Teacher showed “Monkey Do” photo of black students supported

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ASPartOfMe
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10 Jan 2020, 3:56 am

Show of support for Long Island teacher who showed 'culturally insensitive' photo

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There was a big show of support for a teacher accused showing a culturally insensitive photo during class at a Long Island high school.

Four black students and their families at Longwood High School are planning to file a lawsuit against the teacher who showed the photo of the students taken at the Bronx Zoo in November - along with the caption, "Monkey do."

They want to sue the district for $12 million for emotional distress and violation of their civil rights.

The school board held a meeting Thursday night where more than 100 students and parents showed up to support the teacher.

In fact, so many people showed up that the meeting had to be moved from a classroom to the auditorium.

The district said it was "an unfortunate lapse of judgment," but many students are taking the teacher's side.

"Not only is he a great teacher with high morals and respect by every student in this school, but he pushed me to go into AP chemistry which is one of the harder classes to take," former student Angelene Bailey said.

"What I strongly believe is that this was an unintentional mistake. To terminate this loved and admired teacher by so many coworkers and students will send Longwood back as a community," student Anaya Phillips said.

Of course not everyone agrees.

"We have to remember this is about the students. How will this affect them?" said parent Dr. Beverly Dean.

The plaintiffs' attorney also took the mic at the meeting, but it didn't go over so well.

"It was a lapse of judgment for all those fine Americans, founding fathers who owned slaves. That was a lapse of judgment," said attorney John Ray.

He was met with boos.

Supporters say this teacher has taken a similar photo at the zoo with the same pose and caption for years.

"The students shown in the slide in the presentation has varied over the years and have never been used to represent a single racial or ethnic group," said student Kieran Monaghan


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TheRobotLives
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10 Jan 2020, 6:24 am

In science (evolution) class, aren't kids taught that they're descendants of monkeys?

I just searched it ...

"Humans are not descended from any modern species of monkey; both monkeys and humans are descended from some long-extinct ancestor pre-dating both. Although this species, if it were transferred to today, would be considered a "monkey", it is not any living species of monkey".
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/How_come_ ... monkeys%3F


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Bravo5150
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10 Jan 2020, 8:01 am

TheRobotLives wrote:
In science (evolution) class, aren't kids taught that they're descendants of monkeys?

I just searched it ...

"Humans are not descended from any modern species of monkey; both monkeys and humans are descended from some long-extinct ancestor pre-dating both. Although this species, if it were transferred to today, would be considered a "monkey", it is not any living species of monkey".
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/How_come_ ... monkeys%3F


I understand your point, but I have also heard of the term "monkey" used as a racial slur.



revlar
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10 Jan 2020, 8:34 am

The kids and parents are the ones obsessing about the slur, otherwise they wouldn't have thought about it for that picture. The kids for that picture were probably picked at random, and I doubt the teacher thought consciously or subconsciously, "I'm going to have the four black students pose for this picture."



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10 Jan 2020, 8:36 am

I'm not aware of having any black ancestry . I remember , when waiting for the geography teacher to come in to take a class , being subjected to monkey chants by most of my classmates .



Drake
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10 Jan 2020, 10:16 am

firemonkey wrote:
I'm not aware of having any black ancestry . I remember , when waiting for the geography teacher to come in to take a class , being subjected to monkey chants by most of my classmates .

You're making me curious about your username now... :)



CarlM
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10 Jan 2020, 10:53 am

When I first saw this story I was incredulous that a local teacher would make this faux pas. If there is evidence this was not racist, then the lawsuit is even more ridiculous than in initially seemed. I've been known to make a ethnic faux pas, and then think 'did I just say that?'. Then you don't know whether to apologize, since that would just confirm you realize it was insensitive.


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firemonkey
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10 Jan 2020, 10:55 am

Drake wrote:
firemonkey wrote:
I'm not aware of having any black ancestry . I remember , when waiting for the geography teacher to come in to take a class , being subjected to monkey chants by most of my classmates .

You're making me curious about your username now... :)



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kraftiekortie
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10 Jan 2020, 10:56 am

You really have to dot your "i's" and cross your "t's" these days----as well as mind your "p's" and "q's."



Borromeo
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10 Jan 2020, 11:31 am

$12 million in damages for emotional distress & violation of civil rights. Meanwhile there are enough human rights problems happening throughout America, and we want these people to be made millionaires when they ended up in a marginally embarrassing photograph.

