(ThyBlackMan.com) There are moments in American history when cruelty is not accidental—it is strategic.
Recent reports that the president circulated or endorsed a video depicting former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys, followed by a refusal to apologize or disavow the imagery, belong to a long and poisonous tradition in this country. It is the deliberate dehumanization of Black people to justify harm, exclusion, and control.
Why monkeys?
Because in America, likening Black people to animals has never been random. It has been a tool. Enslavers used it to argue Africans were less than human. Scientists distorted it into “race science.” Politicians weaponized it to excuse chains, whips, lynch mobs, Jim Crow, and voter suppression. When you deny someone’s humanity, you can deny their rights—and eventually their lives.
This is not isolated behavior. This is pattern.
The same political figure launched his national career by pushing the birther lie—that Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen, not legitimate, not truly American. Since then, we have heard immigrants from African nations dismissed as coming from “shitholes,” Somalis described as “garbage,” and Black-led initiatives branded as “tainted” under the attack on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—programs that were never about favoritism, but about access long denied.
Words matter. Images matter more.
Psychologists will tell you that repeated dehumanizing imagery does measurable harm—especially to children. When a president traffics in such symbolism, it gives permission for bullying, for employment discrimination for unfair massive incarceration. Young Black people do not experience these moments as abstract politics; they experience them in hallways, online spaces, classrooms, and workplaces—where being called a “monkey” is not satire, but threatening dehumanization.
I have seen this damage up close.
In 2017, while teaching journalism and training Black students to excel in a profession that has rarely made room for them, my class discovered online images of the Obamas—and even their daughters—grotesquely depicted as monkeys. My students were shaken. I was shaken. And yet, I did what Black elders have always done: I taught history, resilience, brilliance. I reminded them that Black Americans survived slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, redlining, and voter suppression—not alone, but alongside White Americans who refused to surrender their conscience.
But survival should not be the standard. Dignity should be.
The real scandal is not just the imagery—it is the silence surrounding it. Where is the outrage from business leaders who break bread with power while families struggle to afford food? Where is the sustained pressure from media institutions that soften coverage in pursuit of access, contracts, or future ventures? Where are politicians—of all parties—who understand that democracy cannot survive when hate is normalized at the top?
Scripture warns us plainly: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” (Proverbs 18:21) In modern America, that tongue includes images, policies, budgets, and omissions.
Dehumanization is never just rhetoric. It is rehearsal.
History teaches us that once a group is portrayed as less than human, violence—economic, psychological, or physical—soon follows. Jobs are stripped. Contracts are canceled. Protections are erased. And the public is told this is efficiency, not cruelty.
Actions speak louder than words—but silence speaks, too.
This is a moment that demands more than statements. It demands refusal. Refusal by media to normalize hate. Refusal by corporations to profit from proximity to power while communities suffer. Refusal by citizens to accept that this is just “politics as usual.”
America has seen this road before. We know where it leads. The question is whether we will once again pretend we don’t.
Written by Dr. Barbara Reynolds
