Former US President Ronald Reagan described African delegates at the UN as “monkeys” in 1971 when he was governor of California in newly released tapes published by The Atlantic.
He made the racist comment on the telephone to then-President Richard Nixon, who infamously recorded all his calls.
The governor was angered that African delegates at the UN had sided against the US in a vote to recognise China and expel Taiwan.
After the vote, members of the Tanzanian delegation had started dancing in the UN General Assembly.
When Mr Reagan called up Mr Nixon the next day, he asked if he had watched the vote on television.
He then goes on to say:
To see those, those monkeys from those African countries - damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!"To see those, those monkeys from those African countries - damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!"
This then prompts Mr Nixon to laugh.
The recording was unearthed by Tim Naftali, a clinical associate professor of history at New York University, who had directed the Nixon Presidential Library, which kept all Mr Nixon’s tapes, from 2007 until 2011.
In his piece in The Atlantic, Naftali explains that the racist exchange was removed from the conversation when it was released in 2000 by the National Archives for privacy reasons – Mr Reagan was still alive at the time.
Naftali says following a court order the recordings were ordered to be reviewed: “Reagan’s death, in 2004, eliminated the privacy concerns. Last year, as a researcher, I requested that the conversations involving Ronald Reagan be re-reviewed, and two weeks ago, the National Archives released complete versions of the October 1971 conversations involving Reagan online.”
According to Naftali, Mr Reagan had called Mr Nixon to press him to withdraw from the UN, but in the president's telling he says Mr Reagan’s “complaints about Africans became the primary purpose of the call”.
In one retelling of the conversation to his secretary of state Mr Nixon says: “He saw these… these cannibals on television last night, and he says, ‘Christ, they weren’t even wearing shoes, and here the United States is going to submit its fate to that,’ and so forth and so on.”
Naftali says the recording sheds new light on Mr Reagan’s defence of the apartheid states of Rhodesia and South Africa later in the 1970s.
Source: BBC
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How did he end up? Who cares about your rubbish publishing . I am black with the best skin tone, ***barred word***, jealous of our skin.
so reagan said this in 1971 and what has that got to do with us now?? we are black and beautiful. we have melanin in our complexion and we are proud. we are fine when there is heat waves and better when there is winter
What purpose does this publication serve other than making Africans angry and hate others and themselves. The fake media will never rest at anything until they have completely sowed all their seeds of discord, acrimony and tension between Blacks and Whites. Media thrives on disunity and fighting among people and we see through it. Come again, this one never worked! Shouting racism from the roof tops doesn't solve any problem for the black person than spending our energies and minds at addressing the myriad of issues we face home and abroad. This man died several years ago, so why should we care about what he said about Africans...should we exhume him from his grave and make him answer or should we hold his descendants accountable for his comments?
We have forgiven you, we did not create ourselves but don't forget God will judge your soul for that comment.
Naftali please do not bother yourself about what someone says about Africans because beauty they say lies in the eyes of the beholder. We are proud Africans and will forever remain one, we don't care about what you guys says. We are born African and will die African. We don't care about your racial words anymore and if you care to know it's because we are the most natural people on earth.