pavement ape

English

Noun

pavement ape (plural pavement apes)

1. (slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A black person.
   • 2015, NEMO, “Re: What does NAACP stand for?”, in uk.rec.driving (Usenet):

     Colon, as an Italo-Afro-American, YOU are one of those pavement apes.

   • 2015, Gary, “Re: 2 white TV journalists shot and killed during an ordinary interview about a store.”, in soc.retirement (Usenet):

     If the cops have to kill him, they will,^[sic] claim he committed suicide. Otherwise every pavement ape in Virginia will be out protesting. You know how they love their criminals.

   • 2018 April 15, George Yancy, Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly about Racism in America, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 48:

     “Dear Black America, 'Let go of your “black victimhood” and bring yourself to the point of admission that “you hoodrats and pavement apes are the ones destroying black lives and communities.” And in closing, “don't blame Whitey!”

   • 2020 February 15, George Yancy, Across Black Spaces: Essays and Interviews from an American Philosopher, →ISBN, page 19:

     So, as a "hoodrat" and a "pavement ape," it is believed that I am ontologically those horrible things. Think here of how the Jews were depicted as "vermin." This is more than racist biology, but a racist metaphysical way of construing the being of Jews.

Synonyms

• street ape
• gutter ape
• yard ape