800 pound gorilla is a long-standing term that has nothing to do with race. Means it is a huge problem that is very difficult to deal with.
The only people who think the word “gorilla” refers to black people are white liberals and black “activists.”
It’s particularly ridiculous in this situation, since “800 pound gorilla” is a well-known expression. But then, these same people confused “guerilla” with “gorilla” in the case of another sportscaster, meaning that they are living so securely encased in their own little world of hatred and offense that they have ceased to hear, think or understand things any other way.
I have mostly heard this reference as “the elephant in the room”.
Gorillas kinda sorta have other insinuations, especially when describing certain people. It’s PC in overdrive, but I see both sides.
True, just like "tar baby" is a reference to an inextricable problem. My entire life, I never once heard that obscure term applied in any other way - yet it is now banished by the P.C. forces within our culture. They don't need any logic to "see" a tinge of racism in anything - they just make it up as they go.
If a white person had said it, the left would twist it into a so-called “racist” comment.