A post for reflection - If the lady who said "monkey" had been a Clinton delegate...

[Bolo Boffin]

...would you be saying the same thing then that you are now? After all, the lady who said what she did to those children could just as easily have been a Clinton delegate. She is a Latina, and Clinton has very strong Latino support. It's only the vagaries of chance that she was an Obama delegate. If the support had been reversed, would your rhetoric here be different?

I have no doubt that we will get a lot of "Of course I would!" That's all well and good, and I'm happy to take you at your various words.

But in your heart of hearts, you know the truth. And I'm begging you to think about this for a while. Clinton and Obama advocates both, think about this. If a Clinton delegate had said a bunch of African-American children were acting like monkeys, would you Obama advocates have been apoplectic with rage? Would you Clinton advocates be talking about monkey bars and remembering the good old days when your granddaddy called you his little monkey?

I'm an Obama supporter, but I'm not a Clinton hater. I'm surfing around GDP these days looking for what I'd consider to be legitimate criticism of either candidate, and what I'd consider silly criticisms of either candidate. You'll probably find me defending Obama more than Clinton, but you will find me defending Clinton as well.

Personally, I find the monkey controversy very overblown. It's a potentially offensive statement because of the history, and I sure as hell wouldn't have called someone else's child a monkey. But I regularly refer to myself as a monkey (even though I know that monkeys and great apes are different). It pleases me to do so. I find it spiritual in a way to reflect on just how much of an monkey I really am. I tell these dogs at my feet this all the time. "You are the dogs and I am the monkey!" It doesn't impress them very much, but I feel better. And as long as I'm the only one with opposable thumbs, they will just have to deal with it.

So I can say with confidence that I would be saying the same thing. It has nothing to do with the candidate the delegate supported. It was a ill-advised statement, but it could have been a lot less arbitrary in its offensiveness. She could have actually called them monkeys. She could have called them far worse. But she didn't.

So think about this, and when another feverish issue comes down the pike (as it will, it will), before you jump in and add to the heat, reverse the roles and think about what you would be typing if by chance the outrage was on the other foot. If you can get to a place where your reaction would be the same, when you can defend or criticize each candidate based on principles rather than Your Candidate Sucks And My Candidate Will Save Humanity, then perhaps we will be shedding light on these subjects and not heat.

[housewolf]

1. As far as I know, I'm the OP of the "monkeys in a tree" thread this afternoon

I posted it because I thought it was completely inane that someone would have been forced to resign as a delegate because of it, much less be charged a $75 fee. I think it's a case of political-correctness severe over-reach.

I was curious to see what the response of tother DU'ers was to the story.

But... wow... I gotta tell you, I sure didn't expect that it would light the fire that it's lit!

And, I gotta say, I'd have the same reaction regardless of whichever candidtate the delegate supported.

DU... we'll argue over anything, I guess!

:yourock:

[Bolo Boffin]

3. Thanks for that.

:patriot:

[rodeodance]

2. The DU board would have crashed under the weight of smearing/blaming hillary

[Bolo Boffin]

4. You have done well in deciding what others would have done.

This is, however, a post calling for self-reflection.

[rodeodance]

6. ha ha--I have lived this board.

[Nailzberg]

5. It would be just as ridiculous.

I guess every parent who's told a kid to quit monkeying around is a racist.

[Bolo Boffin]

7. I'm glad to be finding this sentiment on the board.

But if the lady had just told the kids to quit horsing around, we wouldn't be talking about this.

Of course, of course.

[SunsetDreams]

8. I think this was over blown personally...

regardless of which candidate it involved.

Don't monkeys(primates) climb in trees?

I know it has been used as a racial term before, but in this instance, I honestly think it was just a reference of climbing in trees.

Again, context is everything.

Do we now need to rename monkeys?

what should we call them? tree climbers? nanner eaters?