Deep dive in to the swamp with me!!

gm mfers!

IS BAYC RACIST??

Well, … I have no idea, so lets have a little look!

This is the part where you need to DYOR about events prior to this if you don’t already know.

If I documented everything prior to this it would be a book, not a large article, still I wont get probably 5% of a full analysis of 10k collection with over 170 traits, 30+ hats and keep a readers attention.

I consider myself to be a pretty competent “Art Sleuth”, which is what I would describe as a sub culture in the Web3.0 space, looking for hidden meanings and clues in Jpegs and projects, simply for fun.

The nerd Olympics!

Anyway, I digress.

10,000 images of apes generated with a computer script using layered digital art on the Ethereum blockchain.

I do not hold any BAYC, MAYC or Otherdeeds, I am not “Holding Yuga bags”.

Also for the record, I am not a “straight white male”, I identify as mixed white/black Caribbean, so not in the nazi bracket.

So… here we go, I'm going to be breaking down the infamous gordongoner.com website.

The website claims that the BAYC collection contains simianization and nazi dog whistles.

Then we will look in to some of the hat traits. If I did much more, no one would read it because it would be too long , plus I have lots of other shit to do.

Firstly, as its been said by many others that have looked in to this subject “Ape in” has been a common phrase WAY before BAYC and Yuga in the crypto space and even before crypto.

The website and claims “Racists are still comparing Black people to monkeys today, such as the trend in Europe of throwing bananas at Black soccer players.”

This is NOT a “trend”, it is a hate crime.

These are not common events where I am from(compared to 30-40 years ago), but one occurrence is one too many.

Although, when it does happen, clubs and individuals are punished but not nearly harshly enough.

You can learn more about this or report hate and discrimination at https://www.kickitout.org.

But what about banana’s before say 30/40 years ago?

The banana has a long history as a subject in modern art. It has long been used as a symbol of international trade and commerce, consumerist culture, and unsustainable demand for products imported from across the globe.

Since ancient times, the banana plant has been regarded by Hindus as a symbol of fertility and prosperity.

Today, Hindus decorate the doorsteps of a newlywed couple’s home with banana leaves and fruit to express their congratulations. It is said that Malay women bathe in a mixture of banana leaves for 15 days after giving birth to cleanse themselves after giving birth.

In 1973 the director of Warsaw’s National Museum was allegedly summoned to the Polish culture ministry after Natalia LL’s video and photographs of Natalia LL Sucking on a Banana, were taken down.

The fact that this work was from a female and was taken down is a subject for another article.

Andy Warhol’s signature style, which was inspired by consumer culture, was dedicated to showcasing mundane objects as primary subjects, such as the banana, to symbolize the rise in mass production and distribution in his time.

I know you recognize this one… https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/06/style/art-basel-miami-beach.html you can check this article out here about this banana taped to a wall!

Ok, I'm going to move on from Bananas now… I could have done the whole thing on them though…

So, as we have established with bananas & Ape’s, they have been around a little bit longer than John Barnes and Andy Warhole.

There is a lot of other people that have broken the logo down in other threads and articles, but I will address it briefly.

My first question is if having 18 teeth means Hitler, then why don’t the rest of the images have 18 teeth?

A quick google in to the symbolic meaning of 18 returned this , which gives me personally enough peace of mind to move on.

Surf the Kali Yuga

The name Yuga, another thing that I believe to have been covered a lot outside of this article, but again I will give myself peace of mind.

For me It is a very clever name for a project that is creating lore and story from Jpegs, plus Kali is the name of open source software on the Linux OS.

Another claim that @SassBAYC is a nod to the SS can also be countered when you know that Sass is a programming language.

Lets go back to The Kali Yuga: Surfing The Kali Yuga: A Brief Overview of the Hindu Eschatology

The Kali Yuga, or the Black Age, is a period of time that marks the end of the continuous cycle of Yuga’s in Hinduism.

