Why is the word "monkey" associated with racism

Hopefully this comes before you get slammed with a lot of negativity. "Monkey" is associated with racism because in times of slavery and segregation in the United States, racist whites used this term toward black people. Some even believed that we were closely related to monkeys because of our dark skin. So saying that to a black person is almost as bad as using the n-word. I would refrain from it if I were you.

i think we are all in the same boat as you pitstop, i think things went to far on that one and blown all out of proportion. he does look kinda monkeyish though..:)

Its mine doubt too. It cannot be termed as racism. Its only an insult to physical appearance. Anyway from such controversies the concerned parties get so much publicity. Thats what they meant from this.

It is just the difference in cultures that is playing havoc, leading to as many controversies and criticisms. In australia, as some former cricket player said, calling others "lucky b*stards" is something very common and trivial. It is as common there as it is calling someone "monkey" in India. But we Indians take offense when being called upon "lucky b*stards" by the australians. Similarly, Andrew Symonds happened to be offended with this "monkey" chanting by Indians and allegedly harbhajan. A better solution to sort out these differences would be to completely ban the players of two teams from getting verbal on field. Anybody trying to have a word with the opposite team player should be punished by ICC, regardless of whether he abused or not. There's simply no reason for the batsmen and the fielding team to indulge in talks on field, umpires are always there to mediate if such a situation calls for.

I don't know much about cricket, but I can tell you that the term - at least how I learned it - is asociated with racism. A few years back I was talking with a lady from some organization that fights sterotypes (wish I could remember the name). She told me that people with dark skin as being associated with monkeys. For the life of me I can't remember why. Only that very recently (a few years back) when she was in the north part of the east coast of the US - in a very rural place - that some older person asked her where her tail was. He was wondering where she was hiding it since she was wearing pants. I was very shocked because I thought it was so ignorant and because I had never heard of it before.

We have to accept the fact that we r the descendants of the monkey n as we belong to the same species but thinking the physical appearance of the monkey comparing to u then that would be an insult but it would really matter f u tolerate n this kind of topic..

I have no idea. I would think that "monkey" as a deriative word would be calling that person an animal. Since I do believe that man came from apes, anyone calling anyone a "monkey" would mean that they do not have a soul and are therefore acting or looking like an animal. I have no idea what this term came from, except it must have been in the South. I have read a few books where Negroes (to distinguish them from people of Africa who came from the north or of European stock) were called "c*oons" and "pickaninnies" and the ones who said the former were usually poor whites who did not have a good education. These books were written in the 19th century by the way, but not the term "monkey."

i think moneky word is realted and represent black people ..and because of this monkey is realted to racist word....cheers