Costco's Little Monkey, uh, problem

That's exactly the term of endearment our maid used for her husband, when I was growing up in the 60's: lil monkey. I'm jus' sayin.

That anyone sees this as anything other than a baby doll with a pet shows how prejudiced we still are.

Here in Ireland, 'cheeky monkey' is a term of endearment (and mild censure) for a cute-sassy child.

Still tho, this isn't an Irish story - were the marketing people drunk when they let this slip through? The alarm-bells should have made their ears bleed. Bloody hilarious! :-)

Really . . . is there anything that is not offensive these days to someone somewhere? I often wonder if there is not some Island of Recalled Items somewhere where all the toys-that-were-going-to-be, but were pulled off the shelves are not wandering around with neurosis. This sensitivity thing is going a little too far.

Thom
http://thom-signsofastruggle.blogspot.com/

Sillinessss, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The company also made white dolls with the monkey, no?

Racist whites are not going to purchase black dolls for their children. Blacks, if offended would not purchase the dolls. So we're left with market forces determining whether or not the dolls stay on the shelves. To pull them seems absurd. The accumulating dust on the boxes ought to guide the decision.

I actually thought this was a Christianist/Evolution issue until I read the comments. I still think I may be right.qmx7f3

I honestly would not have thought a thing of this without the benefit of this post. Are there really that many people who equate monkeys and black people? What a weird thing to have jump into your mind.

"Since we still have Republican politicians in the South referring (disparaging) to Michele Obama as a monkey, I can't imagine why people should be so sensitive... (jeez)"

While I don't think people SHOULD be so sensitve, the fact of the matter is that many people are too sensitive about many things.

One has to live under a rock not to know that black people don't like comparisons to monkeys. FTR record, I don't think a black person being upset about this is a case of being too sensitive, and I'm a decidedly anti-P.C. kinda guy.

Now I don't think the company making toy, or Costco, intended a racial connection between black babies and monkeys. I mean, after all they want to sell them and I don't think they were going for the KKK demographic here. So when I saw the photo on this posting I immediately thought, "How astronomically stupid."

I await Richard Bottom's take on this (though he may have posted something while I'm writting this).

Comparing black people to apes of any sort is one of those racial landmines that a number of white people are oblivious to. I remember when I lived in the area, a white TV weather reporter in Detroit got fired for trying to make a cute remark that linked a zoo gorilla (shown onscreen for some reason during her report) to "choclate-skinned" men, something from a previous news report on that same program. She had no clue, but lost her job right as a result. The word "niggardly" (as in stingy) is another landmine that goes off now and again. It sounds too much like the well-known racial slur.

Richard Bottoms,

Why is that you get to lay down the law about what everyone else can and cannot say -- and in such an obnoxiously self-righteous manner -- yet still reserve the right to take Jesus Christ's name in vain ("Jezuz") without batting an eyelash about it?

Ram
October 8, 2009 3:56 PM
Richard Bottoms,

Why is that you get to lay down the law about what everyone else can and cannot say -- and in such an obnoxiously self-righteous manner -- yet still reserve the right to take Jesus Christ's name in vain ("Jezuz") without batting an eyelash about it?

****

I'm more interested in why (and how) Eminem, Tarantino, and Smith got permission.

Richard Bottoms,

Why is that you get to lay down the law about what everyone else can and cannot say -- and in such an obnoxiously self-righteous manner -- yet still reserve the right to take Jesus Christ's name in vain ("Jezuz") without batting an eyelash about it?

Because I'm black.

But you go right ahead and say "n*****r please" to the next black person you meet and let me know how that turns out for you.

Tarantino gets a pass because he obviously understands black folks and he shows the respect to icons like Pam Grier. Eminem is the first white boy who can actually rap.

As for every other white person (and to paraphrase Tarantino) your n****r privileges have been revoked.

I don't care if you don't like it. I'm not the one who'll be forced to crawl and beg for forgiveness if you do use it.

And as a side note, the same rule pretty much applies to how and why the term b***h is used. Sexist jerks like Limbaugh have had their b***h privileges revoked. But Michelle Pfeiffer's line in Batman Returns is still great: "Life's a b***h, now so am I."