They may have been in front of the monkey house at the zoo and they were making a pun off "monkey see, monkey do." I'd be more worried about the teacher's competence in grammar. "Monkey see, monkey do" is a goofy contraction for "what the monkey sees, he does." But it seems the teacher uses it for "those who see the monkey, do as the monkeys do." Which sounds like some pseudo-tribal quotation by some voodoo man in an old silent movie.

What a crock of entitled monkey crap, artfully thrown across the front page of the newspaper. Maybe they should duct-tape a banana to it and sell it in an art gallery to recoup the legal fees.


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ASPartOfMe
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10 Jan 2020, 11:44 am

Even way back when I was young linking monkeys and blacks was considered close to if not equal to n****r as a racial slur. If a teacher tried to take a picture like that of blacks at my high school that there would not have been suit, there would have been a riot.

The claim is that he always took a pictures of students like that during Bronx Zoo field trips. Until I see pictures of white students under a caption of “Monkey Do” I am not buying it. Not only did it say Monkey Do but the way the students are walking together heads bent is reminiscent of slavery.

One major problem with our political correctness and call out culture regimen is that even when bigotry or offense is obvious it is going to dismissed as snowflakes seeing racism in innocent jokes or faux pas.

Even if I am mistaken and he took a Monkey Do pictures of students all the time doing it with black students shows such an utter level of cluelessness as to wonder if he should be a teacher at all

Somewhat Off topic:
The original and ensuing “Planet of The Apes” movies are considered racial allegories.
Roseanne Barr and the not-so-subtle racism in her reference to 'Planet of the Apes'

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In 1968, critics made much of "The Planet of the Apes" as a racial allegory. It was 1968, after all, and as I never tire of saying: movies are not made or seen in a vacuum. In 1999, Eric Greene published a study of the initial five-film "Apes" series called "'Planet of the Apes' as American Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture." The publisher noted

“The Apes films confronted some of the most controversial issues of the time, including Vietnam and the Black Power movement, all the while remaining crowd pleasing box office hits.”


“Planet of the Apes” in reference to black people is considered a slur today.
Urban Dictionary

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ABC canceled its No. 1 show, Roseanne, on Tuesday after Barr implied in a tweet that Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Obama, looked like a character from 1968’s Planet of the Apes. Jarrett is multi-ethnic with African-American heritage.


Urban Dictionary
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The term "Planet of the Apes" generally refers to any gathering of five or more people of the African American community.
This could be anywhere from schools, jobs, KFC, ect.
The term is mainly used by those who are racist or prejudice towards the African American community.

A movie portraying what would happen if the whole world was like Ferguson


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Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 10 Jan 2020, 12:57 pm, edited 9 times in total.

Borromeo
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10 Jan 2020, 12:40 pm

Good point. Thanks for bringing that up--I tend to forget things because I don't like thinking about racism. You're right I suppose.

Let's see if anything comes of this. Hopefully it will be resolved by the people involved, while Wrong Planet runs a thirty-page thread on the subject five weeks after it's over.


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ASPartOfMe
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10 Jan 2020, 1:09 pm

CarlM wrote:
When I first saw this story I was incredulous that a local teacher would make this faux pas. If there is evidence this was not racist, then the lawsuit is even more ridiculous than in initially seemed. I've been known to make a ethnic faux pas, and then think 'did I just say that?'. Then you don't know whether to apologize, since that would just confirm you realize it was insensitive.

We grew up at a time when the use of “ethnic humor” and the use of slurs was common and in certain contexts not considered offensive so sometimes in the moment we do forget it is 2020.

I would apologize because you do know it is insensitive.


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10 Jan 2020, 1:09 pm

Borromeo wrote:
Let's see if anything comes of this. Hopefully it will be resolved by the people involved, while Wrong Planet runs a thirty-page thread on the subject five weeks after it's over.

:D


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10 Jan 2020, 6:42 pm

TheRobotLives wrote:
In science (evolution) class, aren't kids taught that they're descendants of monkeys?

I just searched it ...

"Humans are not descended from any modern species of monkey; both monkeys and humans are descended from some long-extinct ancestor pre-dating both. Although this species, if it were transferred to today, would be considered a "monkey", it is not any living species of monkey".
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/How_come_ ... monkeys%3F

That is why it is a slur. If you call blacks monkeys what you are saying is that unlike whites blacks have not evolved. That is white supremacy.


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10 Jan 2020, 6:50 pm

Black people and evolution: aren't they like super-evolved for their environment, just like white people did for theirs?


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