As any observer of far-right blogger
Lawrence Auster knows (and I observe him the way birdwatchers gaze upon the yellow-bellied sapsucker), Mr. Auster resents the suggestion that he harbors an irrational animus toward black people... that he is a bigot.
He especially resents
my suggestion of it, which prompted David Horowitz to exclude Auster from FrontPage Magazine. (Oh, such
drama!)
How ironic, then, that
Auster’s blog would welcome commenters who compare black people to monkeys.
On Saturday, Auster linked to
this curious BBC story about an pack of vervet monkeys terrorizing a Kenyan village, stealing the people’s crops and mocking their women.
The villagers cannot kill any of these monkeys because that’s a crime; the vervets are protected by the Kenya Wildlife Service. So some villagers have abandoned their homes and farms. “I beg you,” said one village elder, “please come and take these animals away from here so that we can farm in peace.”
Auster didn’t remark on this article beyond pointing to it as “a weird story.”
But some of his readers saw it as a metaphor.
Mark J. wrote (with sarcasm): “I suppose the reason the monkeys are so aggressive and anti-social is that they were raised in deprivation and poverty. If only we would try harder to understand their pain, and maybe implement some after-school programs for them.”
Robert B. wrote (without sarcasm): “[T]his whole thing sounds a lot like life in the American ghetto. Males absent from what should be their role as protectors, women caring for the home, children and the ‘crop’ (welfare check)--the source of revenue. And of course, the monkeys themselves, who appear to act like American rappers (and their ‘wannabe’ emulators) with their gesturing at... their genitals.
“All in all, we can see African culture at its base.”
The blacks-as-monkeys metaphor didn’t draw a response from Mr. Auster, except that he highlighted Robert B.’s comment on his main page: “(Check out Robert B.’s analogy between Kenyan farms and the American inner city.)”
Perhaps Auster sees nothing objectionable in the comparison. Perhaps he’s not alone.
But it reminds me of an old text I recently discovered online – “The Negro: What Is His Ethnological Status?” It was published in 1867 under the pseudonym “Ariel.” In fact, the author was a Southern clergyman, the Rev. Buckner H. Payne of Nashville, Tenn.
Rev. Payne argued that Negroes weren’t descended from Adam and Eve.
“... Adam and Eve being white, ... they could never be the father or mother of the kinky-headed, low forehead, flat nose, thick lip and black-skinned negro...”
The minister continued: “[I]t follows, beyond all the reasonings of men on earth to controvert, that [the negro] was created
before Adam, that, like all beasts and cattle, they have no souls.”
Rev. Payne then broke it down scientifically: “[W]e take up the monkey, and trace him ... through his upward and advancing orders – baboon, ourang-outang and gorilla, up to the negro, another noble animal, the noblest of the beast creation. The difference between these higher orders of the monkey and the negro is very slight, and consists mainly in this one thing: the negro can utter sounds that can be imitated; hence he could talk with Adam and Eve, for they could imitate his sounds.”
(You can download the full 48-page text of Buckner Payne’s “The Negro” as a PDF file, courtesy of Google, by
following this link.)
To me, it’s no coincidence that this description of blacks as non-human was published in 1867 – after the South lost the Civil War. Southern whites didn’t have to
bother defining Negroes as animals while they were enslaved. But once the Negro was free – and politically empowered during Reconstruction – that’s when the defeated white Southerner felt the need (psychologically, not just politically) to put forth this ugly idea.
And guess what? When white Southerners reclaimed their political dominance and disenfranchised black people, the monkey thing stuck.
In 1900, Charles Carroll published a book building upon Buckner Payne’s. “The Negro a Beast” cites the Apostle Paul’s declaration that “there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts.” Carroll wrote: “[I]t becomes plain that the dog, the swine and the negro all belong to one kind of flesh – the flesh of beasts.”
