WWYD! Monkey in the office

[kp78]

So, business is not in a good place. The department in particular is literally at breaking point with change and poor service and a Management team who have a poor reputation. Today I walk in to a life size life like chimpanzee sat on a pedestal wearing a company hat. I discussed with Director who was not in office and he arranged for it to be taken down by one of his Managers. Turned out one of the Sr Managers thought it would 'lighten the mood'. I am offended, my colleague was more offended due to years of racist comments made to her and we have requested a formal investigation . Are we overreacting?

If there's a culture of racism in the office then of course this is potentially offensive. OP, the problem with AIBU is that there are some posters who argue with the OP just for the sake of it.

Look how much trouble H&M got into for putting a black child in a monkey jumper:

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hm-apology-racist-image-website-child-model-backlash-twitter-monkey-jumper-black-a8147641.html

I hope the investigation is carried out swiftly and fairly for you OP.

Were the racist comments made at work?

OP hasn't been back in an hour.

I was also disappointed to discover that the OP didn’t have an actual real life monkey in the office. I instantly thought of Ross’ monkey, Marcel!

Righto.

Picture or it didn't happen.

Is this a wind up

If she feels it has been done as a racist insult then it probably has.

There were people on another thread who didn’t know the word ‘spade’ as racist

Are all morally obliged to know all potential racist terms even though we’re supposed to be working towards a society without them? I had no idea about spade, how would I?

Op I think you’re being a bit silly. We had a bloody donkey in my office 😬 Managers can be complete twats.

The OP didn't say the colleague suffering "years of racist comments made to her" were made in the office or that any colleagues were aware of this.

I also think it's not a bad thing if people don't think of monkeys, spades and Golliwogs as racist - it implies a slight innocence that they don't see these things as a tool to offend someone. JMO.

I am so fucking disappointed that this isn't about a real monkey at work. Office dogs are so last year

@BlueJava. Either I work at the same place as you, or there are several offices around the country with plastic cows!!

As far as this thread is concerned, I reckon it is someone taking the piss after the golliwog on the desk thread from last week.

Just to reiterate ... CHIMPANZEES ARE NOT MONKEYS

No wonder the business is in a bad way if they have to waste time on a formal investigation every time someone brings in a stuffed toy

I hate monkeys, and apes. They're vile. I would probably have walked straight back out, even if it was just a model. I can't stand even looking at pictures of them.

sorry Bette, I am eyerolling at all the wide eyed race based faux naivety that there seems to be around here lately

I did not mean to offend

So here we are again. Black woman with experience of racism feels something's racist. And a whole load of white people pile in to say no, no youre wrong/how silly/how could a monkey possibly be racist/ youre imagining it/ you're the racist for even thinking it.

No need for clarification or further information. Such certainty. Nothing to see here.

Honestly, it's excruciating.

Why are monkeys always seen in a racist context?
*
Because making monkey noises and actions and throwing bananas at black people was a common action of racist yobs until relatively recently. Especially targeted at black footballers in the 70s and 80s.*

^^Christ alive do people really not know this

Racist office banter, and senior managers think a fucking monkey is an appropriate thing to bring into the office? That is outrageously awful of them. Outrageous.

Barbarian but does a chimpanzee have any racist connotations? If they do, I will gladly accept that I am wrong.

Possible that someone thought it was a good dig at the company with the old 'you pay peanuts you get monkeys' but I wouldn't have thought it was a wise thing to do given the other connotations that it might bring.

does a chimpanzee have any racist connotations?

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/disgusting-racist-hate-mail-compares-12573578

m.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/news/its-not-right-its-racist-afl-team-called-player-ch/3219805/

rationalwiki.org/wiki/Chimpout.com

you can share all the evidence you like that something is a racial slur (it happened on a thread recently about 'spade') but that won't stop people going 'yes but yes but I PERSONALLY have never come across that so they probably didn't mean anything by it'

because oblivious white people get to decide whether stuff is racist, because they're able to be 'objective' about it don't you know

Quite.

I am so sick of these fucking threads....but here we go again...

Using 'spade' in relation to black people is not just a US thing and it's not just in the dim/distant past:

Police officers called black people 'monkeys' and 'spades'
Plebgate inquiry uncovered a raft of racist messages on the mobile phones of two officers, who have been sacked for gross misconduct
By David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent
2:33PM BST 08 Oct 2015
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11919214/Police-officers-called-black-people-monkeys-and-spades.html

I remember ppl like Jim Davidson, chubby brown etc saying spade, they used to say it on Rising Damp and old sitcoms like that too

I can't quite grasp how oblivious some people can be