...but what I was thinking when I read Sree’s comment was that it was a very racist comment.
That's exactly how it seemed to me. My first impression was that it was a round-about way to relate a black woman to primates given that prehistoric man had more primate features. That is where we all came from, after all. Racists will always find a way around the social norms to say what they think, but in a way that they can later act indignant about it when you call them out on in. Republicans have been doing this for as long as I have been paying attention. I think they take courses on it or something.