This is one of those issues that many white people -- especially those who *don't* come from a racist family and thus have never heard "monkey" used as a racial slur -- are truly and totally oblivious to. I used to be clueless as well. At the same time, many African Americans don't realize that white folks call their *own* children "monkey" all the time!

So you get situations where a white mom sits next to a black mom on a park bench and says to the black mom, "Your daughter is so cute! She's quite the little monkey, isn't she?" Oops.

Most of the time it's just a big cultural misunderstanding, and I'm sure that's what happened here. Once you know the history of the situation, however, you have to err on the side of the person who feels insulted by the term. How would you feel if someone called your daughter a "wh*re"? Would it make a difference if you discovered that that word was a term of endearment in the other person's culture? It might help you feel less offended, but you would still want them to stop using the term in your presence. And you certainly wouldn't want them to market a cute little doll with a headband that said "wh*re" to your child. If they want to continue to refer to their *own* child by that term, that's fine. But common courtesy would mandate that they not call your daughter that.

naturalmom, most of what you say, I agree with. But jeez louise, what kind of person, of any color, would refer to someone else's child as "a monkey"? I would never have done such a thing, on any playground. Comparing people to animals is almost never in good taste. I guess you can say that someone swims like a fish, but that's about it. By calling some random woman's child a monkey, I would expect to get punched in the face in short order, whatever the color. What you call your own children is, of course, your business, but assuming other people are going to like that too seems kind of presumptuous.

Well, I call my children monkeys sometimes, and also their friends, e.g., "Hey, you monkeys, come inside and have some cookies." I don't think Costco intended harm with their toy. But it was a stupid mistake, the kind you just don't expect companies to make nowadays.

Well Sigaliris, I hear people around here call children (their own and others') monkey all the time. I've had more than one person call my own children monkeys -- in a totally innocent, "what a great climber he is" kind of way. My children are black/white bi-racial, and have darkish skin and hair. I didn't take offense, because I knew their intent and their ignorance of the slur, but not everyone would react the same. Heck, *I* call them monkeys sometimes -- it was so commonly used in my childhood that it just comes out.

From the Snopes page: "Costco still vends a version of the "Cuddle with Me" doll that features pandas and clothing that reads "Pretty Panda." Like the "Lil' Monkey" doll, the "Pretty Panda" version is available in Caucasian, Hispanic, and African-American variants."

http://www.snopes.com/racial/business/cuddlewithme.asp

Well, naturalmom, I live and learn. I'm genuinely surprised, but if you say so, I'll believe you. Still, the fact that I'd never, ever call another person's child a monkey, while to you it's no big deal, proves that people have different reactions to things, and therefore we should be considerate of each other. Rather than boldly asserting our right to stuff our preferences down other people's throats, which seems to be the theme of the "suck it up, monkey boy" brigade. (Not you, of course. I'm addressing others now.) When I was a child back in the Paleolithic, leaving my footprints among those of the dinosaurs, I was given the impression that conservatives were better, among other things, because we conservatives were the people who understood good manners and were courteous--unlike those rude, loudmouthed liberal lower-class types. Of course that wasn't true at the time, either, but at least it was a good ideal to aspire to. I'm disappointed that so many seem to have abandoned it. For those who whine about political correctness, I offer this thought: there wouldn't be a need for rules if people cared enough about each other to mind their manners out of genuine concern. Rules about language become necessary when language is used as a weapon. And the curtailment of privilege is not the same thing as deprivation.

We had a funny situation a while back where an older couple took offense to our calling OUR OWN CHILDREN "kids." The reason? In their time, a "kid" was a goat.

The fact of the matter is white oppressors called their slaves monkeys as did racists for many decades after slavery was abolished...I don't think that's in dispute. This black doll in 2009 is named "Lil Monkey"...I don't think that's in dispute. Because this name was used during a very bad time in America, it should be understood that even though black people have been free for 144 years, it's still a sensitive topic for them. Let's name the doll something else and keep making money, that's what this country's all about anyway.