That is, we’re currently in the fifth and final age of this cycle. The first yuga started with the Satya Yuga (Golden Age), followed by the Treta (Silver Age), Dvapar (Copper Age), and finally, Kali Yuga (Iron Age). It is believed that once this age comes to an end, another Satya Yuga will begin again. So while it might sound like a bad thing to be living in an era associated with darkness and ignorance, there are many positive things about this period in history as well.

A Brief Analysis of the Works of René Guénon

René Guénon (1886–1951) was a French philosopher, scholar, and initiate of the traditionalist school. His writings are dense and not easy reading, but they are highly influential among those interested in esoteric and philosophical topics. He is a key figure of the traditionalist school, along with Ananda Coomaraswamy and Julius von Veesler-Gosslingen.

Anthroposophy is one of the most important influences on Guénon’s work. According to Guénon, all knowledge can be classified as either “exoteric” or “esoteric”.

Exoteric knowledge is that which can be easily understood by anyone — it is general, common knowledge. Esoteric knowledge requires special training or initiation to understand it — it is specific and intimate.

An analysis of René Guénon’s works reveals five key ideas: The role of tradition in human life; The nature of time; The problem of Good and Evil; The focus on hidden meanings; And the importance of Initiation.

I can’t say for certain because I don't know anyone personally from “alt-right” circles, but this guy didn't strike me as he would be of much interest to that demographic.

Although, from my studies I have found that his work and teachings have been taken on and misconstrued by “Alt-right” figures.

I was left in the confidence that Gagnon himself was not of this mindset, and in-fact warned that the likes of the nazi party would reconstruct and alter his workings to suit their agenda…

“Also embedded is the word “macaque”, a known racial slur.”

I don’t deny that might be, but hear me out on this one…what if it means… Macaque?

you know, the primate?

Again, I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark here and have a look at symbology and meanings from more than the last 50–100 years of history and also what they mean to other cultures outside of the Anglo-American western bubble.

Hanuman

Hanuman is the biggest and most powerful of all simians in the Hindu pantheon. He is also among the most popular gods, thanks to his daring exploits in the Ramayana. The devotion for Hanuman thrives largely in North India, especially in areas like Uttarakhand which have a lot of natural settings and temples dedicated to him.

Hanuman is known by many names — Anjaneya, Maru baba (or Maruti), Pahad pand ag, Vatayan, Bajrangbal or Bajarangbal. The last four names mean “breaker of barriers” or “breaker of walls”, which refers to his famous act of breaking the wall of ersand (a city built to keep Ravan’s palace safe from intruders) during the Ramayana in order to free captive Pandavas and also bring them the magical ring that would help them locate Sita and kill her kidnapper Ravan.

There are many other religions, cultures and locations that worship primates.

I implore you to go and have a look, its fascinating.

We haven't even got to one hat yet though!

so, erm…LFG!!

I will need to simply skim over some of these with a quick excerpt, but will try and highlight my main points with a little more detail

Pith helmet

The Sholapith(Pith) helmet, also known as the safari helmet, salacot, sola topee, sun helmet, topee, and topi, is a lightweight cloth-covered helmet made of pith.

The pith helmet was developed from the Filipino salakot headgear that was adapted by the Spanish army. It was used by European travellers and explorers in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the tropics, but it was also used in a variety of different situations. From the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, European military personnel were routinely issued this helmet while serving overseas in hot climates.

This, in my opinion could be used to highlight the atrocities of colonialism, which again for me to list such things would take far too long.

So instead I will link some educational information (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_war_crimes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_of_Western_European_colonialism_and_colonization)

Ushanka

In 2013, the Russian army announced that the ushanka was being replaced by new headgear, which is essentially the same ushanka with a rounder crown and small seal-able openings in the flaps for wearing headphones.

Seems to me like it may be a tip of the hat to the world changing and adapting to modern technology, and it is also worth noting that this specific Ape has rainbow braces.

Russia is infamously not the most accepting country of LGBTQ+ communities, placing these two traits together invokes conversation and raises awareness, be it intentional or not.

You can read more about this here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Russia and I have included a link to Sphere Foundation committed to the human rights of Russian LGBTQ+ community members https://cfsphere.org/.

