorance fought. Albeit that this other usage of the term isn’t very useful to me.