Brent Staples: The Ape in American Bigotry, From Thomas Jefferson to 2009
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.
Picture postcards, kitchen crockery and other media often showed Negroes with grotesquely distorted faces eating outsize slices of watermelon, which was said by racists to be catnip to the coloreds. In keeping with the animal theme, Negroes were typically depicted consuming food with their hands, while standing or sitting out in the open. White folks, of course, were shown sitting at the table, dining with utensils....
Read entire article at NYT Editorial Page
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.
Picture postcards, kitchen crockery and other media often showed Negroes with grotesquely distorted faces eating outsize slices of watermelon, which was said by racists to be catnip to the coloreds. In keeping with the animal theme, Negroes were typically depicted consuming food with their hands, while standing or sitting out in the open. White folks, of course, were shown sitting at the table, dining with utensils....