Bored Ape Yacht Club member defuses racism rumours with humour

Bored Ape has recently found itself at the centre of a racism storm. Twitter users are now questioning the legitimacy of the project. One of the main accusers, the Phunks NFT creative director, Ryder Ripps, told over 5,000 people in his Twitter spaces his reasoning behind the alleged racism.

Meanwhile, the accusations have caused division in the NFT world, with many people unsure how to navigate the situation.

Now, Bored Ape holder @GeneralDegener8 is using humour to try and diffuse the racism situation, starting his own satirical Twitter thread.

One of the main issues cited in the Bored Ape racism debate is the name ‘Yuga’. Of course, this is the name of Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Allegedly, Yuga is the subject of white supremacist and racist caricatures found online.

Some people are also keen to point out that some of the BAYC NFT traits resemble Nazi uniform and general racist symbology.

The Bored Ape racism debate continues

In the thread titled ‘Problematic Imagery in BAYC. A Thread’, The General lists several ‘problematic’ traits. These include red horns associated with devil worship. Also, the caveman pelt, which he says “reminds us of the atrocious extinction of the dinosaur race by the first humans in the Great Human v. Dinosaur War.”

Finally, the General blows the lid on the bubblegum trait, citing, “Bubble gum is, of course, a favoured symbolic image of the eco-terrorist movements, reminding us of the violent raping and pillaging of the Earth by consumerist Western culture”.

Of course, the thread is satirical, but we must also remember that there have been numerous racist NFT collections. The Bored Ape racism debate is continuing to raise questions.

Racism, in any form, is something we should be actively challenging as a community.