Joe Henderson
If Ron DeSantis didn’t believe it would be seen as racist when he said of the state’s economy we shouldn’t “monkey it up” by electing Andrew Gillum as Florida’s next Governor, then he is incredibly naive.
However, if this Donald Trump Mini-Me was sending a signal to remind his less, um … tolerant supporters that Gillum is, indeed, one election win away from becoming Florida’s first black Governor, then he might as well have announced to the world that he is a racist.
He will deny all that vigorously, of course, but I don’t believe there is any other way to interpret the astonishing interview DeSantis gave Wednesday on Fox News. Instead of just taking a victory lap after his blowout win over Adam Putnam (what must he be feeling right now?) in the GOP Primary, DeSantis took that moment in the national spotlight to utter a phrase that is incredibly offensive to blacks. 
Good Lord, Roseanne Barr — another FOT (Friend of Trump) — lost her highly rated TV show earlier this year with a similar slur against Valerie Jarrett, a former White House aide to Barack Obama.
Didn’t something from that story sink into Ron DeSantis’ brain before he spoke?
Guess not.
Right after this story sent the Twittersphere into a tizzy, I was thinking that I have lived more than six decades on this planet and until now I had never heard the phrase “monkey it up.” I saw shortly after that St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman tweeted the same thing. 
Mess it up? Sure.
But “monkey it up” — um, no. What a coincidence that the first time I heard that combination of words was is in reference to a black man running as the Democratic nominee for Governor.
That was about the time my eldest son sent me a text, weighing in on the topic. I mentioned it sure looked like a dog whistle and sounded like a dog whistle.
Ben Henderson responded: “That’s a full-on dog airhorn.”
You hear something like that, and you start thinking about Charlottesville and how Trump defended some of the white nationalists as “very fine people.”
You start thinking of the president’s jag against the National Football League over players taking a knee during the national anthem. The overwhelming majority of players doing that are black, trying to raise social awareness about issues with police.
Trump calls the protesters “sons of bitches” and even said, “maybe they shouldn’t be in the country.”
You remember the way Trump tried to demonize Obama — the whole issue about the birth certificate, being born in Kenya, and so on.
When you’re riding coat tails the way DeSantis rode Trump’s, and then you say something like this, what are people supposed to think?
I can’t think of a bigger gaffe occurring so soon after a gubernatorial primary win. It sent this Governor’s race straight into the swamp.
Maybe it was just an unfortunate word choice, as the DeSantis camp immediately tried to spin. If so, you would think a man hoping to lead the state for the next four years should understand by now that every word he says will be scrutinized for hidden messages.
Words matter.
When you want to be Governor of the nation’s third-largest state, you must know this.
If he doesn’t, he better learn quickly.
But Ron DeSantis will also have to understand why many people will assume he said exactly what he meant.
7 comments
Cory
August 29, 2018 at 9:03 pm
I’m 53 and have never heard of the phrase, “monkey it up”. It was an odd choice of a word no doubt. Saying that, let’s be real. There are those who don’t need to hear this to vote for or against the congressman. There are those who will not vote for Mayor Gillum simply because of his skin color and then there are those who will vote for him simply because of his skin color.
American with some common sense
August 30, 2018 at 7:29 am
I am 36 and have heard the phrase millions of times in my life. Saying it was naive is just plain naive. It is a common phrase. Nothing racist about it. People are just looking for any ammo to take down either candidate. Let me guess, if Mayor Gillum ever orders cheese and crackers, someone will say he is being racist? That is how dumb people sound trying to make this into something!
James Apodaca
August 30, 2018 at 7:50 am
You’ve never heard someone say “Don’t monkey with that”? Get out of here.
I don’t think we should be monkeying with Florida’s Economy, either.
Healthcare for all? No. Higher Corporate Taxes? No. $15 Minimum wage? No.
All of these policies have nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with “Monkeying up” the Florida Economy. All of those are BURDENS on the economy. BURDENS on the tax base, BURDENS on our Employers and BURDENS on Consumers.
This is Florida, not New York or California. I don’t vote in Primaries – I’m not a partisan – and the only “First” anything I’d run out and vote for is the “First Constitutional” candidate who wants to leave me the hell alone.
That candidate certainly isn’t Gillum.
Sandra Sites
August 30, 2018 at 8:37 pm
Yes, we’ve heard the phrase “don’t monkey with that” because it is actually a phrase that people use. “Monkey it up”? Not a phrase because it is NOT in use. See how that works?
john ludlum
August 30, 2018 at 10:18 am
I am happy to know now that no one can ever use the term made a monkey out of me when referring to me, because I am white…. I didn’t realize that stop monkeying around only referred to black people, and throwing a monkey wrench into the mix was racist… why does it always have to be about race… I guess with Gillum soft on crime, his constituants are begging for him to take time off and protect their city that he is being payed to run as mayor… that playing the race card……. and having Soros money to fall back on… is the way of the Democrats future…….. after all… if you can’t keep the black man on welfare, and without any hope of a future…. how is he/she going to realize that the Democrat is the messiah…. it was a stupid choice of words because everyone is looking for that free buck and free publicity…….. but… it is America, where you can build a class to teach children to attack and shoot up schools, and be released by Democrats, but you can’t say the word monkey without creating an international incident good for a week of news…. Tallahassee has a crime problem, Gillum runs Tallahassee, so will go the way of Florida, when the criminal becomes the misunderstood and the average citizen just becomes another dead body……
Mz Info
August 30, 2018 at 10:23 am
It was dumb. But I’ve heard of the phrase “monkey it up”. Although I’m a ‘word person.’
So is DeSantis. From the top of my head I remember Desantis using the word “boondoggler”, and “it’s a doozy” in public speech this past primary. Who says that? Desantis. He’s off the cuff and crazy with it. Not “scripted” like everyone else.
He speaks in weird words. Words that only ‘word-people’ understand
Jimmy Conner
August 30, 2018 at 11:44 pm
Want to know the democrats definition of a racist?
“Any Republican.”
Comments are closed.