He argued further that the “red, yellow and brown” races resulted from the “amalgamation” of whites and blacks. Therefore, all those non-whites aren’t human either. To argue otherwise, according to Carroll, was a blasphemy equal Darwin’s theory of evolution:
“This modern church theory that the negro and the mixed-bloods are included in the Plan of Salvation is another result of putting man and the ape in the same family.”
(Charles Carroll wasn’t a clergyman, but there are many references to him as “Professor.” I haven’t been able to find out
where he was a professor, or what his field of scholarship was.)
Carroll’s book was sold door-to-door to across the South and was “enormously influential,” according to Jane Dailey, a Johns Hopkins University historian. In a 2004
essay, Prof. Dailey quotes an earlier historian:
“During the opening years of the twentieth century [‘The Negro a Beast’] has become the Scripture of tens of thousands of poor whites, and its doctrine is maintained with an appalling stubbornness and persistence.”
(You can download “The Negro a Beast” as a PDF file by
following this link.)
To give you a sense of the impact of “The Negro a Beast,” I dug up a reference to it by
Bill Arp, a newspaper columnist who was hugely popular in the South. The following appeared in Arp’s column in the Atlanta Constitution on May 18, 1902:
“I have just received a pleasant letter from a North Carolina friend asking me what I think of Carroll’s book, ‘The Negro a Beast,’ and he asks, ‘Do you believe the nigger is a beast?’ I answered at the bottom of his letter, ‘Which nigger?’ ”
Zing!Which brings us back to Larry Auster and his thoughtful readership. I tracked down an email address for “Robert B.,” and I asked him:
“Isn't it funny that Lawrence Auster takes such grievous offense at the suggestion he harbors an animus towards black people... but he'll publish two letters on his website (including one from you) comparing black people to monkeys?”
Robert B. graciously replied:
“... I see no problem with it--Africa is what it is. Africans in America are what they are.... I have, from the very beginning, viewed the Black fashion trend of letting their rears hang out of their pants as akin to baboons with their brightly colored rears sticking out as well. The practice of grabbing one’s genitals is equally barbaric and is, as you can see from the article, akin to monkeys. Denying the obvious is a liberal trait, not an intelligent one. ...”
Well. I guess that makes a monkey out of me.
One of the tastiest tracks I’ve found in my search for free MP3s is “Hardcore Lovin’” by dancehall superstar Spragga Benz. It’s from his 1995 album “Uncommonly Smooth.”
There’s more than one way to misidentify a black person.
KCRW, the SoCal public radio station, has a podcast called “Today’s Top Tune” – a free MP3 download of the day. Yesterday’s tune, in commemoration of Katrina, was by that grand old man of New Orleans R&B, Fats Domino.
Now, if you wanna download that FREE 1949 “Fat Man” track, you have to go through a few steps:
Let’s continue our remembrance of New Orleans and the victims of Hurricane Katrina...
2. “Sweet Home New Orleans” – Dr. John
Her two-fisted piano style and gutty vocals brought her worldwide acclaim in the ’80s and ’90s. (They really dug her in Europe.)
After stumbling upon that Brand New Heavies concert on Fabchannel.com last month, I decided to get off my ass and check out the band live at House of Blues Sunday night.
I do like finding the free (and legal) music downloads. And I like pointing y’all to the hippest ones. So I think I’ll keep this one-a-day groove going till the end of summer. Every day there’ll be a link to a tasty FREE MP3 right here.
I recently bought the single “Rehab.” It doesn’t rock my socks. And now that Winehouse seems to be turning into a tabloid train wreck, that song’s effed-up attitude is even more wrong.
As any observer of far-right blogger Lawrence Auster knows (and I observe him the way birdwatchers gaze upon the yellow-bellied sapsucker), Mr. Auster resents the suggestion that he harbors an irrational animus toward black people... that he is a bigot.
In 1900, Charles Carroll published a book building upon Buckner Payne’s. “The Negro a Beast” cites the Apostle Paul’s declaration that “there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts.” Carroll wrote: “[I]t becomes plain that the dog, the swine and the negro all belong to one kind of flesh – the flesh of beasts.”
