Reply #24: My guess is... [View All]

[RaulGroom]

This was probably along the lines of Howard Cosell's "look at that monkey run" statement. Somewhere between just insensitive and outright racist. I doubt this person meant to insult people with the term, but it displays an insensitivity to historical racial tensions that borders on racism.

Howard was definitely not racist in the sense of hating black people, but at the same time a white guy who calls a black man a "monkey" has some definite racist attitudes underneath the surface. I'd say the same thing is probably going on here.

BTW my immediate association is with Ramona's friend Yard Ape as well, the kid who showed her the ropes at her new school, I believe.