A person who works on cars a lot is called a grease monkey because your hands get full of grease. Never thought it was racist because the only
people I ever knew called that were
white, so I didn'
t make the connection people make with Monkey being a slur against brown people. Also didn't think it was a put down on blue collar workers (of any race) because those were the only people I knew. It was just descriptive. It could have situational racial or economic negative connotations. Example: some wealthy person tries to put down any person working on their
car by calling them a Grease Monkey in a derogatory way...most mechanics take pride in their
work and themselves, so that would be confusing, and really only prove the rich guy was a pompous
ass who doesn't know how to fix his own
car.