The Ape in American Bigotry, From Thomas Jefferson to 2009

[groovedaddy]

Hitler found quite a bit to admire about this country during its apartheid period. Writing in the early 1930s, he attributed white domination of North America to the fact that the “Germanic” peoples here had resisted intermarriage with — and held themselves apart from — “inferior” peoples, including the Negroes, whom he described as “half-apes.”

He was not alone in these sentiments. The effort to dehumanize black people by characterizing them as apes is central to our national history. Thomas Jefferson made the connection in his notorious book “Notes on the State of Virginia,” in which he asserted fantastically that male orangutans were sexually drawn to Negro women.

By defining Negroes not as human beings but as beasts, the nation rationalized subjugation and cruelty — and justified laws that stripped them of basic human rights. The case for segregation itself rested heavily on the assertion that animal origins made Negroes feebleminded, smelly and intolerably offensive to white sensibilities.

Acting on the ludicrous premise that people of color had coarser palates, Southern shop owners sometimes refused to sell them “white” foodstuffs, forcing them instead to buy inferior grades of flour and other goods.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/opinion/28sat4.html?th&emc=th

[noiretextatique]

1. "the permanence of racist ideas through the centuries"

that's a very accurate description. the problem is who to discuss this issue without taking it personally. that, personalizing racism, seems to be the big hurdle to discussion on movement (and perhaps the cowardly issue AG Holder mentioned last week).

[NOLALady]

2. Since Thomas Jefferson had quite a few children

with Negro women, I guess he qualifies as an Orangutan. :D