Quote:
Originally posted by Marie
Are you just giving her the benefit of the doubt, or is this a popular pet name that all people in this town use for one another?
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you're right, i don't know her. so really i really don't know. but i'm giving her the benefit of the doubt when she says she wasn't being racist because
1. it's something i've heard before to refer to children, without negative connotation--even Ramona says so
2. the senior VP of Greenville Tech, said that the children of evacuees were being provided separate transportation (the big yellow school buses)
some people say that it's derogatory comparison because it refers to people as primates (e.g. "porch monkeys") but i don't see that. to me, saying that "yard apes" is racist, would mean that jungle gyms and monkey bars are racist playground apparatus.
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i think that the staff writer for The Greenville News could have worded this better:
Renee Holcombe, formerly an associate vice president for student services with a staff of about 40, told employees in two separate briefings last week that the school's aid for the mostly black hurricane victims staying at the Palmetto Expo Center would include sending yellow buses to pick up the "yard apes," said Barton and senior vice president Ben Dillard.
people all over are misreading that little blip on the internet, thinking that she made mention of the fact that the evacuees were mostly black.