I found this

[skitty]

and thought it interesting. I've often wondered if being wary of beings not like ourselves is an old defense mechanism that time might eliminate?

"During the filming of Planet of the Apes in 1967, Charlton Heston noted “an instinctive segregation on the set. Not only would the apes eat together, but the chimpanzees ate with the chimpanzees, the gorillas ate with the gorillas, the orangutans ate with the orangutans, and the humans would eat off by themselves. It was quite spooky.”
James Franciscus noticed the same thing filming Beneath the Planet of the Apes in 1969. “During lunch I looked up and realized, ‘My God, here is the universe,’ because at one table were all the orangutans eating, at another table were the apes, and at another table were the humans. The orangutan characters would not eat or mix with the ape characters, and the humans wouldn’t sit down and eat with any one of them.
“I remember saying, ‘Look around — do you realize what’s happening here? This is a little isolated microcosm of probably what’s bugging the whole world. Call it prejudice or whatever you want to call it. Whatever’s different is to be shunned or it’s frightening or so forth.’ Nobody was intermingling, even though they were all humans underneath the masks. The masks were enough to bring out our own little genetic natures of fear and prejudice. It was startling.”
(From Joe Russo and Larry Landsman, Planet of the Apes Revisited, 2001.)

[Flying Purple People Eater]

I really hope this isn't supposed to be an observational analogy for racist apologia. Because that ship has been sunk so many god-damned times that it isn't funny.

[Sinister Intents]

I really hope this isn't supposed to be an observational analogy for racist apologia. Because that ship has been sunk so many god-damned times that it isn't funny.

It seems like it is. In my life I've listened to my parents say similar things of animals that they don't intermingle apparently and they use that to justify staying away from people of color. It reminds of my mom telling me "Don't you ever bring a black girl to my home." She denies this, but I remember all the racist shit I was fed.

[Marshal of the People]

Racism is incredibly harmful, illogical and anti-scientific and it will have to be eliminated sooner or later if we want socialism, anarchism and communism to work.

[Sinister Intents]

Racism is incredibly harmful, illogical and anti-scientific and it will have to be eliminated sooner or later if we want socialism, anarchism and communism to work.

Indeed, I've been calling people out on it in my area of the USA. Not so much my family, but racist arseholes at college. I've made breakthrough with some people by providing specific evidence on racism, it's economic origins and other such things.

[adipocere]

and thought it interesting. I've often wondered if being wary of beings not like ourselves is an old defense mechanism that time might eliminate?

"During the filming of Planet of the Apes in 1967, Charlton Heston noted “an instinctive segregation on the set. Not only would the apes eat together, but the chimpanzees ate with the chimpanzees, the gorillas ate with the gorillas, the orangutans ate with the orangutans, and the humans would eat off by themselves. It was quite spooky.”
James Franciscus noticed the same thing filming Beneath the Planet of the Apes in 1969. “During lunch I looked up and realized, ‘My God, here is the universe,’ because at one table were all the orangutans eating, at another table were the apes, and at another table were the humans. The orangutan characters would not eat or mix with the ape characters, and the humans wouldn’t sit down and eat with any one of them.
“I remember saying, ‘Look around — do you realize what’s happening here? This is a little isolated microcosm of probably what’s bugging the whole world. Call it prejudice or whatever you want to call it. Whatever’s different is to be shunned or it’s frightening or so forth.’ Nobody was intermingling, even though they were all humans underneath the masks. The masks were enough to bring out our own little genetic natures of fear and prejudice. It was startling.”
(From Joe Russo and Larry Landsman, Planet of the Apes Revisited, 2001.)

But you have to consider in the filming that the roles of all the characters were segregated by importance on set as well. Humans obviously were treated as more important actors. Those folks in costumes less so. Once those people were given their respective roles, they were then expected to fall into character, even with the camera turned off. They were probably coached together and given dressing rooms together for the sake of expediency. Less a "racial" thing then a social/pay/division of labor hierarchy on a movie set. I'm sure the camera guys sat together too.
I'm not saying that self-segregation wasn't at play on some level as well, but more as a self-reinforcing thing based on role. Hardly different than any work environment. The costumes just added an odd visual dimension to fairly typical human work/power relationships.

[RedWaves]

I loved the old Planet of the Apes. It's the first movie I saw that actually goes into the theory of man trying to be god.

[RedHal]

was this spontaneous or under the orders of the director to maintain the movie's atmosphere, actors are a strange lot....