Sushi Chef headband

If you’re like most people, when you think of sushi, images of delicate rolls filled with fresh seafood swim through your head.

But did you know that sushi chefs use an alternate number system when communicating with one another? And that words can have multiple meanings?

Just like images, words and symbols all have different memetic values in different times and places in the world and history.

I see homage to language, symbols and culture with this trait. This is such a huge part of the NFT/web 3.0 space.

Another perfect example of this is the t-shirt shown here, just like suits were used like a meme to transition away from the seriousness of the Victorian era dress, this tux T-shirt can be seen in a similar fashion.

Like I said , Nerd Olympics!

here is the link to an interesting article about the Sushi chefs. https://firstwefeast.com/eat/2015/09/sushi-chef-slang-decoded

Fools cap!

you may have seen this image before, …

Harry Ryle Hopps (1869 — August 24, 1937, Los Angeles) was an American businessman and artist. He was the son of George Hopps and Ann Hopps, both artists. George Hopps was a stage set designer. Harry Ryle Hopps and his brother Bert owned the United Glass Company of San Francisco from c. 1880 to c. 1918. Hopps subsequently moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as an art director on a number of films such as The Thief of Bagdad.[1]

The United Glass Company were responsible for the stained glass at the Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.[2] Hopps designed the recruiting poster Destroy this Mad Brute: Enlist, published in 1917,[3] which shows a gorilla with a pickelhaube helmet labeled “militarism” holding a bloody club labeled “Kultur” and a half-naked woman as he stomps onto the shore of America, illustrating Anti-German sentiment in the US during World War I.

Sorry, no nazi dog whistles here for me!

lets move on to the pickelhaube (The pointy helmet in the pic above).

A little history on the Pickelhaube

The Pickelhaube (pl. Pickelhauben; from German: Pickel, lit. ‘point’ or ‘pickaxe’, and Haube, lit. ‘bonnet’, a general word for “headgear”), also Pickelhelm, is a spiked helmet that was worn in the 19th and 20th centuries by Prussian and German military officers, firefighters and police. Although it is typically associated with the Prussian Army, which adopted it in 1842–43,[1] the helmet was widely imitated by other armies during that period.[2] It is still worn today as part of ceremonial wear in the militaries of certain countries, such as Sweden, Chile, and Colombia.

So why would Yuga labs use this?

lets keep digging!

The Berlin Gold Hat or Berlin Golden Hat (German: Berliner Goldhut) is a Late Bronze Age artefact made of thin gold leaf. It served as the external covering on a long conical brimmed headdress, probably of an organic material. It is now in the Neues Museum on Museum Island in Berlin, in a room by itself with an elaborate explanatory display.

The Berlin Gold Hat is the best preserved specimen among the four known conical golden hats from Bronze Age Europe so far. Of the three others, two were found in southern Germany, and one in the west of France. All were found in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is generally assumed that the hats served as the insignia of deities or priests in the context of a sun cult that appears to have been widespread in Central Europe at the time.[1] The hats are also suggested to have served astronomical/calendrical functions.

It’s believed that the inverted funnel, conical shape was thought to draw wisdom/power from the sun in to the wearer.

you can find out more about these “Mysterious Wizard hats” in this article here. https://etc.worldhistory.org/education/four-gold-hats-a-bronze-age-mystery/

This brings me to the party hat, as these kind of link together…

The party hat evolved from the dunce cap or Sanbenito worn by misbehaving or underachieving schoolchildren from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, with its festive decoration and society’s positive attitude toward the wearer indicating a relaxation, or even reversal, of certain social norms.

Also…

Party hats, as slang for “condom,” dates back to the 1980s. The idea is that the prophylactic is worn, like a hat, during intercourse, the party… Not really the worst thing to be promoting.

Ok, … let’s dig again!

John Duns Scotus

Scotus developed a complex logical argument for the presence of a metaphysical God as opposed to a tangible “Man in the Sky” during his studies and lectures. Perhaps more infamously, he also envisioned a defense of the Virgin Mary’s immaculate conception. Scotus’s views were intricate and subtle, earning him the wonderful papal title “Doctor Subtilis,” or “The Subtle Doctor.” His teachings later became known as “Scotism,” and his most ardent disciples and students were known as “Dunsmen.”

