Because monkeys remind them of Black people
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See racism, speak racism hear racism, everywhere
Out: 2012 UK employment tribunal: “no reasonable person would interpret” the three wise monkeys image as “racist.”
University axes ‘three wise monkeys’ from conference promotion due to ‘racial stereotypes’
According to the Daily Mail, the “three wise monkeys” — which represent “see no evil, hear no evil [and] speak no evil” — had been used to advertise a university art history conference, specifically a “call for submissions” for the online event “Sensorial Fixations: Orality, Aurality , Opticality and Hapticity.”
But conference organizers have since apologized for the “oppressive racial stereotype.”
“Upon reflection, we strongly believe that our first poster is not appropriate as its iconology promulgates a long-standing legacy of oppression and exploits racist stereotypes,” the organizers said in a statement. “We bring this to your attention so that we may be held accountable for our actions and in our privileges do and be better.” [emphasis added]
A university spokesperson added
The Japanese symbol of the three wise monkeys was used to represent a postgraduate conference about the sensory experiences of the body, and it also appeared on a document that asked for submission of research papers to the conference on a range of areas, one of which included papers that represented black, indigenous and people of colour.
It was considered . . . that a monkey, which has been used in a derogatory way in the past, could cause offence in this context, despite this not being the intention of the organisers, so the image was removed.
Daily Mail;
But the monkeys have their origin in the Tendai school of Buddhism where they’re considered “helpers for divine figures.” Those familiar with Japanese culture say the university is overreacting.
“The monkey is a sacred being. They are vehicles of delight,” said Lucia Dolce who’s studied Japanese Buddhism at the University of London for two decades.
(UPDATE) I don’t want to be niggardly with the information supplied here, so here’s what the Oxford Reference site has to say on the subject:
Small statuettes of three monkeys, one covering his eyes, another his ears, and another his mouth, have been popular in Britain since (probably) the 1900s; they are known to have been carried as lucky charms by soldiers in the First World War. They are identified with a proverbial saying, ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’, first recorded in 1926 and now generally used sarcastically against those who, through selfishness or cowardice, choose to ignore some wrongdoing. A few figurines show the first two monkeys peeping and listening, while the third has a finger on his lips; these may reflect the proverb ‘Hear all, see all, say nowt’, known since the late Middle Ages.
The Wise Monkeys originated in Japan, where they have been known since the 16th century; statues of them are set at crossroads in honour of Koshin, the God of Roads, whose attendants they are. There, their slogan is Mi-zaru, kika-zaru, iwa-zaru, ‘No seeing, no hearing, no speaking’, with a pun on saru, Japanese for ‘Monkey’, and it is used seriously to teach prudence and purity.
