In the past week, Google have redefined the word "bigot"
(media.kotakuinaction2.win)
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I always thought it meant "a person who won't change his beliefs even when it's demonstrated that they're wrong". This covers "positive" bigotry - "All chinese are great at math" sees chinese fail at math class "Must be mixed-race then" kid demonstrates family is pure bred since before 1900 "Blah blah other excuse" - that's a bigot. Or: "Chimps can't use language" chimps use ASL "They don't swear" they swear "they don't thisnthat" they do thisnthat "But they don't do all their signs exactly like a human, and accommdation isn't scientific" - Chomsky is a bigot.
NOT: "I believe in a god" gods don't exist, bigot or "This city sucks" you're bigoted against it or even "all members of a legit and traditional political party are bigots because they won't join the "correct" party"
would you mind linking a source for the chimp stuff? I've only seen Koko the gorilla, which was pretty clearly a hoax
whasnt that just Robin Williams in drag?
I think I know which you're talking about, but Koko herself wasn't really a hoax; that silly, politicized "speech" was unconscionable, though.
There were also Washoe (and co.), as well as Kanzi (still around; he started with plastic symbols, and more lately started using computer boards starting in the 90s or so - he's the one who was also taught stone knapping).
I guess most of the information got buried, but the best account was done by Eugene Linden (Apes, Men and Language and Silent Partners), both hard books to get a hold of now outside of libraries.
There were MANY more projects that those but those three were the rock stars; I remember Linden describing one colony whose purpose was to teach the adults ASL, and then see if they'd teach their offspring (with no input from the researchers, the apes would be on their own). Turns out, they certainly did teach signs to their kids, but funding was cut in the middle of the experiment, and thanks to donations, they were sent back to Africa. And set loose. Where no one has been bothering to watch them since, I don't think. Yep, it's where Chrichton got the idea for Congo from (he thought gorillas would be more impressive for a story).
It's a very old rabbit hole for me, but I still see stuff around; the studies on wild apes are pretty interesting, though. Did you know savannah apes use spears?