I mean...you're starting to get there.
So you think fans sent gorilla emojis to Alaba, Koman, Tchouameni, Kolo Muani, Saka, Lewis Hamilton etc. they should have taken them as compliments? This is the manner is which it is most commonly used or causing controversy:
High school basketball
Shaquille O'neal
AFL Player
Alex Iwobi
Balotelli
Lebron Controversy
Serena Williams
Michelle Obama and
More
I'll end with
this one to show that it's not exactly a new social media sensitivity and this has long been known as part of the dark side of Ali's legacy. In one of the most famous fights in history, I don't exactly think Ali was meant to be complimenting Joe Frazier. Joe Frazier was a snowflake before it was cool! Even though this happened in the 70's, look at how a little boy felt about it then:
"Long after their bitter rivalry was over, Joe Frazier still seethed. The things that Muhammad Ali said about him over the course of their three epic battles carried a sting that lasted longer than any combination. He’d called him ignorant. He called him dumb. And he mockingly punched a toy gorilla that he likened to Frazier.
The gorilla comment in particular did the lasting damage, as it moved Frazier’s then-young son Marvis to tears. “Smokin’ Joe” never forgot. Years later, legendary sports scribe Jerry Izenberg found himself as an intermediary in attempting to make peace between the two icons.
“Tell him I didn’t mean it. Tell him I apologize if I hurt his family,” Izenberg recalls Ali imploring him to tell Frazier, who responded: “Call him back and say I have a message for him: he can take his apology and stick it as far up his (backside) as it’ll go.”
People are calling it dumb because there is no way he is not at least aware of the very recent Bernardo Silva and Cavani situations, which were ridiculous, and the FA's responses to them, regardless of his cultural upbringing. I think some of the disconnect here might be the degree to which people think gorilla imagery is a commonplace racial pejorative versus a compliment. I do think cultural background, context and nuance and the quickness with which Garnacho deleted the post should be considered, but it is a bit weird seeing people act like the majority of the time a gorilla or ape is invoked with regard to a black person, it is meant to be praising them and therefore any such other association makes the person who notices or winces at it the
actual racist. Admittedly, I am not on social media much, so if that is how people are predominately using it with regard to black people these days it is news to me.