Are you being racist if you call a person a monkey?

No. I call my wife and daughter monkeys all the time. However, in the past, African slaves were referred to as not being human but rather a higher form of primate. They were also treated a hell of a lot worse. They were beaten, thrown in overloaded cages. Once an African man was treated as if he were the same as a monkey, put in a cage with one. He eventually committed suicide from the humiliation. It is not racist if you called somebody a monkey no matter what ethnicity they are. If you did decide to say something like "African people look like monkeys" then you would definitely be saying something racist.

Do not fall in to the crowd of people who call out every little innocent (or maybe not so innocent) thing racist. I believe that people like this themselves are racist. To live your life focusing on calling people out on racism does not help fight racism. Racism does not help fight racism. This may seem a little controversial but I am not saying to forget about racism; it is real, it happens. Instead help fight it by loving people, no matter what race, no matter what stereotypes come to mind, help someone out, do something nice, show appreciation what other do for you. I disagree with our new Attorney General that the United States of America is a country of cowards when it comes to issues of race, BUT I do know the unfortunate fact that our great country has way too much racism, and it needs to be eliminated. It is sickening how there are still people today who are as racist as the people of the last generations.

Fight racism, love your brother from another mother.

No, calling someone a monkey is not racist, just rude. As mentioned above there are times when the Word is used as a pet-name or term of endearment, but unless that is your pattern, calling anyone a monkey is inappropriate. Racism runs deep in mankind and we all need to spend a bit of time elevating the language, not dragging it (and ourselves) down.