Until yesterday, here was the definition of “monkey with” found in the Merriam Webster dictionary: “informal: to handle or play with (something) in a careless way : to monkey around with (something); I told you not to monkey with the lawn mower.” Websters and The Free Dictionary also include the term “monkey up” as used in terms of computing “to hack together hardware for a particular task, especially a one-shot job. Connotes an extremely crufty and consciously temporary solution.” It seems that the terms monkey up and monkey around are synonymous, but that monkey up is used more often with computer fixes while monkey around is used in other circumstances. (See The Free Dictionary).
The Free Dictionary defines “monkey around” as: “To waste time or procrastinate by doing something unproductive or unhelpful; to fool around or spend time idly. Would you quit monkeying around and give me a hand cleaning the house?” The meaning of “monkey around” is defined by vocabulary.com as “do random, unplanned work or activities or spend time idly,” and explained by that site as: “When you monkey around, you waste time. When you monkey around with something, you often fiddle with it in an attempt to fix it or figure it out.” Dictionary.com, in defining the verb “monkey” includes the following informal usage: “to play or trifle idly; fool (often followed by around or with).”
The term “monkey wrench gang” was made famous by Edward Abbey’s novel of the same name. That book involved the use of sabotage by the gang to protest environmentally damaging activities in the Southwest. The term "monkey wrench" has since come to mean any sabotage, activism, law-making, or law-breaking to preserve wilderness, wild spaces and ecosystems. There was even a movie, released in 2016, titled “Monkey Up” about children befriending a talking monkey who wanted to be a movie star.
None of the definitions or other usages include any reference to the use of the phrase as a racial slur. Indeed, in 2008 at a campaign speech in Ohio, then candidate Obama used the phrase: “It’s not as if it’s just Republicans who have monkeyed around with elections in the past. Sometimes Democrats have, too.” No one complained that this was some sort of racist code word or racial slur.
But, all of this was before Florida gubernatorial nominee Ron DeSantis, in an interview following his primary victory, said, “The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. That is not going to work. That’s not going to be good for Florida.”
Now, suddenly, the phrase is “a racist dog whistle” according to his opponent, the Democrat party, and many other leftist commentators including much of the main stream media. And, having given the phrase this new meaning, the same people now cite that new definition as proof that Mr. DeSantis along with his party and supporters are all racist.
This most recent discovery by the Left of a perhaps poor word choice to be something more sinister than simply that – an innocent word choice – is an all too common attack and silencing technique used by the Left. It seems that they are constantly on the hunt for anything that their opponents might say that can be used against them. I don’t know about the Left, but I don’t look for code words and “dog whistles” when I listen to someone speak. I just try to hear and understand the substance of what they are saying. Sometimes all the words expressing that substance are well chosen, but more often all are not. But rather than nit-pick and look for a sinister meaning in an individual word, I would rather understand the overall meaning and substance and then agree or disagree with that. Hence, to me, the DeSantis statement suggested it would be a bad idea to turn to socialism; it was not a call to racism or racists.
It is often said that we see others through our own eyes. Perhaps it is the Left that uses code words for their followers and so are looking for similar code words in use by their opponents. Perhaps it is the Left who sees everything through the lens of racial hatred. Perhaps it is the Left that is overly sensitive, fearful, or even paranoid that everywhere they turn, every word they hear is intended as a personal and ad hominem attack on them. Perhaps they see everything as an attack because everything they do is intended as an attack on their opponents.
The problem with these attacks on words and phrases is that until the moment of awakening to their evilness (usually when spoken by an opponent whom the Left wants to attack), no one knows that they are “forbidden” or that they will be attacked for using them. It has a way of chilling any kind of open speech and discussion; one must not only worry about prior censorship, but their until then unobjectionable words may also be subject to attack after the fact. Then those words will be taken out of context: how often does the media quote the entire words of DeSantis instead of just saying he used “monkey up” to refer to his Black opponent(which in itself is an inaccurate characterization of his sentence)?
Can we just please grow up? Instead of nitpicking every imperfection of opponents, let’s get beyond that and look at the substance of the opponents’ policies and actions. I am reminded of the kindergarten response to name calling, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” Can we please get over the manufactured outrage at misperceived name-calling and move on to addressing the real sticks and stones of policy and action? Thank you.
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