Yeah, that’s me standing in front of the coolest thing I’ll ever own: the original album-cover artwork for Funkadelic’s “Hardcore Jollies” (1976).
A tip of my hat to justjudith, who is having a ball with the Google Video Bar on her blog. She recently pulled up some clips of Alexyss K. Tylor, the Georgia sex lecturer and public-access cable guru who has become a mini-phenomenon on YouTube.
They say real gangstas don’t die. Well, three years after Rick James took up permanent residence in “Stone City,” he has a song on the radio. (Or so I read at EURweb.) The song is “Taste.” It’s off his “Deeper Still” CD, which contains tracks completed before Rick’s death.
Nowadays people need to be careful what they do with their hands.
I was lucky enough to turn myself on to Susana Baca whilst gathering up Spanish-language music to use in a TV show.
There’s a great conversation going on at Carmen Van Kerckhove’s Racialicious blog concerning a series of photographs by artist O. Zhang.
I don’t keep up with what the kids are listening to these days, so I only heard of Collie Buddz yesterday. He’s got a hit reggae song called “Come Around”; the video was hot on BET and MTV, plus 900,000 views on YouTube. (Click here to watch it.)
There’s an intriguing documentary film arriving tomorrow. Pras Michel of the Fugees lived as a homeless person in downtown L.A. for nine days and nights, followed by hidden cameras. The result is “Skid Row.”
In June, Stanford English professor Arnold Rampersad spoke with David Inge on WILL-AM 580, the University of Illinois radio station. The subject was Rampersad’s new book, “Ralph Ellison: A Biography.”
No competition. No prize. Just another “race difference” for y’all to ponder.
You guys up for another contest? I want to give somebody the brand new Cornel West CD, “Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations.”
Since spoonfedcornbread has got me recalling my childhood, here’s a serious flashback. I was part of the original “Sesame Street” generation. (“Electric Company” too. And if you wanna “zoom zoom zoom-ah-zoom,” I’m right there with ya, babe.)
Well, I got off my ass and went to check out Lisa Lampanelli at the Wiltern Theatre on Saturday night.
My ongoing search for the very finest free (and legal) music downloads led me to Calabash Music (a site which commenter Jena6 told us about 10 days ago. Thanks, Jena6!).
Whoa, Dave... that’s a lotta damn changes to go through for one free MP3. Is this “Bacalao con Whatever” worth it??
As Freud might’ve said, sometimes an ice cave is just an ice cave. But this one had me remembering the Flavor Flav roast.
You probably heard on the news about Elvira Arellano, the illegal immigrant who was deported to Mexico yesterday after a year of claiming “sanctuary” inside a Chicago church. (She got caught in L.A., where she’d come to publicize the pro-immigration cause.)
And make no mistake, Gutierrez is a hardcore revolutionary Marxist. I’ve downloaded a couple of his little speeches off the internets. His goal is to smash capitalism, so obviously he doesn’t want to strengthen America as it is; he wants to weaken it for the kill.
... hits the streets tomorrow. It’s called “Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations.” Its lineup of guest stars includes Prince, Andre 3000, Jill Scott, Gerald Levert, KRS-One, Talib Kweli and Chuckii Booker.
Race differences are always interesting. So here’s a contest. The winner gets a prize.
To make it extra challenging... only one guess per commenter. So give it your best shot. What do those numbers mean?
In ancient times before YouTube opened a direct portal into your home for every back-zit-popping white boy and queefing college chick in America... compulsive attention-seekers had to get on public-access cable TV. Like for instance this half-dressed husband-and-wife team, Elton and Betty White.
As you can see by the above National Hurricane Center map, Jamaica is directly in the path of Hurricane Dean, an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm which may yet get stronger.
5. “All I’ve Got to Do” – Peter Lipa
1. “Things We Said Today” – Mary McCaslin