Need for banan is real

Racism or other forms of discrimination apply to a protected class of people; any group sharing attributes beyond their control (bearing dark skin, a particular place of birth, a religion, etc)

Russians are a protected class. Vladimir Putin, the evil individual who ordered an unprovoked war on Ukraine causing thousands of innocent deaths, is not a protected class.

While I have seen racist uses of monkey imagery towards black people, never have I seen it towards Russians. In conclusion, there is strong implication that this meme targets the latter, not the former.

While I have seen racist uses of monkey imagery towards black people, never have I seen it towards Russians.

Ever since Putin's invasion of Ukraine, German discourse at least was full of racist remarks on how russians basically have no culture, aren't even European, etc.

I'd argue that comparing people to Apes should be judged just like depicting people like squids/kraken (which is an antisemitic caricature).
While I have seen racist uses of monkey imagery towards black people, never have I seen it towards Russians.

Welcome to Lemmy. Get ready to see more and more racism towards russians.
- I’ll be alarmed when I see it happen, as someone who’s been here a year. Everything hateful I’ve seen has been directed at the warmongering effort and tyrant in charge, not the populace.
  
  I'm afraid it's already happening: https://feddit.nl/comment/13743920

How do you find it racist? How is this meme directed against Russians? Do you really not see the familiarities between Putin and Adolf Hitler? Are you okay, mate?

Putin's clearly supposed to look like a monkey in the picture (also: "Mein Banan"). I didn't even see the connection to Hitler.
- Hitler is famous for his book "Mein Kampf" which translates to "My fight" the book cover is literally almost the same.
  
  Still don't get how making fun of a warmonger using a history person makes me racist tho.
  
  Is it that you look highly at Putin and have embraced his cult of personality?
  
  Putin is a race now, apparently.
  
  And I can't be racist against muslims, because that's a religion, not a race, amiright? /s
  
  =.=
  
  OK, my bad. Putin is a religion.
  
  I spilled my coffee laughing, LMAO xD
  
  Haha so true!
  
  Well he does act like a god
  
  You sure hide your views that russians are subhumans quite well.
  
  Literally the only people in this thread I’ve seen saying Russians are subhuman, are the people clutching their pearls.
  
  Do you feel the same way about ~~Winnie the Pooh~~ Xi Jinping?
  
  "I can't be racist if I don't feel like I'm committing a racism." /s
  
  Edit: Comments like this don't spell it out quite as drastic, but the message is the same.
  
  Is there historical precedent of racist caricatures depicting a group of people as cute cartoon teddy bears?
  
  Thanks, I know of Hitler and Mein Kampf. I even know German, wouldn't you believe it. 🙄 (Also: the better translation would be "My Struggle")
  
  Can't you see that the image looks a lot like racist caricatures of when humans (usually plack people) where drawn like/compared to apes.
  
  Is it that you look highly at Putin and have embraced his cult of personality?
  
  WTF? Taking umbridge with racist imagery means that I'm a Putin simp now? Do you *reallyy think that racist caricatures are OK when it's directed at the "right" people? O.o
  
  I guess I can see the connection you're trying to make. But I can hardly still connect it to mindless rascism since there are quite a few reasons why monkey comparison is used.
  
  There is a cult of personality around Putin, or any other dictator. Where making fun of him, lands you in jail. Public images like that are a fight against it. (Like Jinping drawn like winnie pooh).
  
  Also I'm pretty sure that you're the one being racist. Since you saw the monkey and instantly came to the conclusion of racism (with the example of black people). For shame.
  
  But I can hardly still connect it to mindless rascism since there are quite a few reasons why monkey comparison is used.
  
  Are the reasons because russians are sub-humans, maybe? /s
  
  There is a cult of personality around Putin, or any other dictator. Where making fun of him, lands you in jail. Public images like that are a fight against it. (Like Jinping drawn like winnie pooh).
  
  Again: how does this excuse racism? You're constantly dodging the issue.
  
