You've never used the term "monkeying around"? I'm sorry but this is getting blown out of proportion. I don't think he had any racist intentions and probably wasn't even thinking of the color of his opponent when he did this. Was it the smartest thing to say in the current climate, probably not but, I don't think he was being racist. I've used "monkeying around" or called my kids monkeys before when they are being silly or joking. It has nothing to do with race but. all about how monkey's in zoos can be funny and playful. That's were the term comes from in this context.
Context should matter, the word "monkey" can't automatically equal racism now because it is not a racist word. He wasn't calling Gillum a monkey, he told voters to not "monkey this up", meaning "goof this up". That's not racist, IMO. If he had said "don't elect the monkey", than that would be racism. Context should matter. Taking something out of context, just to label it as racism, doesn't help anybody.
Looking for racism in everything can almost be as bad as racism itself. If both sides can't find a way to work this stuff out than nothing is ever going to get better. Calling people racist when they really weren't being racist is never going to solve anything.
I'm sure many here will disagree with me but, this is how I feel about this one incident and, it has nothing to do with what political party I support.
I was wrong. See my next post.
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