For whatever reason, Scotus encouraged the adoption of pointy hats. It has been said that both the employment of such hats by wizards and Scotus’ appreciation of the headgear served as inspiration for him and the widely held belief that wizards wear conical caps. Whichever version is accurate, both were intended to be symbols for intelligent men.

But until the 1500’s, pointed caps were solely worn as a sign of honor.

Although the church and ecclesiastical academics continued to see Scotus’ views positively for years following his death in 1308, by the middle of the 16th century, the popular school of thinking among church scholars had begun to turn against the Dunsmen.

The Subtle Doctor’s densely analytical writings and intricate logic were increasingly viewed as being unnecessarily cerebral and at variance with the more humanistic attitudes that were emerging with Renaissance thought.

The remaining Dunsmen, who persisted in focusing on Scotist philosophy, began to be viewed as hopelessly outdated or just stupid.

As a result, the Dunsmen, or Duns became known for being idiots, and their pointed hats took on the meaning of this unpleasant new label.

We are starting to see some patterns here, although I am really enjoying this research, I'm going to need to bring it to a close at some point.(see what I did there. Poi…never mind).

Pictured here is the bored ape belonging to the most successful hip hop artist of all time, Eminem.

On top of the fact that Eminem is one of the most prolific advocates against police brutality and violence against the black community, and in general, I really find it hard to believe that his team would let him jump in bed with nazis without doing sufficient DD.

There are a few meanings I can take personally from this trait, like how our society has taken black created genres and the highest selling artist have subsequently been white…Eg, Eminem, Elvis, The Beatles to name a few.

Or…its just, you know.. a trait.

At the end of the day, music is the universal language and it shouldn’t have any color of skin attached to it at all!!

CONCLUSION

So I am going to draw a close to the BAYC traits, and if you are still here reading, thank you!!

I can not say anything for sure about BAYC or it’s founders, I certainly will not vouch for people on the internet that I have absolutely zero knowledge about besides what I read online…

Which brings me to an important point that I would like to make about how we consume our information.

We are completely trapped in a “Cancel culture”, with a sea of misinformation and malicious propaganda.

For years I have seen some of my personal favorite artist’s suffer at the mercy of the internet, malicious rumor's and the masses hanging on to peoples mistakes or coming to their own conclusions from “fake news”.

Off the top of my head Brendon Urie from panic at the disco(US), Dylan Frost from sticky fingers(AUS), Dutchavelli (UK) and of course Andrew Tate and Donald Trump who had been completely censored from the large tech companies… I could go on and on.

I am not claiming that any of these people are innocent, or that they are great people, but the key lies in the word people…

They are humans like me and you. We all make mistakes, we all fuck up.

How are we supposed to get anywhere in life when we have people online trying to take away peoples livelihoods because of narratives pushed on us from both sides to simply cause division between the masses.

Not to mention we have armies of bots and now Artificial intelligence to deal with,

It does seem like we may be going in a positive direction now with twitter in the hands of Elon, someone that I believe really does believe in free speech and is actively trying to restore balance in what information people have been consuming.

On that point, do we label a nazi a nazi for life? Are there no times when people have had their mind lead down evil paths and can not make a way back? ITV’s The Walk-in is a good example of this.

People can change, for the better and for the worse, that is a duality of life.

If we say that they can’t, that means we can never make the world a better place

So…do I think Yuga are racist nazis?

Honestly I don’t think so, but that’s just my gut, and if I am wrong, I am wrong.

I am cool with that, I just like research and writing…

It really is a great work of art as a collection in my view, and the high price started to make a lot more sense the more I looked in to it, not to mention the delivery and execution from the team in a opensea of scams and rugs.

which brings me to my closing statement.

I am available for hire… To write, research for any project and can also do some dev work and you can follow me on twitter @xxispeth.

I hope to be doing lots of cool stuff in the web 3.0 space in the near future.

Tips are gladly accepted and much apricated

stay groovy.

XXisp.eth ✌️❤️