There has been an alarming media campaign underway lately to discredit primates. The recent incident in California with the chimps is a case in point. Little has been said about the awful conditions those chimps were exposed to by the zoo in which they were incarcerated. Many primates in custody have been forced to watch reruns of embarrassing movies like "Bedtime for Bonzo". After awhile this results in a disastrous loss of self-esteem and deeply suppressed anger, and that can surface in sudden acts of violence.

The real tragedy is that most of the violence is primate-on-primate, but you don't hear about that on the news, do you? No, unless a ruling class human being gets his lily-white skin bruised you won't hear "ook" about it. Primate-on-primate violence results in thousands of deaths and injuries yearly in the USA, but most of it goes unreported.

Meanwhile, lurid stories are being spread about the sexual habits of Bonobos, implying that all Bonobos are sex maniacs in a constant state of seething lust. This is ludicrous, and it amounts to hate propaganda.

Gorillas are traditionally cast in the role of the "heavy", and are seen as brutally vicious attackers and monsters who carry off blonde women, King-Kong style, to some hideous fate in their jungle lair.

Monkeys are routinely portrayed as hysterical, witless, silly, screeching little creatures, and used for comic relief.

This kind of gross stereotyping is Anti-Primatism of the most virulent sort, and should be named for what it is and ended once and for all.