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Macaca[mɐˈkakɐ] (feminine) andmacaco[mɐˈkaku] (masculine) are thePortuguese words for "monkey" (compare Englishmacaque).[1] InPortugal andPortuguese-speaking countries,macaco (pluralmacacos) is used as aracial slur againstblack people. It can also sometimes be used as an insult againstBrazilians in general.[2][3][4][5]
Similarly the word "macaque" was used as a racial slur byBelgians in their African colonies.[6]
The word is sometimes similarly used in English as a slur for dark-skinned people, pronounced/məˈkɑːkə,-koʊ/ or/məˈkækə,-koʊ/.
According to Robert Edgerton, in theBelgian Congo, colonial Europeans called sub-Saharan Africansmacaques—implying that they had lived in the trees until the Europeans arrived. The termsale macaque (filthy monkey) was occasionally used as an insult.[7] In the ceremony in 1960 in which Congo gained its independence from Belgium, Prime MinisterPatrice Lumumba gave a speech accusing BelgianKing Baudouin of presiding over "a regime of injustice, suppression, and exploitation" before ad-libbing at the end,Nous ne sommes plus vos macaques! (We are no longer yourmacaques!)[6] Lumumba had previously been called asale macaque by a Belgian woman.[8]
In theAdventures of Tintin written by Belgian writer-artistHergé,Captain Haddock uses the termmacaque as an insult, along with other random terms. In a 1994 essay, literary scholarPatrick Colm Hogan discussed the racist symbolism surrounding the nameMakak, the protagonist inDerek Walcott's 1967 playDream on Monkey Mountain.[9]
JournalistTaki Theodoracopulos referred toBianca Jagger, who is ofNicaraguan origin, asmacacamulatta in 1996. Theodoracopulos has frequently used racial slurs in his published work.[10][11] In factMacaca mulatta is the scientific name for therhesus monkey.
In 1996, duringOlé's first year of life, theArgentinian national sports daily newspaper was the centre of a scandal.
After theArgentinian Olympic football team's qualification to the final of the1996 Olympic Games, the newspaper published on Wednesday July 31, 1996 the headline"Let the macaques come", in reference to the remaining semifinal match played between the teams ofBrazil andNigeria. Due to the criticism received by the headline, the newspaper had to publish an apology, although it did not face any consequences.[12][2]
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The failed re-election campaign of Republican U.S. SenatorGeorge Allen ofVirginia generated much controversy after he used the wordmacaca in reference to a person of Indian ancestry. On 11 August 2006, at a campaign stop inBreaks, Virginia, near theKentucky border, George Allen twice used the wordmacaca to refer toS. R. Sidarth, who was filming the event as atracker for the opposingJim Webb campaign.
This fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent.... Let's give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.
Sidarth is anIndian American and was born and raised inFairfax County, Virginia. Even though Allen claimed that he made up the word and said that he did not understand its derogatory meaning, a media outcry erupted following his use of the term. After two weeks of negative publicity, Allen publicly apologized for his statement and asserted that he in no way intended those words to be offensive.[citation needed]
Relating to the Allen controversy, "macaca" was named the mostpolitically incorrect word of 2006 byGlobal Language Monitor, a non-profit group that studies word usage.[13] The word was also a finalist for theAmerican Dialect Society"Word of the Year" that same year.
The term "Macacawitz", referring to the September 2006 discovery ofAllen's Jewish heritage (specificallyTunisian Jewish), was coined by conservative punditJohn Podhoretz as a headline for a post in theNational Review blog "The Corner".[14] A field organizer for Democratic Congressional candidate Al Weed resigned after she used the term in email to supporters of Weed.[15]
The controversy created by Allen's use of the term contributed to his narrow loss to Webb.[16]
