HOW CAN "THEY" NOT GET IT?

Imagine a New York City where a black man is caged and put on exhibit with apes in the Bronx Zoo's Monkey House.  New Yorkers flock to the exhibit.  The city's mayor and other prominent citizens including journalists see nothing wrong with the concept.  Is this a New York City in an alternative universe where the South has won the Civil War or the Nazis have won the Second World War?  No, sadly not.

This past Sunday's New York Times recalls just such a moment in the history of racism when New Yorkers traveled uptown to the Bronx Zoo on Saturday, September 8, 1906 to enjoy a new exhibit in the Monkey House that featured a 23 year old Congolese man frolicking with an orangutan.

A mere 100 years ago, mainstream New York, even then one of the most liberal and progressive centers in the United States, considered such an abomination to be normal, acceptable and even entertaining.  New York's black community was outraged.  The mayor and the local press couldn't understand the big fuss.

It's more than worth reading the full story in that it provides some valuable insight into the challenges we face as gay Americans in changing perspectives and attitudes in 2006.  We too often find ourselves up against well-meaning straights who just can't imagine the reasons behind yet another "big fuss."

In 1906 many citizens of New York City, some 41 years after the abolition of slavery, were amused by a caged human being kept as the property of the zoo and denied virtually all civil rights simply because of the color of his skin.

Bigotry and ignorance runs deep in this culture and the battle against it is far from over.  The next time you look a straight man or woman in the face confused by the fact that they just don't get "it," remember Ota Benga.

Comments

[Phil Jessel]

See also http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040220.html for more intel on Ota.

[Andy]

Man, people really were ignorant back then.

Orangutans are from Asia.