  Also I'm pretty sure that you're the one being racist.
  
  Ah, the good old alt-right defense of "I can't be racist if I didn't think about it. In fact, if you think aboutit, you're the racist"-defense. 🙄
  
  I guess you see Putin and think all Russians. Sad. You should really try to meet some. Quite interesting people with their own culture and traditions.
  
  Also I'm pretty sure quite a lot of them right now would feel quite attacked by you grouping them with the Ape that decides it's a good idea to casually launch ICBMs and risk preemptive response.
  
  "I'm not antisemitic. I really like the good Jews". /s
  
  I'm sorry for the challenges you face in your daily life. I really thought you were smart enough to know the difference between Putin and general Russian populus. I wish you best of luck in your endeavours, friend.
- Made me think your point is that this picture is racism towards monkeys.
- How do you get from making him look like a monkey to racism?
  
  Do you have any idea about the history of "caricature strangers to look like monkeys"?
  
  What's your point?
  
  Caricaturing people of other ethnicities look like monkeys to degrade them has a looong, racist tradition. About 100 years ago, russians were considered a backwards, horde of uncivilized asian/mongols in Europe.
  
  I simply see these kinds of caricatures as racist. And I'm not alone in this.
  
  It's about as cool as depicting him as a kraken (antisemitic), or as a drag queen, to "own" him.
  
  People, not person. That's the obvious difference you seem to be consequently ignoring here to try to incite discussion.
  
  So caricaturing Obama as a monkey wouldn't be racist, then?
  
  He would even "deserve" it, being a war criminal and all that.
  
  <sigh> black people as a race are historically insulted by depicting them as primates and of course that would weigh much more than this case of a single Caucasian man. Hence racism as opposed to insult.
  
  Yeah, all of a sudden, russians are "caucasian". It's very convenient to hide racism behind "that's not a race, though". /s
  
  People used to be racist against italians, baltic people and the irish. Don't tell me that a russian person is ok, because they're "white".
  
  It's really sad that you have to explain this.
  
  Apparently, I'm a russian asset for pointing this out.
  
  Because racism is good if it targets the right people. /s
  
  About 100 years ago, russians were considered a backwards, horde of uncivilized asian/mongols in Europe.
  
  About 100 years ago Europe had just faced Russian raping and pillaging in a world War, and they'd soon face it again in the next war. For all intents and purposes, they were a backward horde of uncivilized fucks.
  
  But hey, they are sure proving they're different nowadays, with them raping their way through another war.
  
  Yeah, it was the savage barbarism of the backwater russian nature that made the rusrian soldiers pillageeand rape our white women. No other nation's army did anything of the sort. Let's remember that the russians where the canonical bad guys of world war 1, 2 and 3. /s
  
  Unless you're from a country that's suffered a Russian occupation during one of the wars, you don't get to claim knowledge on the subject. And if you had been, you'd know what you wrote is literally true, no shadow of sarcasm about it.
  
  My grandfather was in a soviet prison camp. Fuck you and your racist revisionism.

You mad? You russian? If the answer is yes to either, thank you for making my day.

Thanks for proving my point that racism against russians is apparently ok to do now on lemmy.
- Wait until you find out about the Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh images. If you think this is what racism is, you need to go back to school.
  
  Is there historical precedent of racist caricatures depicting a group of people as cute cartoon teddy bears?
  
  There is no historical precedent of racist depiction of russians as monkeys. there is however a history of racist depiction of russians as bears, including teddy bears.
  
  From Wikipedia:
  
  However, Russians have also used it to represent their country, where it has been used as a "symbol of national pride"
  
  It has also been used as a racist depiction by western media for a long time. These things are not mutually exclusive. In fact, using animals/animal symbols a cultural holds in high regard, as a racist caricature towards those cultures, is very common. But yes, the drunken, wild animal, bear depiction of russians has been used as a racist caricature for a long time. Bear toys are often used to emasculate a particular figure going with this theme.

Yeah I'm with you. This is crossing a line for me too